Why would you build around the far less valuable of the two players?
The idea rests on the presumption that Lillard and McCollum both want out. If that’s the case, we all know how much Simmons’ value has gone down. If Portland really wanted to rebuild around Tatum, with a friendly smile in Horford to ease the transition, perhaps we can turn Tatum into a definite, albeit 31 years old, superstar (Lillard) and a potential superstar (Simmons). Maybe the 76ers are forced to come to the table and deal Simmons to us because Portland agreed to Tatum/Horford/1st for Lillard/McCollum otherwise. Frankly, moving Simmons for McCollum (probably an all-star if he played for Philly) and a first at this point would be a stroke of enormous luck for the 76ers. Heck, I’m 50/50 on whether I’d rather have McCollum or Simmons, giving the nod to the latter simply because of his age and the hopes this ordeal will light a fire under his butt to finally up his FT and FG shooting.
Unlikely to happen, but clearly there’s no other way to turn any of our assets into two incoming all-stars to pair with one of our two all-stars. And perhaps the JB fans are right, the guy is just going to keep climbing and ultimately be better than JT…