If I were the Sixers, I'd dupe some idiot GMs into thinking that Simmons is a great player and trade him there. I'd also find a way to get value for that cancer Butler.
Build around Embiid, get more shooting around him, get some playmaking to replace Simmons.
With people calling Jaylen Brown "basically Jeff Green", at what point does Ben Simmons become "bigger Evan Turner"?
Size is everything in basketball. Simmons isn't just bigger. He's 6'10''!! That's unprecedented for the PG position.
I'm tired of hearing about how it's impossible to be an elite player in today's NBA without being a good shooter. I don't buy it for a second. Look what Giannis is doing this season with the Bucks. Had Simmons entered the league (let's say) 5 years earlier than he did, I bet people would have been comparing him to LeBron and Magic. Instead, he enters the league during this 3-point mania and people compare him to Evan Turner.
Man, the Simmons to Giannis comparison is incredibly lazy. Giannis hovers between 25-30% from 3. So he's undoubtedly a bad 3 point shooter. Ben Simmons has never ever made a single 3 in his career. Not to mention the gaping difference in their free throw shooting, alongside Giannis being perhaps the most unstoppable athlete in the league.
Heck, Simmons makes Manute Bol look like Curry. Ben Simmons was getting foolish comparisons to Magic and LBJ based on the premise that his shooting would improve. It hasn't, and the comparisons have disappeared
More like 15.2% this season (26.9% for his career). Regardless, the point is that defenders don't respect his shot. He has less room to operate as a slasher cause defenders dare him to shoot the ball. That's exactly what's happening with Simmons as well.
The way I see it, they both have the same strengths and the same weaknesses:
- they are both terrible shooters
- they are both elite slashers
- they both have excellent court vision (Simmons is even better than Giannis in that regard)
- very good ball handlers (especially given their size)
- very good rebounders
- very good defenders
You're right that defenders don't respect either of their shots, but it doesn't change the fact that Giannis is averaging about 10 more PPG, because he's absolutely elite inside and is almost physically impossible to defend.
Just because they're similar doesn't mean they're even close to being similarly effective. It's like if someone tried to compare Nurkic to Jokic, as they have similar strengths and weaknesses:
- very good rebounders
- good passing big men
- slow laterally
- strong finishers inside
- average threats from mid-range and beyond
- weak defensively
Nurkic is still obviously a lesser player, and is more hindered by his weaknesses much the same way Simmons is. Simmons is much more a giant Rondo (without the same spirit) than he is anything near Magic or LeBron