In my opinion, keeping Simons is only viable if he signs a team-friendly deal longer term.
If they have a sense that he would be willing to re-sign to something much smaller than his current $27 million per year, then maybe it's worth considering.
I wonder if he'd be open to a four-year, $84MM type of deal ($21MM/yr).
It's less than his current average, but gives him some security.
Or maybe he wants to try and raise his value by playing for a championship contender like the Cs?
So a two-year, player option on the second year, $49MM deal ($24.5MM/yr)?
No way I?d pay that much for Simons. He?s a decent microwave scorer, but that?s about it. Pritchard is making $7M this year and Hauser is at $10M. You can?t give Simons that kind of money.
I think that?s what you?ll have to pay Pritchard. More valuable than Simons.
Yeah, this is what I'd be concerned about with re-signing Simons. Pritchard is a professional and wouldn't publicly say anything, but it'd be natural to be a little miffed that they have similar roles (I am assuming eventually Pritchard will go back to the bench on the next "contending" version of the team) but one is making possibly close to double what he is currently.
The only reason Pritch signed for so little is because the year he was up for extension was Joe's first when he jerked his minutes around and he had a down year. This is also the year that Pritch was so unhappy he asked for a trade.
While Simons has been good and you can never have too many shooters, that money could be better allocated elsewhere so the roster is balanced again between guards/wings/bigs. Thinking ahead, you also do have to consider how you'll be paying Queta in the 2027 offseason (and Garza, Walsh as well).