I'm becoming more and more convinced Simons is gonna get traded at the deadline. He's just a frustrating player and I don't even think the team knows his best role here.
Whether it's some sort of a salary dump or maybe using him as salary to acquire a big man, he's gonna get dealt. I'd prefer the latter
I think he will not, mostly because it will be very hard to find a team that wants him and can make salaries work (especially if the Celtics would like to reduce salary and take on little to no future salary). Not impossible, of course, but there are so many teams right against the apron or cap that there is very little wiggle room with multiple prospective partners, in addition to our own constraints.
He has not shown to be a good fit, which is not terribly surprising. Maybe in another month he will have his role more figured out. When he plays with confidence he looks good, but much of the time he does not seem to know his role.
I think it's something that has to happen. The most likely scenario is Brad moves him (if not more players with him) to a team that wants a scorer and can afford to lose a rotation-quality big. Slip that big into the KP FTE so that salary slot is not lost in the offseason while generating a new FTE from moving Simons salary that will last for another year after the deal.
the other 2 options are:
1. just let the deal expire which would be a stupid waste of his salary slot. sure the contract is off the books but that wouldn't leave a similar sized financial opening to bring someone else in.
2. resign him. while he's not a garbage player, he's not fitting what Joe's running. some of that's on him trying to learn and his lack of defensive skills and some of that's on Joe for not figuring out how to make the most of his personnel. He's unlikely to accept a pay cut and he'd certainly not showing he's worth a raise so far so the C's would be basically signing him as a future, overpaid trade chip to be salary filler in a future deal.
