/u/key_lime_pie on reddit wrote down some of Simmons' quotes here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/6y06rs/bill_on_it_jae_they_made_the_cavs_worse_it_is_57/dmjr233/I copy paste:
If you're looking at who do you want in a game seven, just from an unstoppable scorer standpoint... Durant, LeBron, Curry, Harden, Westbrook, Kawhi maybe, and Kyrie. Those would be the eight. I don't think anyone else has proven it on the biggest stages yet. So [the Celtics] are looking at it like: [Kyrie] is just better than Isaiah. He's younger than Isaiah. He's somebody who has room to get better, whereas you could, I think we could agree, as much as I love Isaiah, the three months he played last year is as good as he's gonna be. [...]
Isaiah, you know, in the Wizards series, again I love the guy, I'll defend him to the death, but the Wizards series, against Wall and Beal, was pretty eye-opening, they couldn't figure out who to play him on defense. Kyrie's not a stud on defense, but the Isaiah thing was a real problem, and I think Washington should have beat Boston in that series. I said it at the time. They should have won Game 2, Beal missed a 12 footer, I thought Game 7, I thought Coach Brooks just coached a bad game. I thought they had a better team, I thought Boston was lucky to win that series, and I think the Celtics themselves think they were lucky to win that series. [...]
They made the Cavaliers worse. It's gotta be considered a good part of this trade. The Cavaliers are worse than they were last year. That Brooklyn pick? Unless LeBron says 'I'm staying, flip that pick for a star', which I don't think he will, because he's going to keep his options open, that's been his M.O. for the whole time - that Brooklyn pick doesn't help them next year. So they turned Kyrie into Isaiah, who we have no idea when he's starting the year, and Jae Crowder. [...]
One of the things that's hilarious, when it's your own team, to hear people talking about it... players that you watch day in and day out, and then you hear people who obviously haven't... and people are like, 'Well who's gonna guard LeBron now that Jae Crowder's gone?' It's like, Jae Crowder couldn't guard LeBron. Jae Crowder got worse defensively last year. He was a B-/C+ defensively; he was not that good. I'm telling you, I watched the games. He really slipped. He's still a good help defender, not great, but his 1-on-1 stay in front of someone against the best small forwards in the league was not good. And his three point shooting was as good as its been last year... all his shots were wide open, I don't think he shot even 40 percent. I think he's a 7th man, I like Jae Crowder, but in terms of who's gonna stop LeBron and Durant and Paul George and all those guys next year, they need Jaylen Brown to step up.
(The original quotes were provided bcs the reddit OP messed up the title.)
Topic: Simmons podcast on the Irving trade (Read 2405 times)