2021 nba offseason draft free agency etc

i was the simmons skeptic when you all were declaring him a future mvp and now im his last defender lol

i would say the celtics should try to trade smart + picks and filler for him but he def doesnt have the celtics mindtype and prob shouldnt be exposed to another psycho northeast fanbase

lol look at you defending simmons.

hes a good player, who should play center, and is kind of an unlikable headcase who isnt super passionate about basketball lol

i still think simmons can be very valuable but i do think you might need to build a team from the ground up around him to put him in the best position to succeed. i’m not sure him and fox make tons of sense together, your two best players not being able to shoot while having — hypothetically —traded your two best shooters in order to get him. i almost think like OKC or houston would be the best spot for him, put him somewhere with basically nothing in place with tons of assets and mold the team around him.

i think the problem here is that it’s hard to find a place for him where the team receiving him gives up enough to satisfy the sixers while also still retaining enough so that ben isn’t trying to force a trade again in two years. like, if you’re the wizards and you cash in brad beal for simmons, you’re gonna suck again and have him wanting out of a place he didn’t want to be in the first place. maybe portland makes sense if they were able to not trade lillard. the way the NBA works now if you’re getting a guy with 4 years on his contract that basically means you have 2 seasons before he can really start to force your hand if he wants out.

minnesota if you paired him and towns? but that’s two centers on the floor again so prob doesn’t work, and what do the wolves have to satisfy philly. it’s really hard to find a trade that works for both sides given how weird of a player he is. the celtics is actually an interesting one but it also kinda pushes time lord out of the picture & if you lose smart your guard rotation is perilous. this is why i return to places like OKC and houston where there’s basically a blank canvas. shai & ben fits to me i think

xp what adds to the conundrum is if he does indeed end up in a place like Houston it would almost be harder to get him to remodel his game to match his strengths because it would be hard not to put the ball in his hands all the time. OKC is interesting because their key piece is Shai who is a ballhandler already

constructing a trade for him is difficult because teams would want to send a center back so that he can play center but philly already has a center so then youd have to try to put together a multi team deal which is complicated, but i do think a mccollum + nurkic for simmons and some ok player type deal with a third team in the mix makes sense

mccollum + nurkic for simmons won't happen, if only because mccollum + nurkic are the 2 & 3 players in the blazer "core" and olshey is convinced he's already built a team that can contend

mccollum & nurk does feel like an overpay to me given the circumstances surrounding simmons at this point. but if you involve a 3rd team and nurk gets routed there for and both philly and portland get something else back, i could see it

he simply needs to be on a team where the other good players are guards/wings rather than an immobile center

i don't think its as hard to make him fit as people are making it sound

yeah he just needs to play center lol

hoping this all ends like the Aaron Rodgers drama and he just stays in Philly and everyone acts like nothing happens

no we need to see him on another team.

I usually just root for whatever outcome is the funniest so it's either Simmons for Kyrie or he just stays and does the George Costanza "oh you haven't heard of SARCASM!?" thing

everyone acts like nothing happens

no! this is the antithesis of the messy drama we live for

simmons seems pretty stubborn and petty im guessing he does not play for the sixers again

hoping this all ends like the Aaron Rodgers drama and he just stays in Philly and everyone acts like nothing happens

― frogbs, Wednesday, September 22, 2021 2:04 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

There is no possible way this happens with the fanbase unless Simmons walks in and hits 5 3Ps in the first quarter of the season. And if he does, he better not go 3/10 from the line.

Minnesota has dismissed GM Gersson Rosas, team says.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 22, 2021

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor released the following statement:
“Today, the Minnesota Timberwovles parted ways with President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas. As an organization, we remain committed to building a winning team that our fans and city can be proud of.”

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) September 22, 2021

lol

I think the Sixers can at least get an 6-8 seed without Simmons, so might as well let him sit a little if the offers aren't good. Good being good (like what was discussed just upthread), not like Lillard.

xp wtf

hoping this all ends like the Aaron Rodgers drama and he just stays in Philly and everyone acts like nothing happens Simmons spends the whole season acting weird and cryptically passive aggressive like Rodgers

― frogbs, Wednesday, September 22, 2021 1:04 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

these wolves I tell ya what

Glen Taylor wants Simmons?

timberwolves, normal stuff as per usual

Just looked through Rosas' history of transactions. His first move was trading Cam Johnson and Saric for Culver; his last move was trading Culver and Juancho for Pat Bev.

i mean there had been ZERO smoke on this locally, not even the slightest rumor

not really defending rosas's record so far but i'm just shocked it's now at this moment

he did not impress the new ownership group

A lot of the Timberwolves/Simmons stuff I had heard had stemmed from Gersson feeling pressure to make a big splash to impress new the new ownership group. Now he's gone. Will be interesting to see how this impacts the Simmons situation.

— Sean Highkin (@highkin) September 22, 2021

wtf…

— Karl-Anthony Towns (@KarlTowns) September 22, 2021

...lol

In wake of Gersson Rosas' departure, word has circulated among league sources since Summer League that incoming Minnesota Timberwolves owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have communicated they are fond of Sixers general manager Elton Brand. A name to keep an eye on here.

— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) September 22, 2021

let’s gooooo

lmaoooooooo

Wollllllllves!

the more i think about it i agree that simmons won't play for the sixers again and i think his position is entirely justified. at no point have the sixers, as far as we know, said that they want to keep him. their position is that he should return to the team and play so that he will improve his trade value and be sent off whenever the sixers decide they can get the value they're seeking for him. so his response being "i'm never stepping foot in the building again, trade me now" is completely rational to me, on like a personal dignity level. why should he bust his ass in training camp and on the court for the benefit of trade value? when you add in the general toxicity of how their season ended and the environment w/ philly fans i do think he's just not gonna show up. he has $145 million guaranteed or whatever coming to him, he can probably eat the fines for a month or however long it ends up being

i think the irrational actor in this scenario is the philly front office which seems to be operating under the delusion that simmons can improve his trade value by playing well in october and november

yeah otm

yah the more trade value he has the worse his future team/teammates and assets on that team will be.

doc is currently trending for doing the "hey we'd love him to stay but what can we do" bit on espn

Here's how I roll:

enjoyment of watching Philly fans clown Simmons >= enjoyment watching Simmons play for Philly = enjoyment watching whatever pieces they get for Simmons

jon k was on our local sports talk:

- apparently there has been a lot of talk and dissatisfaction internally with rosas for a while, building this summer

- there was some sort of "event" that was a straw that broke the camel's back type of scenario

- acting president of basketball operations is going to be sachan gupta, our analytics guy. interestingly, he was asked to interview for a few positions in the league this offseason and was blocked from doing so by the team so who knows maybe that was looking forward to this

- it's a shitshow

incoming Minnesota Timberwolves owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have communicated they are fond of Sixers general manager Elton Brand.

This is incredible. Brand is the basketball genius who signed Horford to that deal to play the 4, moved Harris to the 3 and signed him to a max deal, and chose not to re-sign Butler cause he wasn't sure he was a team guy.

i.e. good luck ums.

Simmons isn’t a center

He can’t post up and he’s defensively versatile. Why in the world do people think that’s a center.

Power forward, sure.

that's a semantic distinction

Why in the world do people think that’s a center.

― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, September 22, 2021 2:21 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

draymond made everyone think anyone can be draymond

i think him and kat would be an ideal pairing

Yeah it’s a semantic distinction, which you guys are really attached to. He’s not a center.

ok. so what's your point?