Philadelphia 76ers too smart to give up on Ben Simmons this early in career

Despite recent struggles, the Philadelphia 76ers would be absolutely foolish to even consider the idea of trading Ben Simmons this early in his career.

Back in the offseason when the Philadelphia 76ers were weighing potential trade options to land another big-name star for the 2018-19 season, the team made it clear that any deal with Ben Simmons was off the table.

When taking into consideration that Simmons would be entering just his second season of action after finally being healthy enough to play last year, the whole idea of adding another star player without the former LSU star would be ridiculous.

Plus, when seeing how quickly Simmons made an impact during his first year of playing in the 2017-18 season, the Sixers knew they had someone special in their beloved guard.

With that being said, there’s been a popular topic of discussion over the last couple of days in regards to whether Philadelphia should explore the possibility of trading Simmons, which is just as ridiculous as it sounds.

Basically, most of this frustration came following another poor performance from Simmons in a meaningful game against a top contender after the Sixers suffered yet another tough loss to the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day.

Losing to a rival is never easy to deal with, but when seeing how Simmons and Philadelphia allowed this contest against Boston slip away, it’s easy to understand why there’s so much frustration all of a sudden.

However, anyone who believes the solution for the Sixers involves trading Simmons needs to take a big step back, and re-evaluate the situation, because this would be ridiculous.

For starters, just the thought of Philadelphia giving up on a talented player like Simmons this early in his career would be laughable since he’s clearly young, and still going through some of the adjustments most players his age experience.

Also, as great as it was to see the Sixers land Jimmy Butler when they did to play alongside Simmons and Joel Embiid, the ones calling for Philadelphia to consider trading their beloved guard need to realize that these three are still adjusting to playing with one another.

Having three stars like Simmons, Embiid, and Butler would obviously be a dream come true for any team in the NBA, but also every team knows that situations like these sometimes take time getting used to.

In other words, just because Simmons has been struggling at times, even after the team acquired Butler, doesn’t necessarily mean they should give up on him this early on in his career.

If anything, the ones calling for a potential trade should look at how Simmons bounced back after his disaster on Christmas Day by recording a triple-double against the Utah Jazz, and realize that in the long run, keeping him around will give the Sixers their best chance of competing.