Philadelphia 76ers: A dozen teams would build around Ben Simmons

On a recent episode of the Hoops Collective Podcast, ESPN senior writer Brian Windhorst mentioned that there is a market of “up to a dozen teams” who would be interested in trading for Ben Simmons if the Philadelphia 76ers made him available via trade.

Now granted, Windy’s reporting isn’t uniform across the league. Zach Lowe and Bobby Marks both suggested that Simmons’ value league-wide has diminished greatly from his previous heights, and many a fan will suggest that the 6-foot-10, 240-pound point guard/forward is worth nothing more than a bag of chips, or worse, a package headlined by Kyle Kuzma and Dennis Schroder.

So what gives? How can Simmons’ value be at an all-time low but still have a biggish market comprised of roughly a third of the Association’s teams? Didn’t they see Simmons’ performances versus the Atlanta Hawks in the fourth quarter? Why would anyone want to trade for that?

Simple, because Ben Simmons is still very much a good basketball player with a tantalizing skill set and sky-high potential. If you’re a small market team lacking in star power or a squad that’s reached its course with nothing to show for it, why wouldn’t you want to sell your season ticket holders on a 24-year-old three-time All-Star who finished second in Defensive Player of the Year award voting and made an All-NBA team in 2020? Especially since it’s not particularly hard to build a quality team around his unique set of skills.

Away from the Philadelphia 76ers, a GM could build the perfect Simmons team.

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What makes Ben Simmons special?

He’s a fantastic passer, an even better defender, and one of the most lethal transition players in NBA history. Simmons is either the tallest guard in the NBA or the fastest forward, and that tantalizing combination of height and speed makes him one of the few players who can legitimately be categorized as a 1-5 defender, even if he struggles ever so slightly with more bruising centers in the paint.

Sure, he has infuriating holes in his game and, to paraphrase the great Scottie Pippen, could learn from Giannis Antedekoumpo when it comes to eagerly seeking out contact in the paint, but in a league where very few players do one thing at an elite level, Simmons can boast a pair of skills where he is either the best or one of the best players in the NBA.

Have fans in Philadelphia simply become numb to what the Simmons brings to the table? Or do they just know too well how his flaws can get in the way of Joel Embiid and the rest of the Philadelphia 76ers’ success?

Either way, if you Google “Ben Simmons Trade,” you’ll find 42 million results on the topic, literally.

Portland Trailblazers fans are debating whether Simmons would make the team better than C.J. McCollum, as have fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and it would appear even the Cleveland Cavaliers’ front office have opened themselves up to potentially considering trading their first-round pick to acquire a star, with Simmons being the best of the bunch currently available.

All three of those teams are in varying degrees of retooling, with Portland looking to hire a new head coach, Minnesota in a full-on rebuild, and the Cleveland Cavaliers plotting along with their young core, and could look to Simmons as a way to supercharge their future and get things going in the right direction.

Why? Because they believe in their front office.

You see, Simmons has a reputation for being the kind of player who is very team-specific. If you build a roster specifically tailored around his skills a la the middle Antetokounmpo brother in Milwaukee, you could have success, but he’s far from a plug-in-play player that can fit into any offense due to the specificity of his offensive game.

If you’re a general manager for a smaller market team – which Portland, Minnesota, and Cleveland are – you aren’t stealing away any superstars in free agency. To land a player like Simmons, on a four-year contract no less, is a pipe dream anyway. But via trade, and thus, his addition would be worth a roster rehaul to justify.

Why? Because if you succeed with Simmons, your job is safe for a very long time.

Now some will claim that Simmons is a tough player to build around. That his skill set is too hyperspecific and that there are only a handful of players who can actually fit alongside him. Personally, I don’t subscribe to that philosophy.

Realistically, you need three things to field a successful squad with Simmons:

A stretch five who can defend the basket and rebound defensively
A secondary ball-handler who can create his own shot and shots for others
Shooters of varying sizes to fill out both the starting five and bench

On paper, that’s a tough ask, right? Not really. In 2020-21, eight centers finished out the season with a 3 point shooting percentage above the league average of 35 percent. Of those players, only one, Karl-Anthony Towns, was on a max contract, whereas the most effective shooter of the bunch, Bobby Portis and his insane 47.1 percent clip, was playing on a two-year contract worth $7.4 million.

Whether you decide to trade for a player like Christian Woods, already have a player like KAT, or opt to sign a player like DeMarcus Cousins, Frank Kaminsky, or Serge Ibaka, there are stretch fives who can be had to complement Simmons on the inside and take the pressure off of him when playing alongside smaller lineups from the four spot.

The same goes for the second point. If you look across the entirety of the NBA, seemingly every team has at least one guard who would fit next to Simmons in a starting five without much issue. Simmons could play next to either Damian Lillard or McCollum, could replace either Darius Garland or Colin Sexton without issue, and even play alongside or in place of D’Angelo Russell regardless of the presence of Malik Beasley. At worst, in 2021, there are a handful of solid combo guards available in free agency; players like Victor Oladipo, Lonzo Ball, and Devonte’ Graham who could immediately slot in next to Simmons and provide the sort of do-it-all utility needed next to Simmons in an optimized lineup.

So really, that just leaves shooters to fill out a lineup next to Simmons and the other two aforementioned players, aka the most universal-need in the NBA.

Whether you build an iso-scoring juggernaut like Daryl Morey’s former Houston squads, want to form an elite two-man game around a post player like Joel Embiid and a pick-and-roll partner, or decide to build around a player as unique as Simmons, every team will inevitably have starters who simply perch on the wings, move around a little bit and wait for an open look from a ball handler. Some of these players, like J.J. Redick, have made incredibly lucrative careers around being a “shooter to the stars,” while others, like our own Furkan Korkmaz, are on year five of the league minimum and won’t make much more than that on their next contract either.

Portland has players like Norman Powell and Robert Covington who fit that bill, as do the Cavs with Taurean Prince and the T-Wolves in Malik Beasley. Even if some of those players would surely be included in a trade for Simmons, as obviously something has to go out to land a three-time All-Star, there are literally a dozen-plus free agent shooters to be had on the free agent market this summer who could be signed to bolster a Simmons-centric lineup.

Is a Big 3 of Damian Lillard, Ben Simmons, and an as-of-yet acquired stretch 5 good enough to make it to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs? How about Darius Garland, Ben Simmons, and either Kevin Love and/or Larry Nance? Are they better than a 22-50 record? Heck, one could even argue that a Ben Simmons-Karl-Anthony Towns pairing could be the best one-two punch available to get the most out of the 24-year-old guard/forward, and that would certainly get more butts in seats than having D’Angelo Russell as the team’s 1B.

So, in reality, it’s not particularly hard to see why a small market GM would be willing to hedge their present for a future heavily featuring Ben Simmons. If anything, it’s a whole lot easier to sell an ownership group on the prospect of acquiring Simmons than one may initially think, as at least his elite attributes can be easily completed with a malleable supporting class.

Next. Tobias Harris is a poor fit next to Ben Simmons. dark

Will Ben Simmons find himself on another team when the NBA reconvenes later this year? Maybe, maybe not. His agents, Rich Paul, didn’t go so far as to request a trade during his most recent meeting with Daryl Morey and the Philadelphia 76ers apparently have a plan in place to work on Simmons’ shooting form over the summer, both of which are good signs. But either way, don’t buy into the narrative that no one is interested in acquiring Simmons or worse, that the team wouldn’t be able to wade through a number of offers to pick the best package to retool their roster moving forward, as there are plenty of teams who would love to get their hands on the 24-year-old guard/forward moving forward.