Philadelphia 76ers: Nick Wright has the perfect Ben Simmons trade idea

A lot had been written about who the Philadelphia 76ers could land in a trade for Ben Simmons, and for the most part, it’s largely been a list of the usual suspects.

Portland’s dynamic backcourt duo, Bradley Beal, D’Angelo Russell. There have been deals suggested where the Sixers bring back multiple role players for the three-time All-Star and even ones where the team goes all-in on a sort of “The Process 2.0” centered around recouping young players and picks regardless of Joel Embiid‘s MVP window.

Now, to be fair, most of these hypothetical trades won’t happen, as, logistically speaking, the Sixers can only trade Simmons one time if they opt to move him at all, but it’s not hard to see why these moves are being suggested: The Sixers need a shot-creating guard to play off of Embiid and close out close games when it matters most. If the Sixers had any of those players in their second-round contest versus Atlanta, they’d likely still be playing in an uber fun contest against the Milwaukee Bucks instead of having their future dissected, and their future questioned.

But of all the hypothetical trades that have been suggested, one, at least in this writer’s humble opinion, rises about the rest and presents a legitimate chance for the Sixers to not only make it out of the second round but win a chip with arguably the best two-man game in the league. It’s just too bad it’ll never happen, as its creator, Nick Wright, suggested on First Things First.

Kyrie Irving would be the perfect second superstar with the Philadelphia 76ers.

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Kyrie Irving is one of the most polarizing players in the NBA.

On the court, there’s no one better. He’s arguably the most talented combo guard to grace the hardwoods of an NBA court since “The Answer,” a threat to score from the logo inward, and at 6-foot-2, 195 pounds, is a good bit bigger than Allen Iverson too. Irving has played a variety of different roles over his decade-long NBA career both on and off the ball, and despite all of that experience, is just two years older than Joel Embiid.

Off the court, however, Irving is a completely different story. While he’s been incredibly open about his struggles with the emotional aspects of the game and has proven time and time again to be an incredibly generous philanthropist to a variety of causes sports-related and not, Irving missed multiple stretches of the 2020-21 season due to personal reasons and is unfortunately notorious for being the NBA’s resident conspiracy theorist.

Let’s just say, when you have an entire section of your Wikipedia page dedicated to “Conspiracy theories,” it’s probably not a good thing.

To some, pairing Irving with Embiid is just an accident waiting to happen. Between Irving’s knees and Embiid’s, well, everything, the Sixers would be a veritable powderkeg with one of the biggest discrepancies between their ceiling and floor in the NBA and would leave fans uncomfortable for every minute of the season – as if they weren’t already.

If you fall into that camp, I get it; I really do. But even the biggest detractor of an Irving-Embiid pairing has to admit that the duo would be dazzlingly dynamic on the court.

I mean, come on, just imagine the pick-and-rolls. The pick-and-pops. Irving has never been paired up with a big man as effortlessly dominant as Embiid, and Philly’s favorite Cameroonian son has only been given fleeting flashes of the sort of guard play “Uncle Drew” brings to the table. Simply pair that duo up with the remaining member of the Sixers’ 2020-21 starting five, and you have a darn good team that is probably better than the Brooklyn Nets, even if Ben Simmons fills their biggest hole on the defensive end of the court.

Which is why, unfortunately, it will never happen.

Remember, the Brooklyn Nets only got one game out of their Big 3 in their second-round war versus the Milwaukee Bucks and were still able to take that series to seven games. While Steve Nash‘s squad will also receive their fair share of criticism for how things went down, as they effectively went all-in on building a contender around as many current and former stars as possible, their season was more so lost due to injury than any sort of offensive collapse from a specific star player down the stretch.

Why, I ask rhetorically, would Brooklyn blow that up? Rumblings of such an occurrence aside, if Irving, Durant, and Harden all want to remain together moving forward, that will likely be what happens until their individual on-court performances dip or a better player becomes available via trade.

Even if Simmons would be the perfect third star with the Nets, and believe me, he would seamlessly slot onto that roster and provide so much value on the defensive end of the court that he may never need to take a shot period, the idea of giving up an offensive dynamo to an in-conference playoff rival is the textbook definition of a non-starter. If the Sixers found the sort of success that is very much possible with an Irving-Embiid pairing, it would look horrible on Brooklyn and could result in the sort of job losses that simply wouldn’t be the case in Philly if the roles were reversed, as it’s been proven time and time again that Simmons isn’t an ideal fit next to JoJo.

That’d be like the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys swapping quarterbacks just for the heck of it; even if it makes both teams better, it’s never going to happen.

If the Philadelphia 76ers ultimately do decide to trade Ben Simmons, it’ll be hard to receive equal value back. He’s coming off of a poor showing that has reportedly tainted his value league-wide, and there just aren’t that many other 24-year-old three-time All-Stars sitting on the trade block looking for a new home. If Daryl Morey could somehow land a player of Kyrie Irving’s caliber, even if he has to surrender additional assets to get a deal done, it would be an absolute dream come true, but unfortunately, such occurrences don’t seem to happen around these parts all too often, not since the Eagles won the Super Bowl anyway. Better to set expectations low to avoid disappointment a few months down the line.