The Celtics got Enes Kanter at a good price, too. What, 2 years, $10 million? Not bad for 13.7/9.8!
Sources: 76ers offer Simmons $170M max deal
Can someone explain this whole Ben Simmons thing to me? Are we being gaslit here? It seems like the world collectively decided that he’s a elite player, a generational talent, results be damned.
The Sixers locking up close to $650M in 4 players, Embiid, Simmons, Harris and Horford, seems like the most insane thing that’s happened this decade. Embiid is great when he plays, but doesn’t play a full season. Simmons can’t shoot and doesn’t try to. Horford is 33 years old. Harris is in his 8th year with a career scoring average of 15 points, bubbling up to a high water mark of 20 points last year.
What. The. Fuck.
#TrustTheProcess ?
#FuckTheProcess maybe.
Fun piece about Kawhi that I think is instructional.
Dear Lord. What a difference a year and a ring make. A year and a half ago, he was being hated in San Antonio for having a mysterious, likely mythical injury and quitting on his team. Now, a sports talk nation huddles over their phones for a hint of his thoughts or desires.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Indeed. Though, if I were the Clips/Lakers I’d try to keep that whole Spurs debacle front of mind. Maybe it was all media created due to the information vacuum that surrounds Kawhi, but I don’t think that’s entirely it. He got pissed and basically quit on them, that’s somewhat indisputable, he was healed up at end of last season. Why he got so pissed we have no idea…it’s probably not a sign that he’s a head case…but without anything to go on we can’t be sure. It worked in Toronto for 1 season, but maybe he’s a guy that simply needs constant change. Maybe he’s a guy that doesn’t handle conflict well. Maybe he’s a self-motivated guy that doesn’t like having Pop in his ear about shit. Who the fuck knows. I just know that the data from 2017-18 is every bit as important as the data from 2018-19.
Lol
That’s as good a guess as any.
(Although now, it appears Lakers…gag)
Simmons is one of the 20 or 30 best players in the NBA and he’s only 23 (not quite, but he will be in a few weeks.) That is a massively valuable basketball player.
Can he shoot from distance? Not really, but he’s still a very efficient scorer, he gets boards, and he moves the ball really well for a big man. I’ll take him anyday.
That’s possible.
It’s also possible that Kawhi didn’t trust that the Spurs weren’t going to Durant him and he valued his health.
Even if that’s the case, I wouldn’t say he handled the situation well.
He wouldn’t be in my top 30. Does a “top 20-30” player deserve a max deal? This Simmons hype feels an awful lot like the Tatum last year except Tatum was way more effective in the playoffs. They paid Harris (and grabbed Jimmy last year) because Simmons can’t fill it up. If Ben Simmons is your best player you’re probably not even a .500 team, this will fail spectacularly.
I’ll take him as well.
He does need to at least be a midrange threat though, or he is too easy to defend in the playoffs. You can learn how to shoot if you are committed to it.
In the 2018-2019 season there were 32 players on max contracts. Granted some may have been bad contracts for one reason or another( Wall ). But there are 30 NBA teams - would it be crazy if each had one max player?
Does a top 20 player deserve a max contract? Probably, in my estimation. Top 30? Hmmm…maybe.
Here’s the list as of the start of last season. There’s several guys who aren’t technically “max” contracts but are close enough missing from the list. I’d say at a glance, 2/3rds of that list qualify as regretful contracts and maybe 1/3rd are basically team crippling.
Certainly the NBA system is such that there will usually be at least 1 max guy per team and often 2 or 3 on elite teams who have doled them out in sequential seasons. But should there be? Hell no.
The Sixers are heading towards a situation where they have 3 max or near max guys and none of them are top 5 (10?) guys, and only 1 is in the top 20. We’ll look back at them and say they look a heck of a lot more like the Wizards with Wall, Beal and Porter than they look like the Warriors with Steph, Lay and KD.
Yeah, that part is hard to argue with. I think a max contract per team is a pretty reasonable expectation( via market pressure if nothing else ). But if you’re carrying three+ you should be pretty certain you’ve got a championship contender on your hands. Overpaying because you feel you have to lock up a player despite already being on the hook for a couple others is risky business if the return is highly uncertain.
Unfortunately I suspect a lot of GM’s feel backed into a corner. Do nothing and their very good( but not great )player gets overpaid by someone else and you’re left with nothing. Then you get fired for not locking down that talent.
I’m not sure I agree with you, or at least, I don’t think it’s as much of a slam dunk as you’re making it here. It’s really hard to figure out comps for Simmons because he has a very unusual profile. However good he is or isn’t, he’s pretty close to unique. But let’s see.
Simmons isn’t really a “very efficient scorer” by any statistical measure; in 2019 he was outside the Top 40 in terms of eFG%, TS%, OBPM, and PER. His rebounding and defensive contributions help make him more valuable, but Top 20? Absolutely no way. Top 30? Maybe. But only maybe. VORP likes him a lot, PER thinks he’s about as valuable as present-day Chris Paul, and win shares per 48 minutes put him tied with… D.J. Augustin. So opinions vary.
Also a problem: Simmons did not get better in his second season. By way of contrast, Giannis Antetokounmpo was a much less valuable player in his first and second seasons than Simmons was in his. But Antetokounmpo also posted substantial gains each season (and, of course, he came into the league as a 19-year-old with more room to grow). If Simmons’ 2020 is basically the same as his 2019, then there’s a very real chance that the player he is now is the player he will always be… and that player is definitely not worth a max contract.
Now, given the situation in the East, keeping Simmons means the Sixers should be real contenders for a title. But he wasn’t going anywhere for 2 more years anyway, and I’m not really sure I understand why they extended him now. They could have picked up his option for 2020 and seen if he was showing improvement, and offered him the same max extension after the season if he was. That’s the part of the move that makes no sense to me.
Kawhi and Paul George to the Clippers. Ha-ha-HOLY SHIT.
NM
I have to wonder if OKC and TOR will even be contenders next year.