SameOldNudityDrew wrote:Wow, yeah, watching game 7, you can really see the best and worst of Ben Simmons on full display.
Some of the defense he was providing in that game was unbelievable, guarding everyone from Trey to Galinari. And he created a lot of transition opportunities by pushing the ball and finding the open man before the defense could get fully set.
But woof, that free throw shooting and just total passivity with his shot. He really was a clear liability in any half court offense or set offensive play, even without an explicit hack-a-ben approach. Just the possibility that the opponents could intentionally foul him and put him on the line down the stretch really did make him borderline unplayable. He's a 60% FT shooter for his career, which is bad to start with, but that just cratered in the playoffs this year.
It's a shame, because if he could just get his FT% up to about 70% reliably and at least be a Rubio-level threat from deep, something like 25%-30%, then you're looking at a more athletic Draymond Green. His defense is really special and he's such a great passer. It's such a shame that shooting is such a glaring weakness/absence for him.
Yeah, at this point, I'm not sure I would trade DLO for him any more. I'm fairly confident his FT shooting will come back a bit--we've got 4 full seasons of 60% shooting, so that's probably a better predictor than the 20% or whatever he shot in the playoffs here. But just the chance it could get that bad, coupled with the difficulties of having to build around him, I guess I'd still stick with DLO--although DLO causes all sorts of other problems to build around and I'm pretty sure those aren't fixable with him on the roster.
I had forgotten that Ben Simmons 5 year deal started this year. So if you don't believe in him being a Max player then I can see why you would not want to even trade him for Russell straight up. Russell has just 2 years left on his 4 year deal. I've the 2 years left on his deal Russell will cost over 7 million dollars less than Simmons and...you can just walk away at the end or maybe you resign him but you get to decide. Hmm...I might be against trading for Simmons now especially since Cool did bring up his injury issues.