Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:

Camden wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:Sources: Doc Rivers asked Ben Simmons to join a defensive drill today. Simmons refused. Rivers asked again. Simmons said no again.

Rivers then told Simmons he should go home, and Simmons dropped the ball and left.

Per Shams

A big part of this entire situation has been Doc Rivers' attitude towards Ben Simmons. Everyone is to blame, but Rivers has only escalated the situation from the end of last season. Simmons clearly has zero respect for Rivers and I personally don't blame him. It's entertaining to see it go down this route.

To be fair, what should a coach do in that specific situation? Doc could have been more circumspect in his comments after last season, and I really didn't like how he was mischaracterizing what he said to Stephen A. about a month ago. But setting that aside, if Shams is right here that Simmons was refusing to participate, it doesn't exactly leave a coach with any good choices.

God, I just hope Morey finds a trade he can live with and we can all just move on.

This is the result of all of the Sixers' mismanagement, especially Doc Rivers. Remember, recently there was a meeting with Ben Simmons, Doc Rivers, and others at Rich Paul's house where at one point Rivers reportedly yelled at Simmons that he had to show up because "it's in your fucking contract." While technically true that he had to report, in what world is acting like that going to solve the issue here? Simmons reported. That didn't mean he had to give effort or care whatsoever. Philadelphia has been dead to him. Rivers was probably right to dismiss him from practice, but why was Simmons even there in the first place? It's because the Sixers thought they could fix this enough to where they'd trade him for more, but yet they've done everything wrong in trying to fix the situation. This is their fault at this point. They had the entire off-season to find a trade for him with Simmons quiet for most of it.

I heard about the meeting, but I didn't read about Doc yelling at Simmons. Obviously, that's not professional. In terms of saying that he wanted him back, I suspect Doc was saying that because Morey was telling him he didn't have a Simmons trade, so the alternative would be accepting a player just holding out, which I also understand not wanting to do.

I don't see anybody innocent here. Embiid and Doc should not have dismissed him at the end of that series like he was already on the way out. Morey should have recognized the writing on the wall, accepted that he's essentially a distressed asset, and traded him this summer. Ben shouldn't be so sensitive to criticism and should be more of a professional about this whole thing and just do his job. Philly fans shouldn't be such major assholes to their own players. And literally everybody else, including me, should probably stop clicking stories about this and putting our own opinions out there online about it because it just adds to the feeding frenzy. It's a road accident we can't look away from at this point, unfortunately.

Oooh, how deliciously dysfunctional!

DLO looked mighty sharp in the pre-season......

Q12543 wrote:Oooh, how deliciously dysfunctional!

DLO looked mighty sharp in the pre-season......

All the more reason to keep him... ;)

I'm not sure where Simmons will end up, but he can't stay with the Sixers this season. That just won't work. I've never been keen on the Wolves acquiring Simmons and I honestly don't care where Simmons ends up. I do enjoy see the Sixers dysfunction under Morey.

Speaking of Morey, he's really botched the Simmons thing. We're seeing he's not nearly as smart as some have assumed or as he thinks he is. He's been very opportunistic taking advantage of internal challenges faced by other teams. Now that he's faced with a challenge, we're seeing that he's nothing more than an oversized ego.

This definitely took balls by Simmons to do it, even if it was the original intent. Honestly, it couldn't happen to a better city. If Philly is known for one thing, it's classlessness.

Time for the 76ers to pay the Wolves back for trading them Butler in similar circumstances (but Butler was more toxic in his behavior). The trading of Simmons to Minnesota would immediately cause Philly to become the Wolves new bad-blood rival. First the KAT vs Embiid situation, then add Butler and now Simmons? Wolves vs 76ers is immediately must watch TV (and I'm sure the the 76ers players would probably take cheap shots on Simmons in-game, and I have a feeling Beverly would get into it too.

Really hoping it happens, and I'd give up Russell to make it happen (but not Russell+3-4 1sts) if necessary.

I've been solidly on the Simmons train since their final game in the playoffs, but I'm mixed at best now. I recognize that nobody is very likable in this Philly drama, but I'm quite disappointed in Ben's behavior at practice his first few days. Carrying a cell phone in your pocket...really? And whether you like Doc or not, any one of us would have suspended a player who refused to participate in defensive drills. Ben's immaturity has drastically reduced what I'm willing to give up now, and what I'm willing to give up isn't likely to be of any interest to Morey. I would probably accept a Beasley/Jaden package and would consider a straight up deal for Dlo, but I'm just not as excited about Ben as I was before and also don't see Morey accepting either deal. I have no idea how this will end up, but it certainly is a shit show right now.

This type of situation was always in play as long as Philadelphia held out in trading Ben Simmons. This is their own doing as far as I'm concerned. We honestly shouldn't be surprised as the signs of turmoil have been there for months. Furthermore, this has zero impact on my desire for Minnesota to acquire Simmons. What I would and wouldn't give up for him hasn't changed either, for what it's worth.

Lastly, I still like the Wolves' chances to acquire Simmons. I think I'm even more optimistic on the heels of Damian Lillard confirming his intent to stay in Portland. Minnesota makes the most sense as a trade partner for the following reasons:

- They have an attractive package of assets that they're willing to part with in order to make a reasonable offer to Philadelphia.

- They currently have a roster that compliments Ben Simmons' skill set as well as personalities that would make the transition easy for him in Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell.

- Their new ownership group and front office decision-maker are motivated to make a splash and contend sooner rather than later.

- They're a Western Conference team as of right now, which means that Philadelphia would only have to play against Ben Simmons in Minnesota twice annually as opposed to three or four times if he was traded within the Eastern Conference. With every game on the 82-game schedule increasing in importance due to tight playoff races and home court being a real advantage, those two less games versus a star player who's motivated to play well against his former team is a benefit. This reason is the least significant in my view, but it's worthy of mentioning.

FNG wrote:I've been solidly on the Simmons train since their final game in the playoffs, but I'm mixed at best now. I recognize that nobody is very likable in this Philly drama, but I'm quite disappointed in Ben's behavior at practice his first few days. Carrying a cell phone in your pocket...really? And whether you like Doc or not, any one of us would have suspended a player who refused to participate in defensive drills. Ben's immaturity has drastically reduced what I'm willing to give up now, and what I'm willing to give up isn't likely to be of any interest to Morey. I would probably accept a Beasley/Jaden package and would consider a straight up deal for Dlo, but I'm just not as excited about Ben as I was before and also don't see Morey accepting either deal. I have no idea how this will end up, but it certainly is a shit show right now.

FNG - Glad to see you come around a bit and temper your Simmons crush. :) Ben's recent behavior in practice hasn't altered my view at all on the extent of my interest in trading for Simmons. Practice? We're talking about Practice! Not a game, Practice! Sorry, I digress. But seriously, I've had two reservations about about acquiring Simmons - (1) his poor perimeter and free-throw shooting, and (2) his attitude issues reflected in his reported failure to work on his shot and refusal to follow directives from his coaches to shoot more. Ben is a guy who appear to do what he wants to do, which is OK only to a point in a team sport like basketball. He strikes me as a bit of a loner who isn't particularly very relatable or coachable. What he's been doing recently in practice isn't a big deal to me. Morey, Rivers and Embiid had created this mess and Ben's response isn't all that unreasonable.

I still recognize and respect Ben's talent, which is why I've always been ok with the idea of dealing DLO straight up for Simmons and possibly including a couple 2nd-round picks or one future unprotected 1st for him. But I wouldn't deplete our bank of future assets to get him or give up a promising very high upside talent like McDaniels to get him. And I wouldn't trade a essential culture-changer like Beverley to get him either. If I were in Gupta's shoes, at this point I'd move on and forget about Simmons unless Morey called me. Instead, I'd focus on adding a quality big to the roster via free agency or through a trade that wouldn't involve any core players or valuable future assets.

lipoli390 wrote:

FNG wrote:I've been solidly on the Simmons train since their final game in the playoffs, but I'm mixed at best now. I recognize that nobody is very likable in this Philly drama, but I'm quite disappointed in Ben's behavior at practice his first few days. Carrying a cell phone in your pocket...really? And whether you like Doc or not, any one of us would have suspended a player who refused to participate in defensive drills. Ben's immaturity has drastically reduced what I'm willing to give up now, and what I'm willing to give up isn't likely to be of any interest to Morey. I would probably accept a Beasley/Jaden package and would consider a straight up deal for Dlo, but I'm just not as excited about Ben as I was before and also don't see Morey accepting either deal. I have no idea how this will end up, but it certainly is a shit show right now.

FNG - Glad to see you come around a bit and temper your Simmons crush. :) Ben's recent behavior in practice hasn't altered my view at all on the extent of my interest in trading for Simmons. Practice? We're talking about Practice! Not a game, Practice! Sorry, I digress. But seriously, I've had two reservations about about acquiring Simmons - (1) his poor perimeter and free-throw shooting, and (2) his attitude issues reflected in his reported failure to work on his shot and refusal to follow directives from his coaches to shoot more. Ben is a guy who appear to do what he wants to do, which is OK only to a point in a team sport like basketball. He strikes me as a bit of a loner who isn't particularly very relatable or coachable. What he's been doing recently in practice isn't a big deal to me. Morey, Rivers and Embiid had created this mess and Ben's response isn't all that unreasonable.

I still recognize and respect Ben's talent, which is why I've always been ok with the idea of dealing DLO straight up for Simmons and possibly including a couple 2nd-round picks or one future unprotected 1st for him. But I wouldn't deplete our bank of future assets to get him or give up a promising very high upside talent like McDaniels to get him. And I wouldn't trade a essential culture-changer like Beverley to get him either. If I were in Gupta's shoes, at this point I'd move on and forget about Simmons unless Morey called me. Instead, I'd focus on adding a quality big to the roster via free agency or through a trade that wouldn't involve any core players or valuable future assets.

I agree with a lot of what you said here Lip but I would be checking in with Morey periodically to see what the price was for Simmons. Remember when people couldn't believe how little Cousins got traded for? Morey has an ego and isn't probably going to end up taking a really bad deal but it makes sense to at least keep checking in. I mostly would be willing to move on from Simmons because ai do think that while I don't think Simmons is some sort of cancer or anything I do think top players have to be managed and idk if this franchise is currently ready to manage another guy with star level ego. Arod and Lore being onboard as owners I think could be an asset there but they are still new to all this stuff.

It's a little weird after the preseason I feel more hesitant to give up Russell. I kinda want to see this group play it out. I'm not saying DONT TRADE RUSSELL because of 4 preseason games. I will say that he played well and played the way I think he needs to if he becomes the player I think he can be offensively.

Fire up those bargin basement deals. Now is the perfect time to try and get this guy. There is a real chance for loyalty from him now that everyone is turning on him.

I have always thought and continue to believe that KAT and Simmons are an ideal front court pair based on their relative strengths. The whole world is fucked up, let Simmons be fucked up and be happy balling out again. I think from a base psychological perspective, Simmons is one of these people of his generation who need to be appreciated and loved for who they are. He is very flawed offensively. But I for one would love him way more than our options at power forward and am pretty sure that he would be loved in Minnesota if he was a key part in getting us competitive again.