Everything NBA 2020-21

[The Great One]

Damn. Just saw the news. So the Celtics now have Horford, Rob Williams, Thompson and Brown on their team? that's 4 starting caliber centers.

[Rudy Bargnani]

well it sure buys the GM a lot of time before anybody gets to find out. we've never seen this type of rebuild before i don't think, hinkie tried, but the league kiboshed it.

i share your skepticism though. i hated the chris paul trade for them at the time and hate it more now. they already had a fuckton of draft capitol accrued from the PG trade. i thought they were in probably the most enviable position a franchise could be in to have their cake and eat it too, with the ability to win now and flexibility to also keep adding young cheap talent or consolidate it into a trade. instead they blew it up.

i doubt they'd redo that trade btw, knowing what they know now of the other western conference contenders. CP3 and shai and a couple tweaks around the edges to that roster is not far off what phoenix is and a shot at the finals.

i'd be upset if i were a fan of theirs. and i'd be really upset if i were shai (how long 'til he wants out?)

I hear ya but Sam Presti I think has all kinds of goodwill built up. Dude literally drafted future NBA MVP's 3 years in a row. Just incredible. Durant left for nothing, Paul George demanded a trade so he was kind of backed into a corner in my view. Accumulate a bunch of picks and try to rekindle that draft history.

[TomAmnot]

Damn. Just saw the news. So the Celtics now have Horford, Rob Williams, Thompson and Brown on their team? that's 4 starting caliber centers.

but none of em' great...

[The Great One]

but none of em' great...

How many great centers are there in the NBA? two?

You don't need a great center to win a championship in the NBA.

[chris]

I hear ya but Sam Presti I think has all kinds of goodwill built up. Dude literally drafted future NBA MVP's 3 years in a row. Just incredible. Durant left for nothing, Paul George demanded a trade so he was kind of backed into a corner in my view. Accumulate a bunch of picks and try to rekindle that draft history.

he probably has built up a lot of goodwill, he's drafted well like you said and has done a great job acquiring assets for this rebuild. but as i noted, i think they were already in a great position after the bubble and a complete teardown was unnecessary. the player empowerment era sucks but i wouldn't blame shai if he didn't want to be part of a team that has no interest in competing.

also, although he drafted well, i think he completely bungled the durant era. i know the harden trade was made primarily for financial considerations at ownerships behest, but i thought it was pretty obvious at the time that he traded the wrong guy. they had 4 years of evidence that westbrook was a pretty questionable decision maker, harden had the potential to become the better player (and immediately did so), and westbrook's trade value was way higher.

[DanH]

Damn. Just saw the news. So the Celtics now have Horford, Rob Williams, Thompson and Brown on their team? that's 4 starting caliber centers.

If Thompson meets your bar for starting calibre center, most teams have a decent number of those.

[The Great One]

If Thompson meets your bar for starting calibre center, most teams have a decent number of those.

Yes.

[golden]

[Maury]

I would trade for him in a heartbeat. Talent is talent, Nurse knows what he’s doing. He fits really well next to OG and Fred. If Pascal’s shot returns which it would next to a playmaker like Simmons, we would be running the ball down team’s throats all game and splashing 3s like there’s no tomorrow. Don’t even get me started defensively.

people are underrating the fact that Simmons’ weaknesses are put under a Hubble telescope size magnifying glass next to Embiid. I’m confident that this team has enough premier shot making ability to offset his own lack of shotmaking, they just lack the ability to get to their spots effectively. Simmons can break down a defense and he can make the right reads consistently.

Combine a Simmons for Lowry swap and a potentially promising lottery pick and we just got a whole lot better. Resign Birch (or draft Mobley), and we’re very very close to contending next season back in Toronto.

[S.R.]

I would trade for him in a heartbeat. Talent is talent, Nurse knows what he’s doing. He fits really well next to OG and Fred. If Pascal’s shot returns which it would next to a playmaker like Simmons, we would be running the ball down team’s throats all game and splashing 3s like there’s no tomorrow. Don’t even get me started defensively.

people are underrating the fact that Simmons’ weaknesses are put under a Hubble telescope size magnifying glass next to Embiid. I’m confident that this team has enough premier shot making ability to offset his own lack of shotmaking, they just lack the ability to get to their spots effectively. Simmons can break down a defense and he can make the right reads consistently.

Combine a Simmons for Lowry swap and a potentially promising lottery pick and we just got a whole lot better. Resign Birch (or draft Mobley), and we’re very very close to contending next season back in Toronto.

Genuine question - why is Simmons an issue with Embiid but not with Siakam? Siakam needs a lot of space to operate in the halfcourt. Simmons would be a problem.

Lower attempts, but Embiid just shot a higher 3P% this season than Siakam ever has.

[Maury]

Genuine question - why is Simmons an issue with Embiid but not with Siakam? Siakam needs a lot of space to operate in the halfcourt. Simmons would be a problem.

Lower attempts, but Embiid just shot a higher 3P% this season than Siakam ever has.

A couple reasons. First of all, Pascal is a legit slasher, while Embiid is a legit paint presence. Two pretty different roles on offence. Second, pascal is a solid tertiary ball handler but he probably shouldn’t be a primary initiator. Simmons can do that. Embiid isn’t a ball handler at all but he needs his ball handlers to be out of the paint while
he operates. Pascal is fantastic in the corners and he can pick his spots really well so I’m not THAT concerned with how he would fit with a Simmons on that side of the court. Simmons can also play a role man with Pascal (or vice versa) in the PnR, something he’ll never really get to do in Philly.

This is obviously a risk and there’s a reason Simmons’ price has gone down, but a defensive unit of Simmons, OG, Pascal, and Fred is tantalizing with IMO enough offensive creation to make some noise. Throw in a Jalen Green or Jalen Suggs and we’re rolling with a damn good 5 man unit to close games.

[Maury]

I also think Simmons has probably had enough of the scrutiny this year. Likely a boiling point and he seems to have a good head on his shoulders. He’s failed to adjust up to now but it’s a different level of criticism right now. For the right person that can breed greatness.

[Maury]

Addendum. What I just wrote sounds like something Stephen A would say if he wasn’t a philly guy. “Breed greatness”. WTF. Sorry guys.

[nba_4_life]

I would trade for him in a heartbeat. Talent is talent, Nurse knows what he’s doing. He fits really well next to OG and Fred. If Pascal’s shot returns which it would next to a playmaker like Simmons, we would be running the ball down team’s throats all game and splashing 3s like there’s no tomorrow. Don’t even get me started defensively.

people are underrating the fact that Simmons’ weaknesses are put under a Hubble telescope size magnifying glass next to Embiid. I’m confident that this team has enough premier shot making ability to offset his own lack of shotmaking, they just lack the ability to get to their spots effectively. Simmons can break down a defense and he can make the right reads consistently.

Combine a Simmons for Lowry swap and a potentially promising lottery pick and we just got a whole lot better. Resign Birch (or draft Mobley), and we’re very very close to contending next season back in Toronto.

The reason I am all for going for him, it fails, we can trade him

[Kagemusha]

The one big problem with Simmons is that he is either lazy or immature or he has trust issues.
He was reported to be constantly babied in Philly and was gaining shooting progress under their trainer Townsend during the Brown era who challenged him to take more shots. But things started to go horrible once he signed with Klutch and he ditched Townsend and opted to he trained by his brother.
If Simmons goes to the Raptors he would bring his posse with him and we'd have another Kawhi/ Uncle Dennis episode,
only this time 100x worse.


In short, PASS.
We're not trading Lowry for this guy.