Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Ben Simmons

At The Cauldron, a look at the weaknesses of his game and how it will affect his fit at the NBA level.

5 comments:

  1. A lot of my friends that are big Lakers fans really want him to get drafted by LA. I honestly think he is basically Julius Randle 2.0. Having 2 big men that defend and spread the floor isn't going to do any favors for D Rusell either.

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    1. He's more of a pure perimeter player than Julius so while they have the same basic profile in terms of strengths and weaknesses he has a much higher ceiling.

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  2. Simmons looks like a once-a-five-year-talent, the type, "The Process" is setup to get. It doesn't matter what is already on the roster when you have a chance to grab him. You get him and figure it out later. Philly should be showcasing and selling-high on everything that doesn't rain threes and/or block shots. Okafor is a one-dimensional low-post scorer--who doesn't rebound or play defense--trade him this year at his highest value, even if it includes Saric.

    Noel will look great with BSimmons, Stauskas may still prove to shoot 3ees at a nice clip. Embiid is a ridiculous wildcard, who is way to unpredictable at this point to trade. Package everyone and everything else to get rid of Okafor for as much value as possible.

    As for if the Lakers get the chance at Simmons, it all depends on their take on D'A Russell. Randle is a fine player, but he's not good enough to make longterm choices around. If LAL feels Russell can lead them deep into the playoffs as an alpha, then a SF like Brandon Ingram to go with Randle and Jordan Clarkson, and spending $$$ on FA rim protection sounds like a great way to get back to relevancy.

    If D'A Russell isn't deemed alpha-playoff dog, then the Lakers need to get BSimmons and just figure it out...

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    1. Hard to see Okafor having anywhere close to max possible trade value putting up empty stats on a bad team and fighting dudes in parking lots on the weekend but I suppose that ship has sailed.

      I don't think Russell's presence has too much of an impact on the decision with Simmons because he can play off the ball at a really high level so he could mesh with either Simmons or Ingram. It really comes down to what they think about Randle. The tough part is they would have had a ton of different cracks at the lottery and not come out of it with any type of rim protection or rim-runner.

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