In A Shocking Twist That Nobody Could Have Seen Coming, The Nets Are Reportedly Going To Try And Trade Ben Simmons This Summer
Chris Coduto. Getty Images.(B/R ) - What becomes of Simmons and the final two years and nearly $80 million remaining on his contract after this season is of course another dynamic to monitor in Brooklyn. The Nets are widely expected to gauge what trade market could materialize for Simmons after his disappointing campaign comes to a close. The three-time All-Star is still far from the form he exhibited during his best days in Philadelphia.
The Nets will also face an interesting restricted free agency for Cam Johnson, who was unable to come to an agreement in Phoenix. The Suns, sources said, were not willing to offer Johnson more than $72 million over four seasons.
OK, I must admit, that headline was a lie. The second we all saw the Nets smash the "retool" button and trade Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, the next logical thought was they were probably going to get out of the Ben Simmons business as well. Given the fact that his coach already seems tired of the bullshit that comes with the Ben Simmons Experience
and the fact that his entire Nets tenure has been a disaster, who could blame Sean Marks for wanting to be done with this experiment. Sadly, I have an early look at Ben Simmons' trade market as we enter this summer
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I know in the NBA you sholud never say someone is "untradeable", especially after we've seen Russell Westbrook get traded 4 times despite his massive contract so I guess technically it's possible. I would just ask given what we've seen from Ben Simmons over the last 2+ years, who is giving up actual assets to bring this onto their books?
It's not like the Jazz can just throw Russ at the Nets given that Westbrook will be a UFA this summer, so who is giving close to $35M worth of salary plus the picks I'm sure the Nets will want to make this happen?
While it's true we said similar things while Morey was trying to trade Simmons when he was on the Sixers, this is a little different of a situation in my opinion. At least at that time there was still the "potential" that a chance of scenery was all Simmons needed. That his struggles were heavily impacted by the situation he was in.
Nope. Wrong.
Whatever was mentally blocking his ability to even attempt to be a threat offensively has gotten even worse, with Simmons only putting up 5.7 FGA a game in his 41 appearances this season. He's also having one of, if not the worst defensive season of his career, so where's the value? I suppose he's still an elite passer, but you can find good passers who cost a fraction of the price it would take to bring Simmons in.
To me, this means you need to be looking at guys who could be an expiring deal next summer. When you do that, a few options come to mind
Gordon Hayward - $31.5M
Kyle Lowry - $29.6M
Mike Conley - $24.3M (partially guaranteed)
…and that's really it if you're looking for a guy who could take up a chunk of Simmons' $35M salary where their teams might also be looking to get off their current money. Does that mean they'd be willing to take on about $77M of Ben Simmons money? You can kind of see the Nets dilemma here.
So while you can never say never, it does feel like the Nets are stuck, at least for another year. Even if that $40M number seems crazy, players who are an expiring are certainly easier to move to a team that wouldn't mind having the cap space that next summer. There will always be a team willing to take in a bad contract, the thing is the Nets will most likely have to pay someone to do it via some picks. You're not unloading Simmons and then getting the return Morey got. That's out. It's more likely they're going to have to go the Lakers/Westbrook route and shed at least one 1st round pick just to make it worth it for a team to take this headache on.
At this point, whatever the Nets get back can only help. It's time for them to get back to being the young/scrappy team that plays hard as shit. The superstar route didn't exactly work out for them, but just like with Kyrie my guess is they'll be better off in a post-Simmons world. That seems to be the trend.