The Damian Lillard Trade Is Reportedly Being Held Up By The Fact That Nobody In The NBA Wants To Trade For Ben Simmons

Jim McIsaac. Getty Images.

The last time we saw Ben Simmons on a basketball court was February 15th. He played 20 minutes, finished with 2 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 5 fouls. Then we hit the All Star break and Simmons didn't play the rest of the year/postseason. After sitting out the entire 2021-22 season, Simmons played just 42 games last year before being shut down, and you could make the case that few players in the league have had as much of an impact on the league simply by not playing. 

If you thought the Ben Simmons issues were done in Brooklyn, you'd be sadly mistaken. In fact, according to reports it's the fact that nobody in the league wants Ben Simmons that is proving to be a pretty big sticking point in the Damian Lillard negotiations

I mean, that's not the craziest thing I've ever heard. If you're the Nets and you are needed to get Dame to MIA, well then they need something to make it worth their while. If the Heat want Tyler Herro to be involved, they probably have to attach picks to the Nets in order to convince them to take on his money. It made sense that this could be their chance to get out of this freakin thing

and I just assumed that the Blazers would be the natural fit. He goes there, Dame to MIA, and Herro to BKN. As it turns out, it seems like nobody wants this dude. I get that $37M and $40M is a ton to pay a guy that literally doesn't play, but if the Blazers are about to trade their franchise player and rebuild, why should they give a shit? At least he only has 1 more season to go until he's an expiring deal and maybe at that point, his market looks a little different. At the very least, the Blazers could in theory open up cap space to use on free agents that will never come to POR. 

If I'm the Nets, I'm absolutely playing hard ball here. They know that the Heat know that their offer isn't good enough without the Nets' help. The Blazers have already made it known that they have no need for Tyler Herro who of course is about to start Year 1 of his own deal

Advertisement

Almost every time we've seen one of these large contracts get moved, the team trading the player also had to attach some sort of picks package in order to pull it off. But if the Nets can't offload Simmons and that's a sticking point for them, well then nothing else really matters.  Could we see someone like Utah and Danny Ainge decide to get involved here to the point where they are the 4th team involved and they end up with Simmons? Maybe the Spurs? We did hear Shams say this could be a 3 or 4 team ordeal, and I bet that's because of Simmons. 

At the end of the day, I still think this gets done. Once the cat is out of the bag like this, the star player ends up where he wanted to be in the first place. I know there are some that say the Blazers should say fuck that and just take the best possible package they can get, but again that's not really how this shit works. It might take a few extra steps, you may need to get a few more teams involved, but it feels more like a matter of time before the dust settles and Dame is in South Beach and the Blazers enter Year 1 of their rebuild. 

It would be very funny though if Simmons was the thing that ultimately ended up killing this trade. Imagine how that locker room would be in BKN with Simmons coming back right after the team just tried to trade him? How did it go in his last locker room when he felt like he was getting disrespected? He sat out and ultimately forced a trade. Only this time, there's nobody to trade with because it seems like the rest of the league has learned their lesson.