The last picture in most people’s minds of Ben Simmons is a guy in his own head, his confidence shaken, passing up a dunk in Game 7 against Atlanta. With that came the perception that Simmons both needed to be traded and his trade valued had hit an all-time low.
While Philadephia and GM Daryl Morey are open to trading Simmons, his trade value around the NBA is not as low as many fans think, reports Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated while on the Bill Simmons podcast on The Ringer (hat tip HoopsHype).
“I hear from executives all the time that are loving this ‘Ben Simmons trade value has cratered’ conversation because they hope that Philadelphia believes that. I think his trade value is actually higher than what’s being publicly portrayed. But you’re going to continue to hear a lot of the negativity around Ben Simmons.
“In other words, I think people value him pretty high across the league because I do think there’s a belief that someone’s going to figure the shooting thing out.”
Simmons is an All-Star player who averaged 14.3 points and 6.9 assists a game last season while finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting — he is still an outstanding player. One who brings a lot of value to the court.
Morey is not going to trade low on him. It’s going to take an All-Star level player who would fit well with Joel Embiid to get into the conversation.
Simmons’ next team needs to build up his confidence, get him focused on improving his shooting and trusting it, but also putting him in positions where he can succeed on the court (and build confidence with that). Get the man the ball in his hands in transition. His next team is still getting an All-Star player who can help them win games, even if all fans may remember is the passed-up dunk. NBA executives should be able to see past that.
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Ben Simmons trade value reportedly still pretty high around NBA originally appeared on NBCSports.com