Sixers: Why there shouldn’t be any urgency to move Ben Simmons (yet)

It doesn’t get much uglier than what’s going on between the Sixers and Ben Simmons. The Sixers would be happy to bring him back to fulfill the four years left on his contract, but the slights he received after dropping off the face of the earth and becoming invisible when it mattered most in the NBA playoffs are too much.

Simmons has been offended, and as proven by his total body of work in the NBA (and before it), he’s not one to accept or receive criticism. Having been lightly criticized by Joel Embiid and Doc Rivers, the Philadelphia 76ers are now dead to him and he plans to move on to the next chapter in his career.

Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers are in the midst of an ugly and protracted divorce, but there shouldn’t be urgency for the Sixers to act.

Ben Simmons may never play another minute for the Sixers, but that doesn’t mean there needs to be urgency for president of basketball operations Daryl Morey to act before the season or even in the early stages of 2021-22. While Simmons can’t rehabilitate his trade value while sitting on the beach in California, other teams around the NBA can develop a sense of desperation as they get off to slow starts or suffer injuries.

As for the Sixers weathering their own storm before a deal can ultimately be struck, there’s hope they’ll be able to do much more than just stay afloat without either Simmons or a return for him. Using the admittedly bizarre 2020-21 season as a metric, the Sixers were a net positive when Simmons was not on the court.

When Joel Embiid was on the floor and Simmons off, the Sixers had a net rating (points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions) of +1.4 in 938 possessions. Strangely enough, the Sixers were even better when Simmons and Embiid were both off, posting a net rating of +2.5 in a large sample of 2,712 possessions.

Of course, the fact that all of this is happening in the first place is a true basketball tragedy, using the same net rating metric. The fit between Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid has never been perfect, but they destroyed opponents when they played together last season. When Simmons and Embiid were both on the floor, they outscored teams by a staggering margin with a +15.5 net rating.

If we assume that the Sixers will perform somewhat similarly next season with neither Simmons nor a replacement, we can assign them a net rating somewhere in the range between +1.4 and +2.5. Let’s take a look at the teams that performed within those margins last season and where they finished in the net rating rankings:

• 9. New York Knicks – +2.4
• 10. Dallas Mavericks – +2.3
• 11. Atlanta Hawks – +2.2
• 12. Portland Trail Blazers – +1.8
• 13. Boston Celtics – +1.2

If this is where the Sixers find themselves positioned going into next season’s trade deadline, all without their second-best player or any return for him, it’s not the worst thing ever. It’s also not ideal, but the Sixers don’t need to rush into any deal simply to get it done quickly and get Simmons out of house.

Of course, the risk they run is that they get off to a worse start than projected, or that teams they hope might have to act with desperation don’t find themselves behind the 8-ball after all. If that’s the case, Philly does have some major problems.