Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers haven’t been out of the headlines all offseason, as the stalemate between the Sixers All-Star and the organization he is contractually obligated to play for continues.
The cold war warmed slightly this week as Simmons reported to camp in a surprise fashion, showing up at the door with nobody in the organization even knowing he was coming.
The Philadelphia 76ers and Ben Simmons are at an odd standoff, and it needs resolution. For the Sixers, the easiest solution might be in front of them.
Does he come in peace? Probably not.
But after losing out on roughly $1 million worth of fines so far through his holdout, he’s definitely come for his money. That means playing nice, or at least being available to the extent that it appears he is willing to play nice. It is all quite ridiculous, no matter how you cut it.
Ridiculous or not, this is a situation that requires some kind of resolution, and it needs to come sooner rather than later. The Sixers are determined not to trade him unless it’s for a legitimate superstar or a huge package of high-upside young players and premiere draft picks, and that’s something that won’t develop quickly.
They may be stuck with a disgruntled Simmons who very recently swore up and down that he would never play for the Sixers again. He declared he was willing to pay whatever fines necessary to never set foot on the Philadelphia home court again, at least until he paid one (1, singular) fine.
Needless to say, Simmons’s resolve was tested, and he was found badly wanting.
So he does not want to be in Philadelphia, the Sixers would probably have preferred to keep him far away from the team and simply continue fining him for services not rendered, but he’s back and something needs to give. He could dog it on the floor, playing poorly and giving scarcely more effort than it requires to avoid injury in the high-intensity sport of professional basketball.
This could further crater his trade value, but he already has minimal trade value. Teams saw his shocking and pitiful playoff performance, and they’ve seen this embarrassing display Simmons has put on since then following the mildest of chastisements from his head coach Doc Rivers. There are teams that would want him, but not for the price tag that president of basketball operations Daryl Morey has set.
Ben Simmons is back, he’s not happy, and he’s going to be hard to trade and impossible to swap out for the kind of value Morey wants. This means the Sixers may need to look in other directions to find a resolution to their bizarre quandary, and that other direction might come in the form of Doc Rivers.
After all, it was Rivers who criticized Simmons in the gentlest fashion when he said he didn’t know if Simmons could in fact be the point guard of a championship team. According to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Simmons resents the fact that Rivers was never reprimanded and he never apologized for his comments.
Should Rivers have to apologize for those comments? Of course not. But this is a superstar-driven league, and while Simmons is not a real superstar, he’s close enough to it that he may hold some leverage in this situation after all. Not when it comes to the trade market, but there may be a world where Simmons is willing to toe the line in Philadelphia once again if the Sixers get rid of Doc Rivers.
You can always find another coach in the NBA, and Rivers wasn’t even Daryl Morey’s choice for the job in the first place. Unfortunately, you can’t so easily get another Ben Simmons, maddening and infuriating though he may be.