Philadelphia 76ers: Why are Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons always being traded?

Simmons and Embiid cannot play together; one has to go

One is a player that coaches do not want to shoot from outside because he is the best post player in the league; the other, well, simply won’t shoot from outside because he does not want to.

That leaves your two top players basically fighting for the same space in front of the basket. Not good. 

There are plenty of teams willing to relieve general manager Elton Brand of that problem.

Of course, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won many NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and neither was an outside threat. Yes, the ‘game has changed,’ but it shows it can be done successfully.

Back in the day of three years ago, the Sixers did quite well with Embiid and Simmons as top dogs. In their first year together, they took the team from 28 wins to 52 in 2017-18 and gave the Boston Celtics a run for their money in the second round of the playoffs.

That squad including role players who were 3-point shooting threats, including J.J. Redick, Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova, Dario Saric and Robert Covington.

Redick, who played two years with them (and should have been more) sees no problem, as he told The Athletic.

"“I think that they (Embiid and Simmons) can fit together, for sure,” Redick said. “… They are both incredibly intelligent, and I’m always betting on guys that are smart enough to figure things out. And they will.”"

If you put Embiid and Simmons with shooters, history shows it works. If you put another center and a power forward in the lineup, it does not, (recent) history shows.