Sixers: 3 players with most to gain from Ben Simmons trade
By Ben Wieland
With Ben Simmons and Rich Paul’s camp now fiercely feuding with the Sixers front office, a deal involving the three-time All-Star before the season begins feels practically guaranteed. Even if Simmons remains on the roster as the new year begins, he won’t be with the team: reports indicate that he plans to hold out and refuse to attend training camp.
With Simmons off the roster, the Sixers immediately become a worse basketball team. However, there’s a silver lining to even the messiest of departures. These three players currently on the team stand to personally benefit the most once Simmons is inevitably moved.
3 Sixers with most to gain from Ben Simmons trade: Joel Embiid
Practically everything Embiid has worked on in his game since his rookie season has been to improve his fit alongside Ben Simmons. To accommodate his shooting-impaired co-star, Embiid added a reliable 3-pointer, turned his passing ability from a weakness to a strength, and learned to take defenders off the dribble from the perimeter.
With Simmons’s departure, Embiid will become even more deadly offensively than he already was during an MVP-caliber campaign. It’s hard to picture a more dangerous scoring threat than someone who just averaged 28.5 points per game on an elite true shooting percentage of 63.6, but Simmons’s absence from the dunker spot will leave Embiid with more room to work.
It’ll also allow Embiid to get back to what he’s best at: scoring in the post. If Simmons is replaced with someone capable of scoring from outside five feet, it’ll become more difficult for opponents to send quick double teams at Embiid when he catches the ball down low.
As a result, he’ll be able to feast on slower or smaller opponents with regularity. Teams will be forced to choose between allowing Embiid to put up 40 points on them working down low and conceding wide open threes to quality shooters like Danny Green, Seth Curry, and Tobias Harris.
While his public comments about Simmons have been a mixed bag of thinly veiled criticism and staunch defense, from a purely basketball standpoint, a Simmons trade makes Embiid’s life a lot easier offensively. The thought of Embiid with spacing and effective creation around him will rightfully terrify opposing defenses all season long.