Would Ben Simmons Be A Fit On the Sacramento Kings?

Would Ben Simmons Be A Fit On the Sacramento Kings?

Mhm. Or do you want to talk about Kings point guard rumors? Let’s talk point guard rumors. Okay, great. I’m glad you said that cuz that’s what I wanted to do, too. Hey, there’s another Kings point guard rumor out there. Did you hear about this? Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? Uh Jake Fischer from the Mark Stein uh the People’s Insider. the People’s Insider on Jake on on Mark Stein’s newsletter. But he he said this on a bleacher report. Oh, okay. He said this on a video. Yeah, on a video. I checked in with Jake Fischer this morning to see where it was. Right. He’s on vacation. Salute. Good for him. Uh that’s how you know nothing’s going to happen because Jake Fischer has decided it’s good time to take vacation. Get out of Get out of dodge. Yeah. He reported that the Kings are interested in Ben Simmons. I don’t care. Oh, I don’t like until I don’t I’ve heard the Kings are interested in every point guard who’s available. Mhm. We had a Russell Westbrook moment. We’ve had a Malcolm Brogden moment. We They’ve finally acquired Dennis Shruder. We’ve had now a Ben Simmons moment. It’s like, “All right, yeah, now we got it. They’re interested in adding another point guard. But let’s in in a in a let’s start here because interest in a player doesn’t move me. It never does. I’m sure the Warriors are interested in LeBron James. That Okay. Okay. Cool. Great. That doesn’t mean Sure, every team is interested in Giannis, but it doesn’t matter. Interest doesn’t move me. Let’s go to the world where the Kings are like, “Hey, Ben Simmons is going to be the guy. That’s the guy we want. I don’t even want to get We can talk about the basketball in a second. Is there a way for the Kings to sign him outright? Yeah, the Kings have enough money under the luxury tax assignment to a league minimum deal. Okay. But that’s it. It would be league minimum. Yeah. I mean, they could probably go by annual exception and then like which is like five 5 million. Okay. Uh and then do something like wave and stretch provision Dario. Okay. Yeah. there there are ways in which they could clear up like three million bucks in cap space and and and actually do something under the luxury tax. So yes, the issue though comes in, okay, let’s let’s go to this world where they just Ben Simmons I he’s a vet minimum player at this point. He should be vet minimum player signs with the Kings. Well, now we have this issue of, okay, is Ben Simmons now your third point guard or is Ben Simmons playing big minutes as your backup point guard and Malik Monk is in a weird spot? Okay, so the one thing about Ben Simmons as opposed to again Malcolm Brogden or Russell Westbrook or name that backup point guard that the Kings have been linked to over the last two weeks. The difference with Ben Simmons is that Ben Simmons can play the three, he can play the four, and he can play the five. And so for me, like there was a point where like I I think we get into this mode of just like saying, “Oh, okay, Ben Simmons is washed or Ben Simmons just never lived up to his potential,” which like all of these things could be true. Um, but I I would also say that Ben Simmons is one of the best defenders of his era. He’s so incredibly versatile because he can defend truly one through five. And I don’t know that there’s, we always hear this, oh, we can defend one through five that, you know, Willie Collie Stein said that so many times and Willie Collystein couldn’t defend a one, a two, or a three. Like I don’t really a four or a five for that matter. Yeah. I don’t really Yeah. Yeah. That that time Carl Anthony Towns went like 10 of 11 from the field and dropped 40 on him. Um and Willie thought he did a great job. Uh forced him into some tough shots. Yeah. Um, so, so look, I I think again, Ben Simmons is is 610 and he has a a really intriguing skill set. It’s just he doesn’t shoot the three at all. We talked about this. He hasn’t made a three since like the 2020 2020 21 season. There’s levels to not shooting threes. We say Demard Rosen doesn’t shoot threes. Yeah. Ben, but that’s like he doesn’t shoot 10 a game. He’s going to give you three or four attempts a game. Ben Simmons actually does not shoot threes. He hasn’t even shot one since then. What was the last one? 222 23. No, I think it’s Well, the last time he 22 23 season. Last time he made a three was the 2021 season. Yeah, the 2021 season. Jesus. Yeah. So, like I get the Ben Simmons thing is a really interesting like case study because like when especially when I was young in this like part of being in an NBA locker room is being around people that are very different than you that have been raised differently than you that culturally are different than you and you have to be like open to sort of the sociology experiment that is a locker room that is media being in the locker room and all that stuff. Like Ben Simmons is just like a very very intriguing case study. He’s somebody who literally has had his career derailed by uh like some mental health issues. Uh the mental health health issues um basically manifested themselves in physical ailments which is when he started having back problems and back injuries. And so like his career has completely gone sideways. And the last like I don’t know five years he’s barely played basketball. I still think that there’s a tremendous amount of talent there. Like he still can defend. He still can pass the ball at an elite level. He still has elite size for no doubt all but one position on the court. And even at one position center, he still has good size for an NBA center in the modern NBA. So like there is a lot to of intrigue, but the fact is he just hasn’t been able to be a productive player. And I’ve said this a bunch of times. I’ve said it on this show. I’ve said it on Damian with Damen and Kenny. Uh I’ve said it on the podcast. Like I think some of the worst things that have happened to Ben Simmons is that he went he got traded from well first of all from Philadelphia to another major market in in Brooklyn. I don’t think the bright lights are right for him. He got from there he signed with the Clippers again going to a major market. I think if Ben Simmons were ever to rebuild his career, it it needs to be an obscurity and NBA obscurity is like the Sacramento Kings. It is the Charlotte Bobcats, the Charlotte Hornets. It’s like the smaller the teams that aren’t on Sports Center every night. let a kid have a chance to like, you know, calm down and actually find success in life and on the court. And I don’t know if that’s ever gonna happen for him, but I certainly would be willing to for a league minimum deal. Like, why not? We talk about length and athleticism all the time. He is like the quintessential length and athleticism guy and you talk about versatility. He can play the three or the four and he can play the one and he can play the five. Like there are all these things that Ben Simmons can do. When Demanis Savona steps off the court and you want another passer on the court, like this dude’s a great passer. So I don’t hate the idea of it on a league minimum. I just I would hope that that he would consider it because I don’t think he will because the other team that’s looking at him according to Jake Fischer is a New York Knicks and if I’m him, I like it’s a bad move because I think the pressure of New York is not right for him. Mhm. But I do feel like he’s a perfect fit for a team that on occasion needs a small ball five, but also has this length and athleticism at the three and four that he would just be interchangeable with. Yeah. They have enough offense that they don’t need to worry about him scoring, right? But him as a distributor, him as all these other things, like why not? I can talk myself into it. I’m not talking myself into it when he was making 38 $39 million a year and playing 15 games a year. Ben Simmons played his first game with the Clippers last season on February 13th. How many games did Ben Simmons score double digit points? Oh, I’m going to say one, maybe two. Oh, I didn’t even have time to get my music up. Hang on. Oh, there we go. How many times did Ben Simmons score double-digit points with the Los Angeles Clippers? He started his tenure there on February 13th, 2024. I’m actually going to go with the number zero. Close. One. One. It was in an overtime win against the Utah Jazz. Oh man. Overtime. His last two double digit games were against the Jazz and the Hornets. Yeah. Like look, if they had another double digit game against the Jazz earlier in the year, too. But if you’re expecting him to score, like look at the Sacramento Kings. Like how many scorers do they have? They’ve got a ton. Too many. Yeah, they do. They have a ton of scored. I mean, your two point guards are score first, point guards. the the issue I have is not is is I don’t even want to say issue because I don’t I I don’t I wouldn’t have an issue if the Kings especially if you sign him for for the vet minimum like great that’s sure like I don’t I don’t hate it but in terms of expectation I think for me the the fit question is more like does he want to play basketball? I think that’s been the biggest question the last few years. We talk about like he we with the with the Clippers he played in their first five playoff games 13 minutes 7 and 1/2 minutes 9 minutes 7 minutes four minutes didn’t play game six didn’t play game seven and when we talk about culture building and we talk about getting the right guys in the building and and playing the right way and playing this Doug Christie Scott Perry style they’re going to establish his identity and that’s what this year’s about identity, identity, identity. There’s no way Ben Simmons is going to fit that identity. There’s no I I reject that idea entirely. Okay. But I’m going to say that there are things that he does that they’re asking for that they’re begging for. Number one, he’s a great defender. Number two, he’s a very unselfish player. Like, he’s too unselfish, but he’s a very unselfish player that can really pass the ball. So, there are things that he does do that fit into the mind the mindset that they’re looking for, but it’s the other side. You know, who was it? Uh, was it I can’t believe you’re talking yourself into this guy. Was it George Nyang that came out and went off on him? Oh, uh, yes. Yeah. Who said like I went to Philadelphia because Worst teammate I’ve ever had. Yeah. I’m a catch andoot player and I I was there I was going there because of Embiid and because of Ben Simmons. Mhm. and I knew I would get a whole bunch of wideopen looks from three and then the dude just doesn’t want to play and like the the riff there was crazy. I I think Ben Simmons has burned a lot of bridges with with his teammates around the league. I’ve never seen a NBA player go that hard at another NBA player. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so rare that that happens. So something because you’ll see like you can tell guys don’t really rock with other guys, but watching George Nyang just fry him. Oh yeah. Crazy. Well, and I’ve told you like there’s there’s a player out there that uh another player told me was the worst teammate he ever had in the NBA. Like bar none, there’s never been a worse teammate than player X. And it wasn’t in Sacramento, it was somewhere else. But they had come back to But number one, that was off the record. Number two, it was someone that I had a very good relationship with who said that and was like, “Yeah, they didn’t jump on a podcast and say this for everybody to hear very different.” Yeah. There wasn’t like a, “Hey, put this quote out, right?” Like, no. No. So yeah, there there are like there are players out there who are very difficult to play with, but to see another player go at him. I don’t either way I would I mean it’s not like Russell Westbrook doesn’t have some question marks with him, you know, it’s not like Malcolm Brogden actually plays more than 40 games a year. So when you’re you’re looking at these guys and you’re thinking, hey, versatility, you still need length and athleticism. If the Kings had somebody outside of Isaac Jones to back up uh Keegan Murray at the four, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, especially some who could play the three. Mhm. And if again, if you need to make a trade mid-season to open up more time for Nick, you still need some some other depth at the three. And that’s I think the beauty of Ben Simmons. First of all, he’s not going to play very much because that’s just kind of who he’s become. 18 games with the Clippers, he played 16 minutes a night. Yeah. But he did play last season he did play 51 total games. Yeah, he did. He played 33 with with Brooklyn as well. And and in Brooklyn, you know, again, he averaged 8.9 points and 10 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game, 1.1 steals, you know. Wait, what? No, he didn’t. Oh, am I looking? That’s per 36. My bad. Yeah. No, that’s uh in Brooklyn last year though, 6 point I was going to say 6.2 points, seven assists. Yeah. and five rebounds. Yeah. I mean, he’s he’s a really good rebounder. The the thing is he’s he just doesn’t shoot enough or at all. Or at all. Yeah. I mean, it’s really sad, too. I mean, you can see how the lack of aggression has stunted his his career. Like, in his first, you know, he missed his first season due to injury, but year one, 4.2 uh free throw attempts and 5.4, 5.2, and 4.9. Since that point, he’s never averaged more than 1.4 4 free throw attempt per game. Well, 1.41.6 point8.4 but that free throw percentage is only6 attempts but up to 72% 72.7%. Yeah, but was it 40% the year 40%. Like last year he finished with the the Clippers shooting 85.7%. It literally doubled up two of his years. Look at him go as a free throw shooter. And you know what they say about if you’re a good free throw shooter, Kyle, it just why not just stretch that out to the three-point line? Should be able to shoot the three perfectly fine. Look, I think as an experiment, like why not? Um, sure. But if you’re Ben Simmons, I I would like one of the things about Sacramento is there is a long long list of players who signed in Sacramento with their last NBA contract. Mhm. And so like it’s an outpost and if you decide to sign with the Kings, there’s a good chance that you’re not going to get another opportunity elsewhere. There’s also a good chance though that Sacramento is is a real path to regular minutes. A real path to regular minutes and also a real path to just like being able to get your career back on track without the bright lights. Let me let me put it this way. If the Kings sign Ben Simmons, I’m not anti-Ben Simmons. Yeah. is because you made all the points of why it makes sense for Sacramento to take this flyer. I will not be talked off this being anything more than a flyer and everything about how he can contribute is all in theory. Yep. I’ve got I I’m sorry. We have what is it one two three four years of evidence that he’s not an NBA player. He’s not that dude. Yeah. But uh I I you know what I would love to see Kyle is for him to step on the court have a Jake Larabia moment where the entire fan base gets behind him be great and it takes all the stress off of what happens after that would be phenomenal. That would be great for him. Yeah. A redemption. I would be okay with the Ben Simmons redemption story in Sacramento. Love it. Yeah. U but until I see it, I’m not going to sit here and get my hopes up that Ben Simmons is going to return to All-Star form. No, that’s all. He’s James.

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