The TRIAL Of Ben Simmons: Is He The MISSING PIECE For The New York Knicks?

The TRIAL Of Ben Simmons: Is He The MISSING PIECE For The New York Knicks?

The Knicks still have one veteran roster spot open and one name has created a lot of division amongst people in the fan base. Ben Simmons is who we’re talking about today. We’re going to take the hardline pro and con stance against signing Ben Simmons to the Knicks right now on Locked on Knicks. You are Locked on Knicks, your daily New York Knicks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. All right, welcome in to Locked on Knicks, your daily New York Knicks podcast. I’m Alex Wolf. I’m editor and chief of Nick site the Strickland, but you can find the strick. land and he’s Gavin Shaw, your favorite play-by-play broadcaster, favorite playbyplay broadcaster, and the Saturday co-host of the Locked On NBA podcast. And today’s show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on MBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. On today’s show, we’re doing a little bit of a thought exercise. So, we’ve noticed over the last couple weeks, no name has drawn more eye or more support, uh, depending on who you talk to, than Ben Simmons amongst the fan base in terms of who the Knicks should sign for that final veteran roster spot. We’ve seen Simmons’s name floated along with like Landry Shammit. Um maybe Fan Wish casting, Malcolm Brogden a bit. Uh you know, just various names that have come up in alignment with who the Knicks could potentially sign, but Ben Simmons seems to be the most polarizing. So, we want to take a hardline pro and con stance. So, I’m going to be playing Mr. Pro Ben Simmons and Gavin’s going to be playing Mr. Anti Ben Simmons. And that’s how today’s episode is going to go. We’re going to lay out the case for and against Ben Simmons, try to poke holes in each other’s cases, and see who comes out on top at the end in this weird Ben Simmons themed mock trial. Uh, but first, we want to thank you all for making Lockdown Nicks first listen today and every day. Whether you you’re taking us in on your favorite podcast app or taking in sights and sounds on YouTube, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Make sure you hit the auto download function on your favorite podcast app or the notification bell on YouTube so you never miss an episode. So Gavin, as the uh I don’t know, I guess I’m the defense attorney for Ben Simmons here, uh I will seed the floor to you uh the prosecution uh who wants to tell me that that Ben Simmons should not be a New York nick. Me, of course, the biggest Ben Simmons lover in the whole tri-state area. I will I will be making a case for him. But go ahead. What are Let’s hear some of your some of your frankly unsubstantiated and dangerous claims that Ben Simmons should not be on the New York Knicks this next year. Yeah, Alex, I think it’s going to take a a my cousin Vinnieesque performance from you to pull this off because I I I certainly I I have the whole town on my side. There there are a lot of people who who don’t want to see you win. And frankly, I I don’t I don’t think you deserve to win because I don’t I don’t think Ben Simmons should be a New York Knick. Uh let’s just start broadly. The Knicks have aspirations of winning an NBA championship next year, which make a whole lot of sense to it. With the Celtics essentially out, with the Pacers essentially out, like this is as golden of an opportunity as the New York Knicks are ever going to have to make a run to the NBA Finals. And I I’ll I’ll present to you and I’ll I’ll let you counter in just a bit. Like, did you see any player that played like Ben Simmons out there, not even just in the NBA finals, in the conference finals? Maybe I’m forgetting someone. Maybe it’ll make me look bad. But I don’t really remember any of the four teams playing a non-shooter at any position other than center. And in the NBA finals, like maybe Isaiah Hardstein, who who obviously does just so much more than Ben Simmons on the basketball court, um was the exception to this, like both teams were playing five out the majority of the time. And the whole premise of going out and getting Carl Anthony Towns, the way the Knicks chose to construct their team, um, when your two best players are him and Jaylen Brunson, your team is built around offense, and that’s a reality. And and I I don’t like these like half measures of saying, “All right, but we’re going to we’re going to try to insulate them defensively.” Of course, you can do that, but you have to do it in a way that does not inhibit their greatest strength, which should be as the fulcrum of clearly the best offense in the NBA, which for the first 30 games or so of last season, it was the second best in NBA. It was one of the five best in NBA history. The New York Knicks need to get back to that kind of basketball. And that means emphasizing shooting. Like, is Ben Simmons even going to be out there for you in big moments? probably not because the Knicks know that he’s absolutely not going to be guarded versus like going and getting like we could talk more about them later or Malcolm Brogden who like if needed this is breaking case of emergency right this is your 10th guy but like could be out there in a key moment because they’re going to be guarded and both of them can hold their own defensively even if they’re not Ben Simmons on that end of the floor Alex it’s been five years since the guy averaged seven points per game I’m not asking for much seven points per game uh sign of some of the lineup data is interesting. Some of the advanced numbers uh I think were even even just like more damning on Ben Simmons, but I’m I’m going to let you make some counterpoints before I get into that. Yeah. I mean, I was saving this for uh for the closing argument, but you know what? I may as well just lead with my best Yeah, drop the hammer. I I think the number one thing to me that stands out with this debate is that we are not talking about a potential starter. We’re not talking about a guy who is potentially pressing anyone even for a rotation spot really. At least I don’t think so in the grand scheme of things. I think we’re talking about a guy who is ostensibly fighting for the 10th rotation spot because you already have Brunson, male, OG, Cat, Hart, Mitch, Deuce, Clarkson, and Yabusell. None of them are going to. That’s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine guys that are all all have commitments that exceed any commitment on paper that Ben Simmons is going to get in this situation. Um, so that’s the main thing. Then as far as just what roster spot he’s taking up, he’s fighting for the 13th spot on the roster. To me, this reads more like he is potentially fighting against like Ariel Huckport for the 10th spot in the in the rotation. This is if the Knicks even run a 10-man rotation. I think for the most part, what you’re looking at here is a guy who is probably just going to be injury insurance to a degree, but who would be a valuable guy to have around if, let’s say, Jaylen Brunson sprains his ankle again and he’s out for two weeks in the middle of the season. You need someone that can handle the ball and that can credibly, you know, run an offense and and pass out of it. He has really good assist percentage for the last three years, and this is even his his declined self. I mean, I’m not going to deny that he doesn’t look like the same guy that he did with Philly at his peak, but 31% uh assist percentage uh three years ago, 33.2% uh last year, and then 37% this past season. So, actually his highest this past season in the two stints between uh Brooklyn and the Clippers. So for reference, that’s like in the in the general stratosphere of like Tyrese Hallebertton, who’s been around 38 to 47% in the same time frame, lines up well with Chris Paul in the same time frame and also pretty akin to James Harden. If you look at his assist percentage numbers, all guys that I think are looked at as really good passers. So I think he can still move the ball well. he becomes a good insurance policy there for if you just need someone to be able to step in and sap up some minutes at some point if you’re dealing with injuries uh and you just need a ball handler, someone that can organize the offense, someone that can float you for a little while. And I I don’t know that maybe you can make a case for Malcolm Brogden for that. I don’t think you can make a case for Lander Shamut for that. And I think that other than other than that, like you’re looking at if Jaylen Brunson goes down for a little bit, are you gonna put the offense in the hands of Jordan Clarkson for two weeks or something like that? Like if you need another ball handler, I don’t know. But for the most part, I I think the main thing to me just comes down to it’s the 13th spot on the roster, 10th spot in the rotation. And I don’t think you’re going to find too many other guys with the credentials that he has. three-time all-star, two-time all defense, one-time AllNBA, was a steel champ one year, former rookie of the year. I don’t think you’re going to find too many guys like that available for the veterans minimum, who, by the way, have not even turned 30 years old yet. So, I I think there’s other things that I can get into that are going to be there’s some things that I’ll get into that are more statistical based, but a lot of this is going to be theoretical and anecdotal, but there are a lot of things that you can look at with a guy with Ben Simmons’s physical profile and his his accolades and say if you get the right staff around this guy, he might be able to be a contributor. And he’s still not 30 years old yet. So, if you can find the right staff to get him right physically and mentally, you might find a gem for a veterans minimum contract. All right, I have some counter arguments. We’ll get into them in just a sec here on Lockdown Nicks. But first, we want to let you know about our friends over at Fivehour Energy. And it’s time to fuel up and turn it up with 5Hour Energy Transfusion. It brings the bold grape, ginger, and lime flavor of your favorite golf drink, minus the alcohol, into a quick, energizing shot. 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I don’t have a rangefinder or anything, but I think it went about 150 to 200 yards, something like that, and like straight down the middle. That made me feel real good. Now, I tell you what, if I had some fivehour energy in me, maybe that gets another 50 yards or so, some Happy Gilmore type stuff. So, I guess we’ll see. But if you go to five hourgy.com today, that is the number five hourgy.com. You can use our promo code locked ongolf to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders. So whether you’re meeting up with friends or trying to turn 18 holes into 36, get the energizing boost you need to power through. Order transfusionflavored 5-hour energy shots today. All right, Gavin, we’re back in talking through Ben Simmons. I just made a in my opinion a heck of a case to Simmons. Maybe the best case that’s ever been made in the history. So, good luck following that up, but I’ll pass it to you to to follow up and uh tell the people why the Knicks should not sign Ben Simmons still. Yeah, it was it was pretty good. But, uh here here are my counters. Uh what what what do you because we we both agree, right? This is this is for a tenth guy, but what do you want in a tenth guy? is that is someone who is potentially going to have to fill in in case of an injury. That is someone who’s going to potentially have to fill in in the case of underperformance to me. I want someone who complements the best players on my team and Ben Simmons undeniably does that on the defensive end of the floor, right? He is a fantastic piece to put into a lineup with Jaylen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns defensively because he’s super switchable because he offers some real rim protection, right? Like I’m I am not going to try to make an argument against that. Offensively, I think he is just a miser miserable fit next to those guys. Like what what did we just spend a whole year talking about how a quote unquote non-shooter in Josh Hart who like by NBA standards is actually like a fine shooter. He’s like below average but not terrible. Um completely tanked the Knicks offense and once teams adjusted in terms of how to guard him and put their big on him like it it totally neutered Carl Anthony Towns. It totally neutered the Knicks offense. They were 16th in offense after January 1st after being second through January 1st. Were not great with that starting lineup on the floor throughout the playoffs. Um, what should the takeaway be? It should be surround Carl Anthony Towns with shooters and trust that your defense will be good enough, which the Knicks with Duce McBride on the floor, Alex, were able to find a way to do. And now you might be saying, “All right, but my whole point is like he’s not going to play substantial minutes with those guys.” That’s fine, but like where do you get him on the floor at all? Right? because you never really want him and Josh Hart out there together. You just have no shooting. I I think him and Mitchell Robinson together is just a totally unpalatable combo. And you look at what the Knicks best lineups were last year, they all drove home or or not all, but the majority drove home shooting, right? All of their top five lineups featured Deuce McBride. I went through their top 10 lineups on Clean the Glass and tracked how many shooters they had. The answers were for their top 10 lineups in order. four shooters, five shooters, four for four in a row, three shooters, four for two in a row, three shooters. So, the vast majority had at least four shooters on the floor, which translates to me, you’re never going to want to play Ben Simmons with Josh Hart. You’re never going to want to play Ben Simmons with Mitchell Robinson. In my mind, you either want to be five out or you want to have one of those two guys on the floor. And that should pretty much be it. I don’t really see any scenario where Ben Simmons can credibly consistently play um unless one of those guys is injured. And to your point, as a 10th man, you’re saying that might be fine, but I just want to have that extra bit of optionality where someone like Malcolm Brogden, I think, is a fantastic fit next to Jaylen Brunson. Someone that can apply real rim pressure, right? Like even in his age 32 season last year, something like 30% of his shots here, I’m I’m going to go to the shooting frequency number. Yeah, 38% of his shots were at the rim in his time on the Wizards last year, that was 93rd percentile in the NBA. He can still drive. He can still draw a crowd. He can still create for others. Landry Sheamtt to your point cannot really do that. But at this point, I think we have to accept that there’s no Julius Randall coming through, right, to bulldoze through three defenders and generate a corner three out of midair given the fact that Jaylen Brunson last year had the ball in his hands for nine minutes a game. That was more than anyone else in the NBA. That’s not sustainable for a 6-2 guard, right? We don’t want him going the path of Allen Iverson and burning out when he’s 33, falling out of the league by the time he’s 35, right? We we want our guy to have 10 years left in his career. And to me, like if you’re not gonna have another ball handler that can take pressure off him, which I don’t think Ben Simmons is, despite the fact that like yes, he gets he gets some level of like ball handling and usage, and yet he was only fourth percentile in usage on the Clippers last year. So, I don’t really see Ben Simmons at that guy. The other way to make life easier on someone like Jaylen Brunson is to just create some space, which means when he drives, he’s taking less contact. He’s seeing less bodies, and when he sprays it out, someone is going to be attacking a closeout. And it gives you a window for secondary creation. You can take work off Jaylen Brunson’s shoulders by surrounding him with shooting. If you’re not going to have another creator, and you could potentially find that in Brogden, you will have it in Jordan Clarkson, who I think is a far better option than Ben Simmons if there’s an injury to run the Knicks offense. But Ben Simmons is just not that guy. Yeah, I’ll I’ll push back and say I think that there is one thing that we’ve never really seen in Ben Simmons’s career that could potentially swing this a bit in terms of lineup construction. So, I think we’ve never really seen the Ben Simmons at the four five experiment actually done or tried properly. And you mentioned he’s a switchy defender. He has the height and wingspan and length and strength presumably to potentially switch onto almost any position on the court, which is great. He’s, if you look at his uh at the the spots where he’s mostly played, uh it’s mostly been the nominal point guard and shooting guard spots, at least if you trust basketball references estimates on it. Now, some of that might have to do the fact that he’s been like a listed point guard for most of his career. So, if he’s out there and is handling the ball, they’re going to say, “Well, he’s the point guard, even if there are other like smaller guards out there with him.” But, I’m inclined to believe that because based off what I remember, especially about his time in Philly, you know, they would they would sometimes treat him like a a wing defender, but he was generally out there with like guys that were sized properly, you know, Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid, etc., etc., when he was with Philly. So, I’m inclined to believe that they mostly had him out there as a point guard, shooting guard. uh if you looked at just like who was on the floor. So the Ben at the 45 experiment has never really happened, but it’s been kind of wish casted by Twitter folks for years as a potential way to use Ben Simmons. And maybe it’s bec maybe it’s sort of like the uh like the Melo at the four thing where we got to see it for one year, but ultimately we learned later on that like Melo was not into the idea of being a four. sort of similar to like LeBron at the four where LeBron has said multiple times in his career like, “Well, I don’t want to play the four.” And like Anthony Davis being like, “Well, I don’t want to play the five.” You know, like these guys sometimes don’t want the position that’s actually best for them because they just don’t want to get beat up every game. But for Ben Simmons, it’s like in some ways beggars can’t be choosers. I mean, you’re gonna if you’re signing for a veterans minimum, like you might have to play in some interesting lineups, but I to me I close my eyes and I imagine a fake bench hybrid bench lineup here of Deuce McBride, Male Bridges, OG Anobi, Ben Simmons, and Carl Anthony Towns. And to me, I say that’s a that’s a lineup that has some of the starting star power. It has four shooters as well as Ben Simmons out there. So that meets your four shooters criteria, but also a guy who has had really great assist percentages, like I said, over the last three years, clearly can still, even if he can’t finish once he does it, can still break down a defense in a way where he can he can create opportunities for people and creates makeable buckets, right? because your assist percentage does not go as high as into the 30%s if you’re not feeding guys for shots that they can make and that they consistently make. So, if you could put him out there with that lineup, suddenly you have a a bench or a hybrid bench lineup that only has one weak link in theory in cat. You have three huge rangy defenders in male, OG, and Simmons. And then have Deuce out there who we know is probably the best screen navigator of the bunch. you put him on the point of attack, have three rangy defenders that have all been in some way, shape, or form one of the, you know, top two or three steels guys in the NBA at different points in their career. And then Carl Anthony Towns, who you won’t be able to really hunt anymore because we’ve seen too that Cat can hold his own if he gets switched into like a one-on-one matchup with almost anyone. Like, he can credibly defend almost anyone for one possession at any given time. So, I think there are just some more creative ways to use Ben Simmons. Now, you’re bringing in a new coaching staff. Mostly, they’re retaining some of the assistance that they had already, but bring in a mostly new coaching staff. You have Mike Brown at the helm. I think it’s worth giving a shot to try and see if you can make something that’s never been done work. Especially again with a guy who has been a little more healthy the last couple years. I mean, the last couple seasons he’s he played 51 games uh in 2425 in total, which is not a lot, but is not terrible. Um especially considering for part of it, I think that he got basically sat down by Brooklyn while they sorted out the the buyout situation and he figured out where his next destination was going to be for the rest of the season. So, I think it’s worth a shot. Um, I think that there’s a a a chance that you can find something new with this guy and potentially find some interesting bench lineups. I think you could even if you wanted to lean more into the bench of it all, you could potentially sub out and this would probably work great if you’re if you’re ultimately running the too big starting lineup, but you could potentially subcat out of that and even put Yaboo in that scenario. And then you’re still dealing with a very versatile shooting forward lineup that has Ben Simmons out there to handle the ball and be sort of your I don’t want to quite say Draymond Green because Draymond could still at least shoot like 32% from three, but a big that can handle the ball and run like four or five pick and rolls and potentially create some chaos for other teams on defense. So, uh, I’ll let you rebut that in just a second, but, uh, we’ll be right back in in a sec to make s sort of our final arguments here and and conclude this trial of Ben Simmons, uh, in the the public eye of Nick’s fans in just a sec when we get back in. 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But when those two guys are on the floor, I’m I’m expecting 25 minutes minimum for Josh Hart, 20 minutes minimum for Mitch. Like that leaves three minutes potentially for Ben Simmons. You can make similar points to Landry Shaman and Malcolm Brogden. I do think Brogden in particular like could sneak his way into some rotation minutes depending on how um Mike Brown decides to structure his lineups. But it’s an it’s an interesting case and and the lineup the lineup you mentioned moves me a little bit. Um, I mentioned Malcolm Brogden. I just want to talk about the alternative options, namely Landry Shamut. Like, I think that guy did something against the Indiana Pacers, right? Like he he brought a level of competitiveness that outside of of deuce and maybe OG. I I I’ll throw Josh Hard and Mitchell Robinson in this, too, but like just not everyone on the Knicks brought in like a just possession possession basis. Of course, it’s easier to do that when you’re only playing 10 minutes a game, but I don’t know. I want that guy on my team next year. Like he held up defensively in a way I never could have imagined. He was just scalding hot from three basically from the last 10 games of the season through the postseason. Like I think he found something in himself where that is like a legitimately useful playoff guy. Malcolm Brogden I don’t think despite a down shooting season from three like and and maybe it doesn’t hold up defensively like I don’t think there are a lot of questions say you could put him on the floor for 10 minutes in a conference finals, 10 minutes in the NBA finals and he could hold up. I just don’t really see that at this point in his career with Ben Simmons. And let’s dive into some of the numbers. Why the single biggest thing to me, you’ve referenced his assist percentage a lot. I’m not going to deny it’s impressive. It’s incredibly impressive relative to his usage, but a big reason that number is so high, Alex, is because he’s always passing the ball. He never shoots the ball. And when he does shoot the ball, he he took just, by the way, like four shots per game in 22 minutes on the Clippers, which is insane. But when he does shoot the ball, it does not go well. He was sixth percentile relative to his position in the entire league in points per shot attempt. If you never shoot, you should be hitting 70% of your shots. If you’re taking four shots a game and they’re mostly around the basket and yet he’s incredibly inefficient despite the fact he never shoots. That that was just that was on the Clippers last year. He did not take a single shot outside of 14 feet all of last season. He will not be guarded when he’s on the floor. He shot just 44% at the rim despite being 6’10 and allegedly an elite athlete. That was second percentile in the NBA. Again, that was just during his time on the Clippers, only an 18game sample size. The Clippers when he played, Alex, this was one of the best teams in basketball over the second half of the year. They had a minus eight net rating when he was on the floor. They sucked when he was on the floor. They were brilliant when basically anyone else was on the floor. Uh despite his reputation as being this elite defensive playmaker, he was kind of middling in that category. 23rd percentile on steal percentage in his 33 games on the Nets, 56 percentile in his time on the Clippers, and despite that, he had a relatively high foul rate at 17th percentile. Um, he’s another guy who you could foul a lot. He’s just a 72% free throw shooter. Obviously, that’s not Mitchell Robinson, but you could you could hack him if you wanted to. Um, some numbers from our friend Shacks and then I’ll throw it back to you. This is pretty much my final my final bit of data for you. Um, this is how allergic the guy is to shooting in transition for his career. Keep in mind like he used to just be like a 95th percentile tier athlete in the NBA. Um his his volume of points per our or the volume of shots he got up. He was eighth percentile 2 sec oh sorry points per possession. 8th percentile 22nd percentile first percentile 19th 13th 11th 26 as a pick and roll ball handler. He’d one season in his career over the last five years above 50%. like he is just completely disinterested in scoring the basketball and to me that mitigates a lot of the other good he brings and and even if he’s elite defensively I I think he’s just always going to be a net negative at this point in his career. Well, I was dreading when you would get to that section because it’s all pretty damning. So, like any good lawyer, I’m just going to completely change the subject and pretend I didn’t hear any of that. Sure. And and let me tell you, Ben Simmons, he does really care about basketball. That’s what I’m thinking. Uh so we’re I was hoping you would edge on the quotes because the quotes the I I needed I needed one final one final push. Yeah. So I’ll let you bring bring those up to to the end, but you know, his his commitment to basketball, I’ve I’ve brought it up before almost every single time that I’ve talked about him in recent weeks. uh because I it it could be concerning, but maybe he does really care about basketball at this point. I think it’s telling that he chose a winning situation last year after getting bought out and went to the Clippers, it seemed like he really took his time coming to that decision. He and the Nets worked on the buyout for like a while. So, even though once the buyout went final, it pretty much was immediate that he went to the Clippers, it seemed like they waited on the buyout just to make sure that he actually found a team that he wanted to go to before they went ahead and bought him out. Um, but he wound up going to the Clippers. I I think it was a pretty good he made a pretty good case for himself to to push back on the the playoff thing. He played sparing minutes in five games. Like, talk about small sample size theater. 41 minute sample in five playoff games, but he was a plus 11 on off in those minutes in the playoffs for the Clippers last year. A team that really was I think frankly overachieved. Uh I don’t I don’t know if anyone would argue that like they it seemed like a very coddled together team and then or cobbled together team and then just went and became one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. he slotted into that and yet even with how good that team was before he got there, still in those 41 minutes, they were 11 points better per 100 possessions with him on the floor versus off um in the playoffs. So maybe that just has to do with the bench talent uh that he was going up against for those eight minutes a game. But either way, he had a pretty good showing last year in the playoffs. My biggest thing, my thing that I would want to close on here is to trust the Knicks medical staff and Nick’s culture really with this whole thing. If Leon Rose deems that he wants to sign Ben Simmons and that he thinks that he’s going to be a contributor, I’m kind of to the point where I’m willing to trust him on that. Uh just because of the track record that Leon and company have at this point. But, uh, I think that one thing that has been reported on and that, uh, has shown real results is that adding Casey Smith, who got fired from the Mavs last year, or maybe it was two years ago, I think it was just this past season though, last year, was was clearly a huge get. I think the Nick the Knicks were super healthy overall. I think that in general they were probably one of the most healthy teams in the entire NBA last year, which was evidenced by the fact that they were able to keep their suboptimal starting lineup on the floor for more minutes than like double the minutes of any other lineup. Yeah, thanks Casey for letting Tibs keep the starting lineup on the floor for double the minutes of like any other fivep person lineup in the NBA last year. But I mean there were a handful of guys that were in injury risks in the past that had really healthy seasons last year. Like I don’t think you have to look any further than O Ganobi who had a reputation for like yeah this guy is great but you can’t really count on him to play more than like 50 games a season. So you’re just going to have to kind of be ready for like you’re going to get like 50 games out of him, make the most out of those 50 games and try to keep him healthy for the playoffs. He instead put up one of the healthiest seasons of his entire career last year. Mitchell Robinson who had the the ankle injury that Joel Embiid caused intentionally and with malice after forethought in the playoffs the year before which I didn’t think I’d get to work into this episode but I did. Yeah, right in there. Uh but Mitch was out with the ankle injury. We saw the training staff take their time, make sure that he got back in the best shape of his life where he came in and pretty much right away had almost no rust, was able to step right in, be as healthy and as spry of a Mitch as we’ve seen in I don’t know, like since his second year in the league maybe. Um, and so we got to see that happen. I just think that like you had these guys on the team that have injury issues and we saw that the Knicks were very proactive in how they manage those guys. Keeping Mitch at around 20 to 25 minutes a game, you know, clearly doing something some sort of secret sauce with OG. I actually do really think that having Muel Bridges on the team and his crazy stretching routine and all that probably helped OG a little bit as well. But either way, maybe it’s a little too hopeful. Maybe, you know, Ben Simmons back is really just cooked and he’s done. Um, but I think there’s a chance you could catch Lightning in a bottle here and get yourself a versatile two-way player who can pretty much do everything but shoot the ball. And I know that shooting is important, but I think that for your 10th man as a guy that could in theory, you know, based off the things that I’ve that I’ve talked about during this show, in theory, you could sustain an injury to Mitchell Robinson. You could sustain an injury to Jaylen Brunson and Ben Simmons in theory could fill in for either of those guys and give you a little bit of versatility, a little bit of like break in case of emergency player that you could potentially throw in anywhere from one to five. If anyone gets hurt and you need minutes at the guard, the wing, the center, you could pretty much fill Ben Simmons in there as long as he’s willing and as long as he’s healthy. And I think that there’s some evidence to suggest that he is perhaps willing and perhaps healthy. And if those things are true, then I think that even versus a Landry Shammit, whom I love is well documented for, I think that there’s a case to say that Ben Simmons would be the most versatile guy you could possibly add with that ostensibly 10th rotation spot. But no matter what, 13th roster spot, which you know, in terms of how much you’re sacrificing a veteran minimum 13th roster spot guy, very low sacrifice, very high ceiling. I think if Ben Simmons works out as best as he possibly can. But Gavin, as much as I want to be the last word on this, I will throw it to you for closing arguments on why the Knicks should not uh sign Ben Simmons. And just one final caveat because we’ll probably sign off after yours that lest anyone roast me in YouTube comments. I prepared specifically to argue for Ben Simmons for this episode, but I do see a lot of the cases for not signing him as well. All right, you heard it here. Alex is a big Ben Simmons fan. He thinks he should get $50 million a year. Um, he should take the most shots and he he should he should be the uh the number he he should be the new captain next year. All right, let’s let’s finish with some some quotes from Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons on the hostility of the Philly crowd towards him. Quote, “It’s funny to me. Like, I got grown men pissed off and yelling at me,” which to be clear, it it is it is objectively kind of stupid. Sports are kind of stupid. I I don’t know if that’s the or how seriously people take sports are kind of stupid. sports are not stupid. Um, I don’t know if that’s the kind of quote you want from someone you want to go to war with in the conference finals or NBA finals. I would say the more damning one, if I don’t need to shoot the ball, I won’t do it. Ben Simmons. Uh, for Alex Wolf, I’m Gavin Shaw. We will be back later this week with more Locked on Knicks. Until then, be good. We’ll talk to you soon. [Music] [Music]

Gavin Schall and Alex Wolfe are back together again to debate if Ben Simmons is the missing piece for the New York Knicks.

With recent reports suggesting the Knicks could be the favorites to sign the former Sixers All-Star we thought it would be a good time to have an old fashion mock trial to determine if he’s the right fit for New York. Simmons undeniably makes sense as a defensive add for the Knicks, but is his offense so bad that he’d ultimately be unplayable when it matters most?

Find out on this edition of Locked On Knicks!

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