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Yesterday Ben Simmons announced that he won’t be reporting to the Philadelphia76ers training camp when it opens and tat he’s played their last game for them. Now there have been a lot of rumors about Philadelphia trying to trade Simmons, but nothing ever came to fruition and he’s still on their roster. So now what do they do with him?

Simmons was the #1 pick in the 2016 draft, but he didn’t play that first season do to injury. When Simmons took the court for the 2017-18 season he played in all 81 games and had a very solid season for the 76ers, but there was something noticeable about his game.

While Simmons has a very well rounded game he is missing the one thing that the new style of NBA play almost requires out of all of their players; the ability to shoot the 3-pointer. In his first two NBA seasons Simmons was 0 for 17 from the 3-point line in his next two NBA seasons Simmons is 5 for 17 from the 3-point line; so in his career he’s 5 for 34 as a 3-point shooter. Not the kind of number you want to see out of a guard.

It’s also become noticeable that while Simmons is a solid shooter from the field as he makes just under 60% of his shots he struggles from the free throw line. Simmons shot 61.3% from the free throw line last season and for his career he’s shooting 59.7%. Those aren’t the kind of numbers you want to see out of a player who’s going to have the basketball in his hands at the end of games.

Simmons has been a Rookie of the Year. He’s made the All-NBA team been to the All-Star game and has been named to the All-Defensive team, but in this new style NBA it’s about offense and 3-point shooting and those seem to be the weak spots in Simmons game.

Simmons is just 25 years old and is under contract through the 2024-2025 season; so whoever acquires him will have him on their team for multiple seasons if they choose to. The question becomes; which team might that be.

It seems as though just about every team has been involved in some type of Ben Simmons trade rumor and while some have shot these rumors down others have stayed quiet.

The Golden State Warriors have been one of the teams front and center lately in these trade rumors and yesterday their owner Joe Lacob came out and address them. Now Lacob was careful to not use Simmons name as he could be fined for that; so he called him “Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Philadelphia.” He added that the Warriors will always explore avenues to upgrade the roster, but strongly hinted that a trade for Simmons is unlikely.

If Lacob is being truthful and Golden State isn’t a serious candidate to try and land Simmons Philadelphia has had discussions with at least five other teams about a Simmons trade. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings have all been mentioned as having talks with Philadelphia about a Simmons deal.

The reports this off season indicated that Philadelphia had a pretty high asking price for Simmons. That makes sense as he’s very young, but has a solid resume and is under contract for four more years. You have to wonder if Simmons not reporting to training camp and refusing to play with the 76ers this season will bring down that asking price. There was also quite a bit of talk saying that Philadelphia could get a deal done for Simmons any time they want to if they would accept a package of young players and draft picks for him. So far Philadelphia has been steadfast on making a deal that won’t compromise their ability to contend for a title in 2022.

Now that Simmons has come out and said that he’s planning on not reporting to training camp if he was to change his mind and report; how would his teammates react to him coming back? Joel Embiid even came out in support of Simmons this off season, but there where some who thought that was a ploy to increase Simmons trade value.

Will just have to wait and see if this saga plays out until the regular season starts or if Philadelphia can find a deal they like and moved Simmons on to his next team. How do you see this playing out? Will Simmons be in a new uniform when the regular season tips off on October 19th? Or will he sit be sitting out when that time comes?