My guy has talked around NBA circles of late

[JTB]

6 hours ago, Diesel said:

Here's the thing....

If you look at pros and cons of just JC vs Simmons:

Scoring -  Simmons.  I think Simmons would add more because of his ability to pass and his ability to get to the basket.

Outside shooting - Definitely JC.  JC helps our offense a lot by being a stretch 4. 

Ball handling - Simmons.  I think Simmons could be that second ball handler that allows Trae to play off ball. 

Clutch Scoring - JC.  JC doesn't buckle under pressure.

Defense - Simmons.  Simmons can defend all 5 positions and he's a good on ball defender. 

Rebounding - JC.  JC is a surprisingly good rebounder. 

Leadership - JC.   JC is just it... he's a vocal leader.

Mental Toughness - Definitely JC.  

It's up to each individual to put your own weights on each category.. but I believe we can all agree that those are the correct responses to the categories. 

Would Simmons make us better?  When we were playing terribly and terrible defense, it was easy to see how he would be a difference maker.  But now, we're playing a lot better on all fronts especially on defense and even though he would probably make us better, not by much.   Therefore, I am not for changing this team right now. 

The only thing I’d disagree with is rebounding. Collins doesn’t box out enough and depends  way too much on his athleticism. Meanwhile Simmons is getting the same 7-8 rebound avg while being in the paint defensively far less than collins, playing solely at the 3 defensively.

both are playing with an elite rebounder on their team in Embiid and Capela.

 

Rebounding I’d say they are equal until proven otherwise.

Edited January 25, 2022 by JTB

[JTB]

1 hour ago, Vol4ever said:

I don't see the Hawks trading for Simmons.  Travis ain't giving up all those assets for one guy and he is not taking Harris back in a trade.  

I agree but I also believe Morey don’t have any true leverage and he isn’t going to just let an Embiid prime year go to waste.

If I were Schlenk I’d believe I have a chance to add Simmons to Trae, Hunter, & Collins.

I know it sounds crazy but I would take Tobias back in any deal we keep Hunter and Collins….because NOW we are talking championship run in my opinion.

 

Trae

Hunter

Simmons

Collins

Capela

6th man Tobias

Keep Delon Wright

Time to play the rooks!

 

We can find more shooters in free agency for league minimum. What’s hard to find is guys who can put it on the floor, create for themselves, create for others, and elite defenders….

 

[Diesel]

3 hours ago, marco102 said:

I think all of this is a moot point.  There's been reports that Harden was very happy in Brooklyn and was planning to sign there.  

Morey is just posturing. 

Day by Day, Morey is losing leverage.   He's making up stuff.  He's lying. 

Morey is going to end up wasting one of Embiid's Best Years...   Once they are eliminated from the playoffs... Travis ought to buy a full page ad in the Philadelphia Enquirer that simply says.. "We offered Collins, Reddish and a 1st for Ben.  Too Bad you didn't have them!"

[Diesel]

1 minute ago, JTB said:

I agree but I also believe Morey don’t have any true leverage and he isn’t going to just let an Embiid prime year go to waste.

If I were Schlenk I’d believe I have a chance to add Simmons to Trae, Hunter, & Collins.

I know it sounds crazy but I would take Tobias back in any deal we keep Hunter and Collins….because NOW we are talking championship run in my opinion.

 

Trae

Hunter

Simmons

Collins

Capela

6th man Tobias

Keep Delon Wright

Time to play the rooks!

 

We can find more shooters in free agency for league minimum. What’s hard to find is guys who can put it on the floor, create for themselves, create for others, and elite defenders….

 

Luxury Tax...

We don't have 60+ Million dollars without getting down to 6 players. 

Simmons is good but we're playing well right now. 

[JTB]

3 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Luxury Tax...

We don't have 60+ Million dollars without getting down to 6 players. 

Simmons is good but we're playing well right now. 

I think the luxury tax penalty is worth it IF it were possible to keep our core guys and add Simmons and Harris.

In my opinion that would put us in championship contention.

[Diesel]

6 minutes ago, JTB said:

I think the luxury tax penalty is worth it IF it were possible to keep our core guys and add Simmons and Harris.

In my opinion that would put us in championship contention.

It's not... That's not a guarantee of us winning.   And we are so Depleted.    Let me help you see this:

For the trade to work in getting Ben and Harris, we'd have to trade:

Gallo, Bogi, Wright, Williams, and Dieng. 

Now... Philly is probably not going to take this 5 for 2 trade because they will have to give up at least 2 of players because of roster spots. 

Williams has the power to reject the trade... and he problem will so then we'd have to choose between giving up Hunter or OO. 

So... if Philly took it... and if they had Hunter  as the player they wanted.

We go out with:

Trae, Simmons, Harris, Collins and Cap.

and our Bench is:

Lou, Kev, TLC, Knox, Mays, JJ and Cooper.

Collins is the only shooter on the first team.

The bench is going to lose games.

And NO.. Knox can't be traded.

And No... Kev is PPP and only OKC can take him. 

and NO... TLC value is less than 1.7 million so he doesn't fit in that trade in place of any of the others. 

 

[Diesel]

I forgot OO on the bench.   Still loses. 

[JayBirdHawk]

34 minutes ago, JTB said:

 

I know it sounds crazy but I would take Tobias back in any deal we keep Hunter and Collins….because NOW we are talking championship run in my opinion.

Yep. Crazy.

We still have to send out $68 million in matching salary.

[Sothron]

We're not paying the LT this season. I promise you that. They know it is coming (ownership) but Travis can't justify this season.

[Plainview1981]

50 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Luxury Tax...

We don't have 60+ Million dollars without getting down to 6 players. 

Simmons is good but we're playing well right now. 

Playing well... A handful of games.

[JTB]

2 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Yep. Crazy.

We still have to send out $68 million in matching salary.

When I originally thought about that I forgot about Huerters poison pill contract….anyways ain’t gon happen which I knew just me rambling

[thecampster]

8 hours ago, Diesel said:

It's not... That's not a guarantee of us winning.   And we are so Depleted.    Let me help you see this:

For the trade to work in getting Ben and Harris, we'd have to trade:

Gallo, Bogi, Wright, Williams, and Dieng. 

Now... Philly is probably not going to take this 5 for 2 trade because they will have to give up at least 2 of players because of roster spots. 

Williams has the power to reject the trade... and he problem will so then we'd have to choose between giving up Hunter or OO. 

So... if Philly took it... and if they had Hunter  as the player they wanted.

We go out with:

Trae, Simmons, Harris, Collins and Cap.

and our Bench is:

Lou, Kev, TLC, Knox, Mays, JJ and Cooper.

Collins is the only shooter on the first team.

The bench is going to lose games.

And NO.. Knox can't be traded.

And No... Kev is PPP and only OKC can take him. 

and NO... TLC value is less than 1.7 million so he doesn't fit in that trade in place of any of the others. 

 

Knox can be traded but only in a 1 for 1 scenario. He can't be packaged.

Kevin can go anywhere. It doesn't take OKC to take him. But the math for trading him is Current salary + average of the extension then divided by 2.  His current salary is a smidge over 4 million, his incoming average salary is a smidge over 16 million. Average the 2 and just have to trade him for a player making about $10 million (give or take). This pushes us into the LT. But he is tradable.

Yes TLC can be traded but as you say its the fit/value.

 

Cooper has drawn interest around the league as a throw in to any deal (to which we've answered with a resounding no).

[thecampster]

I took a second to rethink why people are focusing on the Harris part of the deal so much. This is a rumor that is running rampant in media circles right now but there can't be any logic to it without a 3 team deal. I'm going to try and explain as best I can.

Harris + Simmons is almost $69 million (or about 62% of the cap and 50.5% of the LT line). With 13 more players on a roster, that's an average of less than 5 million per player to avoid the LT.  IE, taking both back = going into the LT. The only teams that would entertain taking both Harris and Simmons is a team already in the LT that could/would send back equal to or more salary.

The Morey goal here is to reduce his LT costs. Philly paid close to $25 million in luxury tax penalties last  year and is on pace to pay $9 million this year. Any deal should be to shed future payroll to dip Philly below the LT line. This means anyone they take back should be expiring soon, at least one player.

Reports they are trying to sign and trade for Harden are grossly exaggerated, the money doesn't even close to lineup without Harris. A sign and trade where they send Harris + picks/young players gets the deal done to get Harden (financially speaking). But because only Embiid, Harris, Simmons make enough to send back in a package for Harden, they are the only central pieces that can be used. Of those, Simmons makes the least meaning any trade back for Harden at a max salary would increase their cap situation upwards of $7 million more (adding $20 million or more to their tax) and leave then without a power forward. 

Any deal where they bring in Collins, Gallo, Bogi + picks leaves them so LT heavy they'd be in Tax hell and would lack the trade capital to pull off the sign and trade (without sending out Collins as well).

This is all convoluted, I know. The only way for Morey to accomplish what he wants to accomplish is a trade for Gallo, Bogi, 2 x 1sts. This makes Bogi and Harris the center piece of any future trade for Harden and then they pass through the picks we sent. They waive Gallo or spend on him for 1 year only to set themselves up to get out of tax hell. But any trade where they get/keep Collins pairs too much salary with the future salaries of Harden/Embiid and will make surrounding them with shooters (a must) untenable. Their young players will come up for extension and they will lose them because they can't pay them. Philly isn't a rich franchise.

It is the ability to use Bogi as a trade chip and/or the ability to waive Gallo with only a $5 million cap hit that makes it all work for Philly. An extra $25 million a year in Collins' salary breaks their cap situation going forward if they want Harden. Its too much.

[sturt]

1 hour ago, thecampster said:

But the math for trading him is Current salary + average of the extension then divided by 2.  His current salary is a smidge over 4 million, his incoming average salary is a smidge over 16 million. Average the 2 and just have to trade him for a player making about $10 million (give or take).

Hmmm... I come to the same conclusion, but I'm not following how you get there. Correct my thinking. I understood that this is what guides what we can take back:

 

 

Given that Knox' salary is $5,845,978, we do end up being able to take back a maximum salary of a little over $10.3m.

 

 

[thecampster]

11 minutes ago, sturt said:

Hmmm... I come to the same conclusion, but I'm not following how you get there. Correct my thinking. I understood that this is what guides what we can take back:

 

 

Given that Knox' salary is $5,845,978, we do end up being able to take back a maximum salary of a little over $10.3m.

 

 

Post trade salary:

 

Any deal where we take back both Harris and Simmons would push us into the tax. You're reading "non tax paying teams".

Any deal where we trade Knox separately where we take back $7.8 million pushes us into the tax.

Edited January 25, 2022 by thecampster

[thecampster]

Didn't finish my thought. Tax payer team rules is 125% + 100,000.

[thecampster]

So trade rules are applied at the time of trade based on current salary projections.

The final cap number at the end of the season is the number used for calculating the tax.

 

So in theory, you could waive a player before the deadline to remove part of their salary from your team salary in order to calculate the cap/tax to avoid the LT. But at the time of trades, the numbers are what they are.

 

Thought I'd drop this here again in case anyone confuses the 2.

[thecampster]

9 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Yep. Crazy.

We still have to send out $68 million in matching salary.

Technically we'd have to send out a minimum of $55,200,000 in matching salaries (Salaries x 125%+100,000).  $55,200,000x1.25=$69,000,000.  

Simmons+Harris = $68,999,886.

[thecampster]

Technically, Collins, Bogi, Gallo is more than enough at $61 million+.

[thecampster]

47 minutes ago, sturt said:

Hmmm... I come to the same conclusion, but I'm not following how you get there. Correct my thinking. I understood that this is what guides what we can take back:

 

 

Given that Knox' salary is $5,845,978, we do end up being able to take back a maximum salary of a little over $10.3m.