2021 FREE AGENCY: Markkanen wants out of CHI | DAL "definitely interested"

[dirkfansince1998]

We have 4 years of evidence for Ben Simmons now. His points, assists, and rebounds are WORSE than in his rookie season. He hasn't improved one bit. His playoff numbers are even worse...

https://twitter.com/tomhaberstroh/status...3121381379

Defense is irrelevant when you force your team to play 4 v 5 on offense every playoffs. His offense dies because no one respects his scoring ability, and you can't run the point in the modern NBA if you can't score. Ben+Luka=Guaranteed doubles and traps all game long on Luka. I mean, what's Ben gonna do when he gets the ball from a doubled Luka? He's not gonna shoot.

There's no bigger red flag to me than a player who refuses to improve, who refuses to work on the one thing that everyone knows he needs. Some players just don't have that drive to improve, and he's getting paid the max anyway, so even that's not an incentive. He's a more physically gifted Shawn Bradley.

What was Draymond going to do when he got the ball from Curry? I guess that didn´t work either...
You aren´t playing 4v5 on offense if you aren´t running the entire offense through post ups and isos. That´s what the 76ers are doing. Embiid in the post/face up. Harris on the ellbow. Of course a non shooting ballhandler will hurt the offense in that system. He hurts the spacing when he isn´t handling the ball and there is not space for him to attack the rim when he has the ball.
Even if Simmons never improves he would still be the 2nd best player on the current Mavs team. Just need to make sure that he is the only non shooter on the floor. Something the 76ers couldn´t do after the Green injury. And again it´s not like the 76ers were losing. Despite the obvious flaws their starting five with Green had the best +/- among all 5-men lineups in the playoffs. Even with his limitations Simmons is a high impact player.
I know that for some reason we don´t care about defense these days. Or maybe it is just a Mavs thing (we simply don´t know better after 20+ years of Don+Donnie running the show). But Simmons is the best defender in the league. Maybe not in the regular season but come playoff time. There is no bad matchup for him. From Trae, to Luka or John Collins. Best possible defender for all of them.