TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[DanSchwartzgan]

I went back and watched every second Ben Simmons was on the floor against the Mavs. 

On defense, the Nets switched everything so Simmons had very few opportunities to guard anyone. But he was active off the ball, it looked like he made all the right rotations and he rebounded well. He had a few opportunities in the second half to guard Luka. Luka got him once on a great move, so he went at him again and Simmons forced a turnover. Luka's amazing no-look behind the head to Kleber under the basket was also against Simmons, who was blanketing him. Then on the Mavs final possession of regulation, with the Mavs up by 2 with 12-seconds left, Simmons doubled and got the steal and assist that forced overtime. All told, Simmons played well on defense but more like a shut down corner with no targets against. Dallas pretty much stayed away from him.

On offense, he played nothing like Ben Simmons in Philly. ... But I can't say it was much his fault. He only brought the ball up a handful of times and guys never passed to him. He was a willing screener, but usually rolled to the dunker spot and other guys handled the playmaking. There were at least two times when he did handle, drove into the paint and found an open 3pt shooter, but guys weren't ready to shoot, so nothing happened. There were multiple times when he set backside screens to open up corner 3s but not once did Kyrie or KD find the open shooter. Multiple times he started to jump to catch a lob dunk but the pass never came. All told, Simmons played ok on offense but he'll NEVER be Ben Simmons again on that team.

He also has some post up game from about the same spot Luka gets his post plays from.  It would be a way to get him some on-ball touches.

If you want Wood to start, this is the kind of defender you'd want next to him (of course, you'd want him to hit 3's and FT's also, but that guy will cost two starters and three future firsts...minimum).  But, Simmons and any two of DFS, Green and Reggie plus Luka would provide enough secondary ball handling to allow Dinwiddie to come off the bench (and finish) and provide enough D to make Wood as a starting center more palatable.  

Of course, I have no idea if Simmons is right or ever will be.  But, if the price was really low and I had medical reports and a pro-scouting department telling me he'll be fine, I think the strategic part of this could work.  Of course, I'm the idiot who doesn't understand modern basketball and thinks you can actually employ one non-shooter somewhere on the floor (you know like almost every team does).