Daryl Morey Don't Give A Damn About The Process, Makes Ben Simmons Available In Trade Packages For James Harden (UPDATE: Morey Says It's Not True!)
Mitchell Leff. Getty Images.
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Ben Simmons and James Harden are two parts of the same whole. Simmons is one of the best defenders in the league and great at distributing the ball. James Harden can score at fucking will. Both of them have the tendency to shrink in the playoffs, but you'd have the greatest basketball player to ever live if you combined the two of them. But separately on their own? Well they each have their flaws.
So as far as the actual trade goes, I mean you're getting a lot in Harden but also giving up a lot in Simmons. It's not a straight up win for either team, not a straight up loss for either team either. It's one of those ones where you just have to wait and see how both players mesh with their new team to see who actually makes out the best in that deal.
But that's not what we're here to discuss right now. The actual trade itself seems to be far from a done deal. If Ben Simmons has been made available in trade talks and "conversations aren't fluid as of now", then I can't imagine a trade actually happens at all. However, the damage is already done.
The moment this news gets leaked out there, now you have to worry about Ben Simmons' mind. He never seemed like a guy who seems overly confident in himself to begin with. I mean the guy has spent most of his career so far too afraid to shoot a 3 in the NBA because he's afraid it won't go in. And now that he knows he's on the trading block? Well that just opens up the floodgates for locker room friction. Ben Simmons is in trade packages, Joel Embiid so far sounds like he is not. And you know what? It's totally possible that Joel's name has also been thrown in there, but Houston decided to leak this info and just put Ben's name out there because they knew that would do the most damage.
Houston is clearly trying to fuck over Daryl Morey here, right? Trying to blow up the locker room right before the season starts. Trying to get back at Daryl Morey for getting that "James Harden is everybody's boss in Houston" story out there? Just when you started to feel good about this team after that first preseason game, this has to get out there and potentially screw everything up. This mother fricking league.
On a positive note, if the trade ever actually happens, at least we still have this emoji to look forward to.
I just don't think putting James Harden around this many cheesesteaks is a solid recipe for success, though.
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YIKES.
UPDATE: Per Daryl Morey, Ben Simmons ain't going nowhere.
Bet Shams had to feel like a real dickhead having to type that tweet out.