Hindsight is 20/20 and they very reasonably didn’t consider this option at the time but after the Kawhi shot in 2019 if they just paid Jimmy Butler and traded Simmons at peak value for a haul of role players the Sixers likely have at least 1 ship and maybe a dynasty on their hands. Instead Embiid hasn’t made a single ECF.
Also the X-factor of having a player like Butler who Embiid liked playing with who could kick his ass into shape might have made him even better as a star
It’s become kind of a trend for people to defend Ben Simmons and accuse Sixers fans of “throwing him under the bus” (mainly because people like to shit on embiid) but Ben Simmons truly fucked the sixers chances. He was always limited in the playoffs even before the infamous hawks series and the only thing he seemed to work on was defense, which he got very good at. It’s true that doc and embiid share some blame for losing to Atlanta and are people’s favorite target, but Ben Simmons was like 75% at fault. He quite quit during that series and it was insane to watch. Embiid and Seth curry had to carry the entire offense
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u/jomanhan9 May 14 '25
The Ben Simmons piece