A lot of the inspiration for this piece came courtesy of a trade idea mentioned on the podcast by a caller on “Locked on Bulls” earlier this week. The Chicago Bulls could try and make Simmons the centerpiece of their rebuild, as he is one of the brightest budding two-way stars in the NBA at the moment.
So far this season, Simmons is averaging 16.7 points per game, 7.8 rebounds, and 8.2 assists, while shooting 58.5 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. All that amounts to a player efficiency rating of 20.8 and 7.2 win shares on the season. It is a shame that this recent back injury could hold him out for the rest of the regular season.
At least Simmons is also attempting shots from three-point land this season. That is something that literally couldn’t be said for any level of success for him from beyond the arc in each of his previous two seasons in the league. But his jump shot is making incremental strides to improve as his career moves along.
However, the Bulls do have to give up very significant pieces of their roster right now to get Simmons in return. But as it was mentioned on the Locked on Bulls podcast, the Sixers aren’t likely to take on just shooting guard Zach LaVine along with a 2020 lottery pick to ship out Simmons. They would need the addition of combo guard Tomas Satoransky to help match salaries and more future draft capital to help out in other trade deals.