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Ben Simmons isn't exactly the most well-loved figure in the NBA right now. He's been the biggest scapegoat of the Philadelphia 76ers' unceremonious second-round exit at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night, and at this point, all the slander against the Sixers star is getting louder and louder.
A new rumor pertaining to an old narrative has recently surfaced, and it isn't surprising how this has gained newfound significance considering the current climate within the Sixers organization. This is about Jimmy Butler's infamous departure from Philly during the summer of 2019 and how Ben Simmons could have actually played a key role in Butler's exit.
According to Yaron Weitzman of Fox Sports, the front office's decision to trade away Butler to the Miami Heat had a lot to do with how he overlapped with Simmons on the court — something that the latter was apparently not too happy about:
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According to league sources, Simmons’ frustration at being relegated to off-ball duty during the team’s 2019 second-round loss to the Raptors contributed to the front office’s decision to not re-sign Jimmy Butler. [Former head coach Brett Brown] had handed Butler the keys to the offense, and management was worried how Simmons would handle having Butler around and monopolizing crunch-time playmaking duties for multiple years.
Now with the benefit of hindsight, it's hard not to imagine how the Sixers could have had more success had they kept Butler in Philadelphia. We all know how he led the Heat all the way to the Finals last season, so maybe he could have done the same for Philly had he been handed a more central role?
Moreover, now that we've all witnessed Ben Simmons' catastrophic collapse in the postseason, would it have been a better decision for the Sixers to prioritize Butler over Simmons? There's no going back to that now, but this incident could actually play a significant role in terms of how the front office views Simmons' own future with the franchise.
