The Ben Simmons saga with the Philadelphia 76ers took another turn when the disgruntled All-Star was booted from practice and suspended for refusing to participate in a defensive drill. It's unclear what Simmons will do next once his suspension is up after the Sixers' opener against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday.
It sure seems like this situation is untenable, but Philly is holding firm on trade talks. It will take a monster trade offer for the Sixers to finally pull the trigger on a deal.
However, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith thinks it's time to trade Simmons now. Smith went on one of his patented rants Wednesday after this latest debacle and let Simmons have it:
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While Smith doesn't want to fully absolve the Sixers of blame in this fiasco, Simmons bears the brunt of the blame here. Smith calls out Simmons for playing “like trash” offensively against the Atlanta Hawks and being a “scared puppy,” but then refusing to take any accountability for his poor performance.
Joel Embiid and Doc Rivers did toss Simmons under the bus, but it was rather harmless criticism in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps they shouldn't have done it so publicly, but it was reasonable.
Meanwhile, Simmons hasn't meaningfully improved offensively in his career, much to the chagrin of the Sixers. While he's still a very good player who makes Philly better, the lack of offensive improvement and the lack of accountability for that has been frustrating.
This is what Smith is getting at in his diatribe here, and he thinks Philly just needs to move on here as soon as possible. While he doesn't want to see the Sixers make a bad trade involving Simmons, he thinks it's clear this needs to end sooner rather than later.
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