Should The New York Knicks trade for Ben Simmons?

Should The New York Knicks Trade For Ben Simmons?

Despite how great of a fit Simmons can be under the right circumstances, I don’t believe the Knicks should trade for him.

For every positive Simmons embodies, there are still too many glaring holes in his game. In the modern NBA, shooting is way too important. Everybody saw how poorly Simmons did at the free-throw line versus the Atlanta Hawks. It was historically bad. Had Simmons shot better from the charity stripe, his team could have won the series.

While the prospect of Simmons transitioning to center sounds great on paper, it is still too much of a risk to take for a team on the rise like New York. The Knicks need to continue to make the right decisions to get closer to contention, and that means not taking huge gambles on players who have time and time again failed to see significant success.

Simmons on his contract is not worth it. Even if the Knicks trade small potatoes for him, Simmons’ salary will fill up a majority of NY’s enormous cap space. They need to utilize the advantage of having money to spend in ways that are likely to see trustworthy results.

Not to mention the Philadelphia 76ers are a division rival. The last thing the Knicks need to do is potentially sabotage their own future by helping a rival team get out from under a bad contract and a player who has played a major role in their shortcomings.

The Knicks and their abundance of assets should stay far away from any Simmons bidding war or garage sale level auction that takes place. There are teams that are desperate enough to take the risk on Simmons and try to find success with him by sacrificing some commodities and a couple of seasons to find the right formula with Simmons. The New York Knicks are no longer one of those teams.