Warriors admitted it was Durants Achilles this whole time. I'd assume he takes the 30 mil player option this offseason now since he will most likely miss all of next year. This changes a ton in the upcoming free agency season.
I think multiple teams will offer KD the max this offseason (if he opts out), including the Warriors (that would be a $221mi supermax). His injury obviously affects the
other moving pieces in the offseason, as acquiring KD basically means NOT contending in 2019-2020 (Warriors excepted, maybe, if Curry & Klay have supernova seasons).
No particular order:
John Wall
Kyrie Irving
Damian Lillard
Chris Paul
Kemba Walker
Russell Westbrook
Jamal Murray
De'Aaron Fox
D'Angelo Russell
Steph Curry
Right now - all of these guys are better point guards than Simmons. Trade value wise, taking age and talent into account he's in the top 10 point guards. He's not in the top 10 of overall players in trade value imo. I know people in Philly are looking at me like this - I'm just trying to be honestly criticial about him despite my fandom.
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I'm not the biggest Simmons fan but I don't agree with ranking Wall over him even before Wall got injured, and even without taking his contract into consideration.
A spicier bit: is Westbrook even that good at this point? Simmons sure seems more versatile on defense. If he bothered to shoot, how much worse than Russ could he be?
Fwiw, I
think I'd rank at least 10 PGs ahead of Simmons (not taking age or contract into account). Let's try it:
- Curry
- Harden (if he counts... why shouldn't he?)
- Dame
- Kyrie (I guess)
- Kemba
- Conley
- CP3 (I guess)
- Jrue
- Lowry (I guess)
- SGA? Westbrook? Fox? D'Angelo Russell? Brogdon? Lonzo? Dragic?
I don't feel too good about the end of that list so maybe he's a top 10 PG after all...
...Or is he? Why do we insist on calling him a PG? Why can't we call him a PF or small-ball center like Draymond? Wouldn't that be his optimal use, anyway?
All I know is that if we consider Simmons a PG, he's still better than Reggie Jackson. Someone get him off the Pistons and let my man Ish Smith ride.