Well, his teammates had offered to fly out to LA in the summer and talk to him about rejoining the team. Ben told them not to come. That’s when Embiid gave up on Ben for good, right around the time Ben’s camp leaked news that he and Embiid were not a “good fit” on the court.
So as much as we want to feel compassion for Ben, let’s not paint him as a victim here. As Jason Kelce said, “do the work. Play better.”
What would Bill Belichick do with Ben Simmons?
I mean, what would his teammates flying out have accomplished? His issue wasn't with his teammates, his issue was with management, coaching and his not wanting to be there, is Joel Embiid gonna give him a pep talk and change that? Leaking that they wanted to fly out and he told them no is just self-serving bullshit to make them (and by them I mean Embiid likely) look good, it had no purpose.
Bill Bellichick would have either built a system that used Simmons to his fullest or traded him when he knew their wants didn't align, even if it risked tanking last season.
Well, now it's really getting messy. Fun!
Maybe, but what specifically would you do differently? I get the argument to take whatever was on the table this summer, but I doubt it was enough to keep Philly as a contender. We’ll see where things land but I am not yet seeing clarity that Morey messed this up if the goal is to win anything….which always required luck and a good return for Simmons
What Morey is terrible at is dealing with people. He misplayed this in many ways but the obvious ones are:
1. Dangling Simmons in trade talks while saying he wasn't, then going behind Simmons' back to get a teammate's sign off on dealing him, that poisons the well with the player and the agent, trades are part of the game, but players want to know that they might get traded, and they certainly don't like GMs who straight up lie about it. Some people hated Danny for how he treated players as "assets" but many respected that he was upfront that he was willing to trade anyone for the right price, and that he was upfront with guys whose names came out in trade talks. Morey is all of the former, but none of the latter.
2. Playing this ridiculous public hardball game with Simmons. If you are trying to bully a guy into playing for you, you're doing it wrong. He should have been in constant contact with Simmons and his agents all summer, even if Ben chose not to take his calls, Klutch would, you build out what his issues are, how you handle them, how each side should approach it if there isn't a reasonable deal. Yopu show them you're making an effort, and you make a deal, this is the kind of thing you're willing to do, this isn't, whether he'll report, if he reports what he'll do, you likely give Klutch permission to quietly talk to interested teams.
A huge part of being a GM is keeping up interpersonal relationships with players, agents, and other executives, Morey is bad at it and it hurts his teams. He is treating this like it's 2K and if he fines the guy enough he'll drop his trade request and that's it, but it isn't an algorithm, it's a person, trying to bully a person rarely really works.
Also, probably a reason he can't find a deal is that he has few good relationships around the league, and lacks the self-awareness to realize that demanding full price or more for a guy who doesn't want to play for you isn't going to work. Morey is a pretty smart guy, but he's generally seen in the league as an arrogant prick, and he makes no effort to change that.