S.S. proposes blockbuster Ben Simmons to Boston Celtics deal

2022’s trade season is officially in full swing, and the Boston Celtics have found themselves heavily linked to the rumor mill, with hypothetical trade scenarios involving the organization seemingly being churned out daily.

Now, while the vast majority of people don’t expect the C’s to be making any blockbuster transactions between now and February’s deadline, for the assets they’re willing to give up aren’t valuable enough to allow them to execute one and the two that are (i.e. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown) are reportedly off the table, this hasn’t stopped fans and media outlets from concocting hypothetical schemes that, by all accounts, would be considered real earth-shakers.

Just recently, in fact, one of our sister sites, the Sixers Sense, wrote up a rather in-depth piece discussing one specific mega-deal each team could theoretically make with the Philadelphia 76ers for their estranged star point guard, Ben Simmons.

When it came to the Boston Celtics, writer, Lucas Johnson, went on to continue the narrative many other proposed deals have pushed, as we saw the trade package being sent out in exchange for the 3x All-Star headlined by the C’s own All-Star, Jaylen Brown.

The exact deal reads as follows:

**A correction by Sixers Sense was made in their article where the first-round picks would be sent to the Boston Celtics, NOT the Philadelphia 76ers as they had initially written it**

Citing the fact that Boston is seriously struggling to come across wins this season (23-23) despite having two of the best young wings in the entire league, Johnson believes that his proposed deal could be a great way to better complement the second half of the team’s Jay squad in Jayson Tatum:

"The Celtics get off of Richardson’s contract and get two elite defenders as well. Simmons and Tatum should make an interesting duo with their different skills sets. Simmons could be unlocked with the perimeter shooting that the Celtics can provide him."

This season alone, we at the Houdini have discussed the concept of seeing the shamrocks pursuing Ben Simmons via trade on a multitude of occasions, and have even described him as the ideal star target for this team.

That said, we have done so with our reasoning being he’d be the perfect third star alongside Tatum and Brown, not as an exchange piece for one of them.

Now yes, we are well aware of the fact that, as of this writing, in order for the Boston Celtics to actually land Simmons they’d almost certainly need to give up one of their All-Star wings in return. That said, with every passing day it appears new information is coming out that ultimately insinuates that his trade stock is continuing to diminish.

What we’re getting at is, Brad Stevens should absolutely hold out on a deal for the point guard for as long as possible to see if the asking price falls to a place that doesn’t need the Jays to be included and, if it never gets to this point — a very realistic possibility — they should just pull back on a pursuit.

Frankly, we’ve already seen what a squad with Ben Simmons as second-fiddle is ultimately capable of and, to this point, it has a ceiling of a second-round exit in the postseason.

As we have stated in the past, yes one could certainly argue that things could be different if he were to team up with a budding superstar like Jayson Tatum, but we mustn’t forget about just how talented a guy like Joel Embiid is, and look at how far this duo was able to take a Sixers team that, by all accounts, was overall better/ deeper than this current Boston Celtics roster.

To us, it’s evident that the best fit for a guy like Simmons is to have him serve as a high-end third-piece within a Big-3 and, alongside both Tatum and Brown, this trio would formulate an unbelievably menacing unit that would easily put them in contention to combat the other formidable foes out there in the NBA (Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, etc.).

With just Tatum and Simmons, however, we’re soundly under the impression that such a duo would ultimately bring the Celtics no closer to a championship than they currently are right now.

That said, with the addition of the first-round draft picks and Matisse Thybulle, while we don’t actually wish to deal away Brown, it does make such a move a bit more intriguing, for the Boston Celtics could then, in theory, look to flip these additional assets for a potential third-star alongside the wing and the guard to complement their games (say, Karl-Anthony Towns?!).

Realistically, we absolutely do not see a deal like this getting done but, with the inclusion of all this draft capital and the possibility to then go on to exchange them for a final piece to a new Big-3… sure, we’d venture to say the C’s would strongly consider it.

Still, to us, even with this correction by S.S. we believe finding a third stud to pair alongside the Jays would be far more rewarding for the franchise in the long run.