Portland Can't Meet Philadelphia's Reported Asking Price for Ben Simmons
Chauncey Billups, evidently, believes the Trail Blazers' incumbent core personnel is good enough to compete for a championship. Neil Olshey does, too, his frank appraisal that Portland's first-round flameout and historically porous defense this season weren't a reflection of the roster later supported by Jusuf Nurkic's comments that he'd been told the Blazers wouldn't make major trades this summer.
But the clock is finally ticking on Damian Lillard's time in Rip City, a distressing reality Olshey acknowledged when pressed at Billups' introductory press conference. It was his job to make Lillard happy, Olshey eventually admitted, and that means doing everything in his power to put a title-worthy supporting cast around the best player in franchise history.
Even if the Blazers enter Billups' debut season with the existing roster largely intact, it's safe to say Olshey will have at least worked the phones on prospective trades. His goal is self-preservation as much as anything else, and Lillard's reported frustration with the organization gives Olshey a mandate to explore every possible avenue toward upping Portland's realistic championship equity.
The problem? Not only is C.J. McCollum arguably a negative value league-wide with his three-year, $100 million extension only kicking in next season, but the asking price for basketball's most objectively flawed yet readily available star is apparently more than the Blazers can pay.
According to Jason Dumas of KRON4 News and Bleacher Report, the Philadelphia 76ers have already rejected the Indiana Pacers' offer of Malcolm Brogdon and a first-round pick for Ben Simmons.
Odds are that Daryl Morey is bluffing on the Sixers' supposed stance they'll only trade Simmons for an "All-Star caliber" player—whatever that means. He knows as well as anyone that individual reputations and accolades never perfectly align with a player's value, especially as it pertains to a specific team.
A player's perceived ability to fit around Joel Embiid offensively is a much more important prerequisite for Philly in Simmons trade talks than whether or not he's played in an All-Star game. The Pacers reportedly offered the Sixers Brogdon instead of Domantas Sabonis, a two-time All-Star, with that obvious dynamic no doubt in mind.
Indiana's package for Simmons will serve as the baseline expected return for the Sixers whether Morey ultimately drops his asking price or not. As hard as it may be for the most biased Blazers fans to fathom, an offer of Brogdon and a first-round pick just isn't one Portland can meet.
Brogdon has less tread on his tires, is more versatile defensively and less dependent on dominating the ball than McCollum. He'll also make about $10 million less than McCollum in each of the next two seasons before hitting free agency in 2023-24, affording the Sixers an earlier and much more manageable reset button than a deal with the Blazers. Indiana's future first-round picks are probably more valuable than Portland's under the parameters of a Simmons trade, too.
Maybe Morey likes McCollum more than Brogdon for Philadelphia, still in dire need of a perimeter player who can create his own offense from the opening tip to the final buzzer. But given Portland's apparent comfort with roster status quo and the similar standings of McCollum and Brogdon in the league's individual hierarchy, the Blazers acquiring Simmons—for better or worse—seems increasingly unlikely.