Photo: Christian Petersen
Dan Patrick thinks Joel Embiid was just toeing the party line when he said nice things about Ben Simmons. He wonders why it took so long for Philadelphia to say anything positive about Simmons and concludes it’s most likely about increasing his trade value. There seems to be a lack of interest in acquiring his services from the rest of the NBA and the Sixers are asking for a lot in return.
Dan Patrick: “I don’t believe Joel Embiid wants Ben Simmons back. If you said, ‘Hey, Joel, do you want Dame Lillard or do you want Ben Simmons?’ Yeah, that’s what I thought…Joel Embiid is the one who talked about the turning point in the series against the Hawks and it was Ben passing up a dunk, didn’t want to get fouled, didn’t want to go to the line. Doc Rivers has publicly stated he doesn’t know if he can win a Championship with Ben Simmons. Why would Ben Simmons want to go back to Philadelphia? Instead of Philadelphia saying, ‘Hey, we will work this together because we have somebody who is unique. He’s an All-Star, great defensive player, that’s the guy that we want leading our team.’ If you truly felt that, you wouldn’t have waited four months to back Ben Simmons. Like, why now? Why now, because maybe nobody’s making any offers for Ben Simmons. Maybe, ‘Uh, Joel, just tweet something! Say something nice.’ Because, you don’t want to get stuck with him and they want a whole lot in return.”