We’re anywhere between 9 and 11 games into the 2021-22 season, depending which team you follow and there have already been plenty of big stories and big results. How about dem Lakers ‘eh?. Today we’ll be going over some of the ongoing stories and sagas within the NBA, talking about potential trades and more. Just like games, the news comes thick and fast so no time for messing about, let’s just get straight into it!
First up, one of the biggest ongoing stories of the season. The potential trade of Ben Simmons from the Philadelphia 76ers. In my opinion, Ben Simmons is actually rather underrated, as a defender who averages 1.6 steals per game and 3.5 deflections, his stats kind of put him up there with some of the best defensive minded players the league has to offer. It seems strange to me that the 76ers would want to trade him but I guess if the right offer comes in then why not accept it right? There’s a reason however that this is one of the best NBA betting picks this week as the Boston Celtics have shown serious interest in making a trade for Ben Simmons.
Ben Simmons is a player that can truly defend all 5 positions, he’s up there with the best passers of the ball in the league and outside of shooting he can pretty much do everything to a high standard, however, he seems to have a rather bad reputation, I mentioned some of his stats above but when you think this guy is still only 25, in his physical prime, Philadelphia could get a lot more out of this young man than they currently are, should they be building a team around him? No. Should he be their posterboy, probably not. But is he a SOLID foundation to build up from? Most certainly.
Realistically, there doesn’t appear to be a lot the Celtics could offer the 76ers in a trade for Simmons, they more than likely aren’t going to offer up Jayson Tatum, given the fact Jayson is a 23 year old with bags of talent and who ONLY takes up around $9m in salary. Simmons is currently earning $29m with the 76ers so that wouldn’t be a great deal. They could offer up a deal including Al Horford who is on the books for somewhere in the region of $27m OR an alternative is Jaylen Brown, again around $27million sitting on the books. It’s no secret however that the 76ers won’t want to replace Simmons with somebody that isn’t a star, so it’s more likely that they’ll be looking at a player like Jaylen Brown. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one to see how it progresses!
Something that may come as a surprise to many who don’t partake in many sports, recreationally or competitively at any level, but not every ball is made the same. Of course I don’t mean a basketball vs a football, I mean not every basketball is made equally. In an interesting turn of events the 2021-22 official game ball, manufactured by Wilson, has been receiving quite a lot of criticism. The NBA announced it would change their official game ball supplier over to Wilson, from Spalding during the offseason. Spalding had been a supplier of the official game ball for the previous 37 years, Wilson however had a run of 37 years prior to this.
You may be asking why, well it seems that the players aren’t quite able to find their line with the ball. By which I mean shooting statistics are down, quite significantly. The league is currently dealing with what is the lowest 3-point percentage since the 98-99 season. That percentage is 34.2%, of course you can point the finger at many potential reasons here, but a change in equipment during the offseason isn’t a great choice, not without much chance to prepare. The offseason between 2020-21 and 2021-22 was rather short so that won’t have helped. But when the ball is feeling completely different, it’s not really surprising that people have trouble getting to grips with it. Just look at the way goalkeepers have complained about some of the newer super lightweight balls used in some recent world cups. It’s a huge thing to get used to.
That’s going to do it for this news roundup, do you play? If so, what do you think about the ball manufacturer changing, are you bothered by it at all? Outside of that, we’d like to hear from you about how your teams are performing, let us know if there are any players you’re hoping will be joining your ranks or players you want out of your team and as always, take care!