As Jimmy Butler dominated the fourth quarter of Monday night’s Miami Heat win over the top-seeded Bucks, the cries of “why didn’t we keep him?!” erupted with Sixers fans. The answer to the question of “why” is easy, even if it ends up being the wrong one.
At the end of the 2019-20 season, the Sixers had a choice to make; Jimmy Butler or Ben Simmons? They chose Ben Simmons.
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Butler is not in Miami because I didn’t want him here. Butler ending up somewhere else was something anyone who had access to Duck Duck Go could have figured out.
I was against acquiring Butler for all of the reasons that eventually came to pass. He is a very good player, who contributes to winning. He had a skillset that the Sixers needed (and still need). The problem is that Butler is insistent that he be the primary option on offense, and when he doesn’t get his way, he becomes disruptive and the situation becomes untenable. It’s exactly what happened in Philadelphia, and exactly why he’s no longer a member of the Sixers.
It was no accident that the trade of Butler to Miami and the announcement of Ben Simmons’ extension in Philadelphia were announced within minutes of each other. Simmons wanted no parts of Butler, and Butler wanted no parts of Simmons. There has been plenty of reporting that there was a similar feeling between Butler and Brown, and I believe all of it to be true. But make no mistake, that all ties back to Simmons. At the very least, you can be assured that if the only obstacle to a harmonious relationship between Butler, Embiid and Simmons was Brown, the coach would have been shown the door a year earlier.
If the Sixers wanted to keep Jimmy Butler, they would have likely been forced to trade Simmons, who would not have signed the extension. Maybe that would have been the right move… who knows? What we do know is that Butler was heading into his 30-year old season, and had worn out his welcome everywhere else. Simmons on the other hand was 22 years-old when they made the decision. It’s not a call a lot of front offices would have made. Another year or two of Simmons clunky fit with Embiid on the court and a continued refusal to either shoot from the perimeter or get to the free throw line and convert at an elite rate and that decision will start looking worse.
Simmons and Embiid aren’t just a tricky fit with each other, they’re a tricky fit for a third “star.” There are certainly a ton of players that we perceive would be a great fit with the two, but once you narrow down to the ones who the Sixers could have obtained, or would have wanted to split the handling of the offense with Simmons and Embiid, that number shrinks exponentially.
The Sixers have not handled this situation particularly well. They traded away or let walk in free agency all of their role players who actually fit with the two players, and instead decided to pay triple the amount of money to role players who don’t fit as well. They managed to turn two first round picks, JJ Redick, Robert Covington, Dario Saric and Landry Shamet -- who made a combined $37 million this year -- into Tobias Harris and Al Horford, who made a combined $60 million. Just because you pay someone like a star doesn’t mean they are one.
When the Sixers picked Simmons over Butler, they bet on youth, upside, and culture. They’re a year older, seem dangerously close to their ceiling (given their roster issues), they fired the coach and they seem to hate playing with each other. Yikes.