Oddsmakers List Blazers as Trade Favorite for Ben Simmons

If Ben Simmons has played his last game with the Sixers, one sportsbook has the Blazers as his likeliest destination.

Despite his embarrassing performance against the Atlanta Hawks and mutually detrimental on-court fit with Joel Embiid, there's still no guarantee the Philadelphia 76ers actually trade Ben Simmons this summer.

If Daryl Morey ultimately decides to put Simmons on the block, though, it's safe to say he'll call the Trail Blazers. A potential swap of Simmons and C.J. McCollum seems so viable, in fact, that oddsmakers are already imagining the former No. 1 pick playing in Rip City.

BetOnline on Monday released props for Simmons' next team if he's traded from the Sixers, and Portland leads the pack. At +200, the Blazers are at the top of a prospective list of trade destinations for Simmons that includes the Washington Wizards, San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz, among others.

It bears stressing that Simmons could very well be back in Philadelphia next season. 

After openly casting doubt on Simmons' ability to lead a team to a championship at point guard following his team's ugly Game 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night, Sixers coach Doc Rivers is already backtracking. He insisted on Monday that Simmons and the team are committed to an offseason plan of attack that will help the 6-foot-10 lefty become a more viable shooter going forward.

"I believe, without going into detail with what we're doing, I believe we know what the right work is, and the right type of work, and the right way to do it," Rivers said, per ESPN's Tim Bontemps.

At least Simmons possesses the possibility of room for growth. The same can't be said for McCollum, increasingly subject to trade rumors since Portland's flameout in the first round of the playoffs against the short-handed Denver Nuggets.

Both Simmons and McCollum, clearly, would be better suited playing elsewhere. An abject non-shooter like Simmons kills the spacing Embiid needs to dominate offensively, while McCollum's strengths and weaknesses simply align too closely with Damian Lillard's for the Blazers to spend such a significant chunk of the salary cap on him. 

Would a blockbuster trade centering around Simmons and McCollum be beneficial for both teams? On paper, absolutely, but it's safe to say Philadelphia and Portland hold Simmons and McCollum in higher respective esteem than their peers across the league. Either Morey or Neil Olshey would also be forced to deal with the local perception of selling low on homegrown stars, an especially big risk for the latter as the Blazers face an organizational crossroads.

At this point, any speculation of a Simmons or McCollum trade—for each other or not—is purely speculative. That Vegas is already setting lines on the specter of Simmons defending multiple positions and secondary initiating for the Blazers, though, speaks further to just how much sense pairing a ball-handler and bucket-getter like McCollum with Embiid makes, too.

[BetOnline]

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