Trade Kyrie for Ben Simmons?

[Rigby.]

There exists a universe where this trade happened

I don't hate it

I know people see points and FTs and they'd agree with you, but Philly gets multitudes worse in every facet except spacing and scoring, and those pros don't outweigh the cons. Other than Matisse, who is just not dependable offensively, Ben is the only person on the roster who can stay in front of Trae. He doesn't do 1/10th of what Ben does on defense, even on a neutral team, much less bring the trap IQ, stocks ability, help defense, navigating screens, even 1 on 1 D that Simmons does.

Not to mention...Kyrie isn't great as a traditional point guard. He isn't as bad as some people made him out to be, but the Nets have been more him and KD cook, and everyone eats off of their gravity, with some occasional sets. The 6ers don't have another wing player that can bring close to KD pressure from the perimeter, and they don't have another high level playmaker (George is good as far as bench PGs go in that role). Just not a trade you can make 1 for 1

Edit: and I say this to say, there's some players I would do a 1 for 1 trade for Ben, even with how much the role players and defense are built around him. Harden, Bron, KD, Zion, there's #1 guys you make that trade for, and you try to find role dudes to make up the loss.