What If?

 

As all Houston fans watched the Nets lose game 7, it was refreshing to say the least. To see that Harden didnt make it to the championship you began to wonder if the Rockets have had enough time to assess their trade of James Harden.

At some point you begin to think what would have happened if the deal of Harden to Philadelphia Ben Simmons would have occurred.

Two serious contenders were in the running when Harden was dealt by the Rockets in January -- the Nets and the 76ers.

Despite having a few players they could have offered, they chose to use draft capital as their bait. Simmons, the former No. 1 overall pick, was the key part of the 76ers' offer to Houston.

Despite his open-court vision and athleticism, Simmons has become a shell of a player, afraid to even shoot or attempt to reach the rim. Like he literally is just "goin through the motions". A on-court zombie.

Despite the 76ers' disappointing exit from the playoffs against the Hawks, Simmons attempted just three shots in the fourth quarter. He had an easy dunk Sunday, but passed the rock instead. On top of that his free-throw line shooting has been abysmal. This postseason, he made only 25 of 73 free throws (34.2%), the lowest percentage of anyone with at least 70 free throw attempts in the NBA playoffs.

In addition, Simmons just finished the first year of his five-year, $177 million contract. A six-year contract will cost $33 million next season, $35 million the next, $37 million the next, and $40 million the last.

It will take some luck in Tuesday's NBA Draft Lottery for the Rockets to turn the franchise around, let's hope they have a better options other than potentially trading for Ben Simmons on the floor. Whew!, that was a miss.