Ben Simmons traded to Boston Celtics in latest ESPN+ piece

While the majority of this year’s campaign has been filled with underwhelming performances and feelings of despair, since the page on the calendar flipped to 2022 the Boston Celtics have managed to go on somewhat of a roll.

Through six games played in the new year, Ime Udoka’s squad has managed to rattle off four wins, with two of which coming in quite a decisive manner.

That said, while we all can feel giddy and gleeful about the C’s recent performances, we must not forget that we’ve seen highs on a few other occasions this season as well and, unfortunately, they ultimately went on to be followed up with the same old drivel that we’ve sadly grown accustomed to seeing as of late.

Because of this, it is our belief, as well as the belief of others both part of Boston’s fanbase and media that Brad Stevens and co. must still be highly interested in making some shakeups to this team in an effort to better equip them for sustained success in the long term.

Frankly, between now and February’s deadline we can expect to see countless trade ideas being concocted and let out into the universe that are believed to be beneficial for the Boston Celtics to partake in, and in fact, just recently the folks at ESPN+ took part in this exact activity with one of their latest pieces discussing potential deals all 30 NBA teams could wind up making (subscription required) and, for the shamrocks, they proposed a transaction that would bring them a top-flight floor general.

The objective of the deal: bring Ben Simmons to Eastern Massachusetts.

The exact package proposed reads as follows:

Now, to say this is the first time we’ve seen a trade proposal that swaps Jaylen Brown for Ben Simmons would be a complete and utter farce and, in fact, in the past we here at HH have actually gone about and proposed such a concept ourselves on a few occasions.

Look, we understand the idea of wanting the Boston Celtics to bring on a legitimate floor general to help steer the offense away from an isolation-heavy brand of basketball and, in theory, a guy like Simmons could be of great service in this vein (averages 7.7 assists per game for his career).

That said, is the offensively handicapped behemoth of a point guard really worth giving up a two-way All-Star like Brown?

At this point in time, the answer is, in fact, no.

Already we’ve seen what a squad with Ben Simmons as your second-best player is ultimately capable of, which, to this point, has a ceiling of a second-round exit in the postseason.

Now yes, one could certainly argue that things could be different if he were to team up with a budding superstar like Jayson Tatum, but let’s not forget just how talented a guy like Joel Embiid is as well, and look at how far the duo was able to bring the Philadelphia 76ers, a team that unequivocally was overall far-better/ deeper than this current Boston Celtics squad.

The best fit with Simmons on this team is to have him serve as a high-end third-star alongside both Tatum and Brown, for the trio would formulate an unbelievably menacing Big-3 that would, in theory, put themselves in contention to combat the other formidable foes out there in the NBA (Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, etc.).

To us, the only way a Ben Simmons trade would make sense for the C’s is if they can partner him with the likes of the Jays, not one that would go on to split them up.

If one feels this type of scenario is realistic, then great — let’s go and get it done.

That said this is not a likely outcome and, in turn, Boston may not wind up getting the 3x All-Star. If that’s the case, then so be it, for he’s not worth giving up Jaylen Brown for in our humble opinion.