Another day, another thread on Simons’ value.

I would be fine with either starting, but here are some reasons.

1. Simons was on a bad team. He’s arguably not a “starter level player” on a good one. Being benched for White should carry no shame, and Pritchard stocks are pretty high too- you could honestly make the exact same argument for him (see next point).

2. You should care what happens to Pritchard this season. As you pointed out, he is on a great deal. Him continuing to develop is excellent for us, and giving him reps against/with starters will help that. Letting him stagnate and feel undervalued will not. If you think he has no upside that’s fine, but it’s definitely possible for him to become a better player than Simons.

3. Simons’ value is literally in the gutter, no one wanted him because he’s seen as a defensive liability who can only score- like a million other shifty combo guards. Showing he can play a role as an efficient sixth man leading the bench while rehabbing his defensive reputation could help that.

Tl;dr: The league doesn’t see Simons as some crazy valuable player anyways, so even slightly increasing his value would be solid. And Pritchard is much more important to our long term plans.

Simons should definitely start atleast until the deadline 100%

PP is a far better shooter whose efficiency went up when he got more shots.

Pats season starts next Sunday

If you’re looking to make him tradable then idk if the plan should be to use him exactly the same as when he made himself untradable

This guy loves Simons lol. I think when we get serious about winning championships again, a guy who was dead last in defensive efficacy metrics will not be high on the list of important contributors.

Until Simons learns to play defense I don’t care about his value.

NBA champion Payton Pritchard earned his starting role don’t @ me.

Pretty sure Xavier Tillman was a starter for the grizzlies and he doesn’t even see the court

If we are planning on trading him by the deadline, Simons would not be imbedded into our core lineup but rather be a flexible piece that we can showcase from time to time to bring up his trade value. It would literally hurt us if we “leaned” into a player that is not a long-term position.

Simons is coming off the bench because Brad values continuity. He’s typically gone after players who had multiple years left on their deals (when we were going all in), hasn’t traded absolutely core players except for Marcus Smart (which was a clear upgrade) and Robert Williams (which was also a clear upgrade and he was always hurt, which ruins the continuity thing)

Pritchard is part of the long term plans, Simons isn’t. So Simons comes off the bench. Pritchard should get more reps with the starters because he’s going to be playing with them in the future. Simons still will be effective off the bench, just like Brogdon was for us and eventually landed us Jrue.

Pritchard has earned his starting spot, he was basically our 4th best offensive player last season behind Tatum, Brown and White, and he got reps in crunch time over Jrue like against the Thunder (was that 2 seasons ago?) and won us a few games last year.

I don’t think it’s about making Pritchard happy, I think it’s because he’s part of Boston’s future. What’s the sense in starting Simons and giving him more minutes with Brown and White if he’s traded by the deadline? That’s not helpful to Brown or White either.

Let Simons torch bench units and then cash in on his value. Not let him get exposed against starters and then be stuck with a dead expiring contract.

maintain or increase

The expiring salary remains the same. And that’s the only long term value Simons has: the salary slot.

Completely disagree on multiple levels.

Prichard is woefully underpaid and needs a steady supply of challenges to make him happy with his role, a role that arguable should increase as his defense has improved tremendously.

If Pritchard, who has experience playing with Tatum all the way back in high school, can develop into our starting point guard over the next 1.5 seasons like he did a 6MOY on the same timeline, then we’ll be in position to give him an early extension at another team friendly number that would still represent a massive pay bump for him.

As for Simons, you CAN increase his value by having him come off the bench. He’s probably cooked as a starter (defensively). Unless that can change early on, getting him to accept a bench role, a role he will likely need to have a long career, would give the Celtics an opportunity to extend him on a more reasonably salary reflective of that role, something like a 2 year 30mil extension. If he excels in that role, suddenly you have a top 10 6th man on what amounts to the MLE, which is a great deal in the NBA of tomorrow, arguably today.

The logic is pretty simple. Pritchard is a better basketball player. By a significant margin. No further argument is needed. It also helps that the one thing Simons is better at than Pritchard, finishing, is something we need more drastically on the bench than we do in the starting lineup.

I don’t feel strongly either way, but here’s the reasons to start PP and bench Simons

1. get a whole season of PP playing starters in starter minutes to see what it looks like in a year we are not contender
2. see if Simons how Simons deals with a bench role and to see if he’s a future 6 man if Pritchard looks like a legit starter
3. Probably also knocks down Simons’ stats which makes him easier to re sign at a value closer yo what he’s actually worth (instead of the inflated number he is at now and probably wants to stay at)

Simons coming in to play against non-starters is my primary reason for wanting him as 6th man. He won’t start for other teams either

Simons isn’t a good nba player. I dont want to start PP either, but hes better than Simons at winning nba games. Simons will either look good enough for someone to trade for him or they will let his contract expire. Best place for him to look good is off the bench against other team’s benches.

I love JB and don’t mean this as a slight but I could 100% see Simons being our leading scorer this year. I personally doubt he stays on the bench all year. I just hope him and Pritchard never share the court cause defensively that backcourt would b atrocious