Would the Phoenix Suns swap rosters with the Philadelphia 76ers?
By Adam Maynes
Yes, the Phoenix Suns are only a few games into the regular season, but they have not looked this good in many years. But if given the opportunity, would they swap entire rosters with the Philadelphia 76ers?
Strictly just for fun, let us look at the Phoenix Suns and Philadelphia 76ers position-by-position, and see if there is any reason to think that Phoenix might want to hang onto their entire roster over that of Philadelphia.
Point Guard
Ricky Rubio, Jevon Carter, and Tyler Johnson vs Ben Simmons and Raul Neto
Yeah, this one is an easy one: the Phoenix Suns would swap.
Granted, Ben Simmons still does not shoot any 3’s, something that people were presuming he was going to fix this offseason (which included a number of videos of him launching them up successfully), however the kid is a triple-double threat every night.
If he were closer to Ricky Rubio’s age (Simmons is 23 while Rubio is 29), this might be more of a push since Rubio at least attempts to shoot 3’s which is helpful to some degree (even though he only makes them at about 32% of the time on his career – and Rubio is just as good of a passer as Simmons is), but at this rate, their ages make a big difference.
While it now is beginning to seem like Simmons is attempting to go his entire career without ever making a 3, one cannot help but think that at some point he will eventually add the outside shot to his repertoire making himself an even more well-rounded player – and even more valuable.
Off the bench, the Phoenix Suns absolutely have better depth as right now I would take Jevon Carer over anybody the Sixers have backing Simmons up – and I am actually pretty bullish on Tyler Johnson because of his two-position flexibility.
To that degree, there is no doubt that Philadelphia wouldn’t want to trade bench for bench in a heart-beat if it was somehow possible.
In the end though, Phoenix’s depth over Philadelphia’s is not enough to at least swap the position, thus the answer is: Yes. The Phoenix Suns would trade their entire point guard group for Philadelphia’s.