Seems pretty reasonable. He played better when he got consistent playing time and wanted to progress in his career. I think he made the right choice.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/s...photo-13137789
He not only expected to be paid more, but he also didn't like having to deal with the team's politics, he wanted minutes guaranteed and a role. The guy is ambitious and wanted more. He didn't think he was going to progress in his career any further with the Spurs."It just business," Simmons told the Express-News. "It's not disappointing to me at all. That's just how it is. ... I wasn't disappointed about anything. I believe everything happened for a reason.
"I'm really not surprised," Simmons continued. "I didn't know what to expect. I was just trying to take it a day at a time and see what the opportunity was going to be."
"No one expected it to be this tough," said Simmons. "A guy like me still has to deal with politics at the end of the day. I was a low-tier guy still, after what I did, it still wasn't enough. I know that. I was expecting more, but I'm happy. It's $20 million. People don't get that every day."Frankly selfishness is going to be around in this new post Timmy era. Lamarcus allegedly disgruntled and now this. How is Kawhi going to get guys to play with him (other stars?) if LMA is unhappy and his stats have declined after coming to the Spurs, and roleplayers with ambition like Simmons want bigger roles and feel like they can't get it here?"I want to be in position to play a decent amount of minutes per game," said Simmons. "I feel like I can excel playing enough minutes per game. I explained that to Pop (Gregg Popovich) and he understand that. ... I want to be able to continue to improve and still make a name for myself and I wasn't going to do that (with the Spurs). Not like I wanted to."
In a way, he played nightly. I know guys hate him, but Kyle was benched most of the season and it wasn't bc he was losing games when he played. It was to give way to Juice's ego and his desire to improve. He got his wish, he even got an amplified role in the playoffs due to Kawhi's and Tony's injury and it still wasn't enough. I wish him the best. He's going to get as many shots as he wants in Orlando.
The Manu brigade and the Patty brigade can chime in. When they both played with Juice, Juice was the 3'rd, or 4th scoring option even from the bench. In garbage time he tended to hog shots and in reality there were youngsters like Dijon and rookies whose only opportunities at the time were garbage time so it always kind of shocked me in a negative fashion to see Juice stacking numbers in trash time when he was always a rotation player and the others weren't.
Bottom line, yea I wanted him back, but I could see the seeds of some conflict brewing. Juice almost talking like he wants his own team and he hasn't arrived to that point.
Seems pretty reasonable. He played better when he got consistent playing time and wanted to progress in his career. I think he made the right choice.
Simmons is right, Pop and the Spurs held him back, never gave him a proper chance to polish and develop his game to its full potential.
Pops ego got in the way, again.
Good on Simmons for doing what he needed to do.
I dont think he deserved 50m, but we didn't need to pay him that to keep him.
Dude would have been a way better starter next season than G-League Green....
No doubt we'll get Manu back though....![]()
that, he ain't worth 16.5 million per
yeah, Andrew Gaze!!
That 12:01 AM Patty Mills deal continues to the Spurs...
.The 27-year-old Houston native walked into free agency with the intentions of securing a deal of at least $50 million. But it has not been a good offseason for many restricted free agents
The Spurs made him unrestricted and he couldn't touch 50M. I mean, a two week span in the playoffs vs two full seasons of sub par basketball and he thinks he's worth 50M. Who the does he think he is?![]()
Simmons probably did the right thing for himself, even if that seems a little selfish on its face. He is 27 and wanted the pay day. This might be his only big pay day, honestly.
Yea, Patty hasn't quite reached that pre-injury level. I was more of a Mills fan than a Simmons fan; but for the make-up of this team, Simmons would have been the better asset going forward.
I suppose Simmons can afford to take less with that big ass shoe deal he's about to sign.![]()
It wasn't just Mills...
Juice had ambition and wanted a bigger roles, shots, etc. He wanted full starter minutes bottom line.
Now the rumors of the Danny trade make perfect sense.
Guys here were arguing for it anyways. I legit think Spurs tried to make it happen but it was chancy. The Danny trade didn't fall through... Simmons didn't take their starting offer, they sent him to the FA market.. he didn't get offer sheets bc the market was not what anyone expected. I can see him seeing the spurs draft even more guards, seeing reports of Manu "leaning in" to coming back and he knew he wasn't going to get what he wanted. At that point him and his agent started to look at trades, etc.
Eventually when the trades didn't go through either, he simply asked out and the Spurs let him go per his request.
The Spurs weren't trying to trade Green to give Simmons a role. They were keeping Simmons knowing that if they got anything of value in a Green trade, they could open up $8 Million in cap space while being able to have a two-guard who knew the system. If the goal had been to make Simmons the starter no matter what, they could have done that easily by just not signing Gay and moving Green to the third-wing spot with Anderson and the prospects fighting for the final spot.
The issue is that in contrast to them "trying to make Simmons a starter" the Spurs weren't willing to even guarantee a backup role for him. Dude wasn't going to beat out Green or Kawhi (obviously), and he routinely showed himself to be a net-negative player while guys like Anderson were net-positives. Gay may well play primarily PF, but he will also get minutes at SF. White or Forbes getting into the rotation or Manu coming back would mean Simmons projected to be out of the top-10 altogether.
So he peaced out and blamed politics. He thinks the way he played against the Warriors was somehow above-average. Like he was brave for "showing up" when he took a bunch of shots and got inefficient points while the Warriors focused on stopping everyone else. And of course, some fans think the same thing. I'm happy for him that he's going to a situation where he can get a better chance at those minutes than he would have in SA. I'm even gladder than he's gone, though.
This guy has a desire to get better and his defense is up there with Green's. Should have guaranteed him the sixth man spot.
Politics meaning Murray was getting more start treatment that he was?
I think everyone wants to play and its true that Simmons should have received more minutes in the regular season. However if you got Green and Manu ahead of you in the lineup and you can't play the PG position or are too small for the SF position then I can't see a lot of playing time. Even in Orlando he's behind two other players in the pecking order.
Spurs play a lot more disciplined offense that as a consequence gives them a record much better than the talent that's in the team.
There are plenty of guys in this league that have a lot of talent and do show a lot of impressive moves. But many of them are just inefficient players.
Simmons is okay, but for some reason he lost his confidence in shooting the 3 point shot.
Dedmon is okay, but his offensive capabilities were limited.
I think that both were held back though. You could call that politics in the sense that many players are higher in the pecking order. You will find that in every team. You can't out show folks that are ahead of you.
What I noticed though about Simmons was that he disliked Murray showing off. They had bad chemistry in last year's SL in that Murray wasn't acknowledging Simmons. There is a pecking order to things, Simmons knows this and expects it. Pop has always asked him to play in a controlled way, that may of course be interpreted as deferring to other players!
Jonathon? If it weren't for the Spurs organization, you'd still be playing in Sugarland. Good luck with your minutes and lack of winning or playoffs in Orlando.
Didn't Simmons have a cute little quote about how " you have to be tough to play for pop?" ...it was something along those lines anyways. Is he not tough enough?
Its a day for san antonio when you let Simmons walk and keep Manure and ty Bricks
Now say it without crying
Orlando got him for 3 years/$20 mil
Politics regarding Pop n Porker more likely I suspect.
Also curious to see how many millions Manu gets. Very happy with his season but the 16 mil scam that sent Boban packing, that was soo unDuncanlike.
I respect Simmons on him wanting more minutes etc..
But this people should overreact due to a couple games against GSW. I've always liked Simmons and it sucks to see him leave but his mindset as a player/career is different then Spurs franchise
When a person puts personal over team it can become somewhat a problem
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