The NBA trade rumors continue as an incoming rookie is already exercising some power play.
It is commonly believed that rookies are powerless to choose the team that drafts them, guess again. While there is no direct way to control your destination, the draftee, or specifically his agent, has different methods to discourage other teams from drafting their client.
One of the worst kept secrets in the NBA was that the reason why Kobe Bryant slipped to 13th in the 1996 Draft is because his agent told teams that he would refuse to play for any other franchise. The story was featured in Lakers Nation.
Not much has changed 20 years later, except that players can be more brazen with their preference. In a feature from The Vertical at Yahoo Sports, Simmons is using the Lakers market as leverage in his shoe deal offers as Nick DePaula explained.
"As it stands, Simmons has five-year endorsement offers from adidas and Nike. Adidas is offering a $10 million deal that also includes a $2 million signing bonus and a $1 million incentive bonus for being named Rookie of the Year," DePaula revealed.
"Nike is offering $7.5 million over five years with fewer performance incentives than the adidas contract structure. Nike, which presented second to Simmons last week, has shown an unwillingness to budge, sources said. Both offers are considered fair for a top pick."
What Simmons' camp is hoping for is that Nike would match the adidas offer and they presume that ending up with the Lakers would be the final push for Nike to cave in.
They were one pick short of that goal as the Philadelphia 76ers landed the first pick, but all is not lost for Simmons if a trade scenario from Silver Screen and Roll plays out.
In their proposal, the Lakers would send Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, take away protection from their 2017 first round pick and also throw in unprotected first round picks in 2019 and 2021 for the first overall pick (Ben Simmons). The only caveat is that Clarkson is a restricted free agent, so the Lakers need to sign him to a contract before trading him.
The Lakers are known to make these type of deals happen and it helps that Simmons also wants to join the Lakers. If the Sixers draft him against his will, Simmons can hold out and cause a deadlock. For Philadelphia, it would be a waste of a first overall pick and it might be prudent for them to just take the Lakers' package.
For the Lakers, they might compromise their future (again!) but they would have both Simmons and Ingram. This might help them attract free agents.
This scenario is purely speculative but it is based on Simmons' public "Lakers or bust" stand.