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Chuckery: Hawks need help, but not from Ben Simmons | Locked On Sports Atlanta

"When we go down the list of star players, I am staying as far away from Ben Simmons as I possibly can. I want nothing to do with Ben Simmons.”

ATLANTA — Go back in time to this year’s NBA trade deadline and one of the rumors was that the Atlanta Hawks were in the market potentially for a move on Ben Simmons.

Simmons was going to be traded and the Hawks were rumored to be looking into making a move for him. 

After the Hawks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Heat in 5 games, the narrative is the Hawks need to make a move for a star-level player to play alongside Trae Young and the rest of the pieces Atlanta has in place.

Rumors are now swirling about potential options, with noise being made for one of the two top players on the Jazz, Donovan Mitchell or Rudy Gobert, after reports that Gobert had asked that the team trade one of them. There’s also noise, again, for Ben Simmons to Atlanta. 

On 'Hittin’ Hard with Jon Chuckery' on Locked On Sports Atlanta, Chuckery said someone’s proposed a new trade of Ben Simmons and Cam Thomas for Clint Capela, Bogdan Bogdanovic and one of Atlanta’s first round picks.

“Look, I know the Hawks need defensive help and they could use another wing player and i understand all of that,” Chuckery said. “But when we go down the list of star players, I am staying as far away from Ben Simmons as I possibly can. I want nothing to do with Ben Simmons.”

Locked On Sports Atlanta is a new podcast feed from the Locked On Podcast Network featuring multiple shows focused on all the biggest stories in Atlanta sports. Subscribe today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!

He explains the first reason being that Simmons is going to have back surgery in the offseason, something he should’ve had months ago considering he didn’t play a game this season.

“He’s an Instagram model, he’s more worried about what outfits he’s wearing on the sidelines, he hasn’t shown that he has the heart to want to play basketball, there’s nothing about Ben Simmons I want for the Hawks,” Chuckery said.

He said he’s wiling to talk about other players possibly on the trade block like Mitchell, Gobert or even unrealistic guys like Zach LaVine. 

Chuckery said Simmons’ defense is great. And the Hawks need help defensively. But, their primary focus should be on the other side.

“If we learned anything from these playoffs, it’s that the Hawks need to find another scorer to go with Trae Young,” he said. “It was evident so many times…there’s no real option B for them.”

Hear more of Jon's thoughts on how the Hawks should handle the offseason on the DAILY Hittin' Hard podcast with Jon Chuckery, part of Locked On Sports Atlanta. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Locked On Sports Atlanta is a new podcast feed from the Locked On Podcast Network featuring multiple shows focused on all the biggest stories in Atlanta sports. Subscribe today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!

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