Bill Simmons had his buddy Joe House on his latest podcast to break down an early version of his infamous trade value list. Simmons isn’t creating a list of the best players in the league. Rather, he’s determining which players have the most trade value. For example, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Stephen Curry are untradeable, while teams may blanch at Bradley Beal’s contract.
Simmons had Karl-Anthony Towns at No. 27 on the list, immediately above John Collins.
“Look, statistically, looks great,” said Simmons. “Awesome basketball reference page. He had one of the dumber playoff series against Memphis, which we talked about a lot on this podcast. Just very bizarre, up and down, strange decisions in the fourth quarter.
“He’s hurt now, doesn’t fit with Gobert. I think that’s an even more bizarre combo, and talked – I don’t want to rehash stuff we’ve already talked about on the pod – but has a huge extension coming, is the other piece with him.”
“That’s the problem,” House responded.
“And it’s even kind of worse than the [Bradley] Beal thing because I don’t even know what your outs are,” continued Simmons. “If you’re Minnesota, you’re basically gonna be paying, $50 million in 2025, $54 million in ‘26, and $58 million in ‘27, and then he has a player option in ‘28 for $62.062 million, which I’m already pretty sure he’s gonna exercise.
“Right now, he’s at $33 million, and he can’t be traded until July.
“Oh, he has a 10 percent trade bonus, so if you trade for him, it’s 10 percent higher than that.
“Twenty-seven might be too high for him.”
“You know, he really shouldn’t be on the list,” House avers. “He doesn’t have trade value.”
“Well, he’s 24 and 12 a night,” countered Simmons.
“That’s a poison pill contract, though,” House responded.
“If you’re like, Charlotte, I don’t know,” Simmons offered.
“So you can get to the second round of the playoffs?” House responded rhetorically.
“I don’t know,” said Simmons.
“There’s like four franchises where he would make sense, and it’s in that category,” said House. “It’s the Charlottes and Washingtons of the world. He would make perfect sense, he would be great in Washington.”
“Beal for Towns?” Simmons offered.
“Done!” House exclaimed. “Sign me up!”
“I think you have to throw in something,” asserted Simmons. “You’re throwing in something else.”
“Not anything good,” joked House.
“You having to root for Towns might be one of the funniest things that’s happened since I’ve known you,” said Simmons, laughing. “Talking yourself into him, ‘Towns was unbelievable last night.’ I’d be like, what are you talking about?”
“I would immediately talk myself into him,” House admitted.
Simmons is right here. It’s not like Towns doesn’t have trade value. Simmons also nearly has him in the top 25 on his list, so he’s not calling him a slouch, either. But Towns has certainly fallen from grace in his eyes. In the Gersson Rosas era, Towns was the player who most general managers said they’d want to build their team around.
House is likely exaggerating when he says Towns has no trade value, but he makes a fair point. How many teams on the brink of contention would trade for him right now? How many would want to take on that contract? Unfortunately, Towns’ defensive shortcomings and relentless complaining over fouls have sullied his value. So has all the losing.
Fortunately, it looks like Simmons will place Anthony Edwards in his top 15. If Edwards asserts himself and keeps the Wolves afloat while Towns is out, he could find his way into the top 10.
