The Philadelphia 76ers will certainly field a ton of trade offers between now and the Feb. 10 trade deadline as they continue to push forward with their season.
The Sixers are still considered one of the contenders in the East due to the elite play of Joel Embiid and how he has thrown the franchise on his back. Therefore, they will want to take advantage of his play and try and move on from Ben Simmons in order to bring in a player to help the big fella.
However, Philadelphia’s high asking price looks like it will not be matched as they are asking for one of the top 25 players in the league for Simmons. The Sacramento Kings were a team trying to get in on Simmons, but the asking price was too much for them and they dropped out of the race.
While it is known that the Sixers are willing to wait for James Harden in the offseason, there are still two other teams that are in on Simmons. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, those two teams are the Atlanta Hawks and the Minnesota Timberwolves:
I think there’s there’s no shortage of teams who would like Ben Simmons on the roster, but the list of teams who are willing to meet the Sixers price or even really engage with the Sixers now is shorter and I think there are teams like Atlanta. They have certainly interest in him there. There are a number of others. Minnesota has interest, but is there a pathway to a deal? And I think that’s the hard part for the Sixers right now is how far are they going to have to lower their asking price to get a deal done at the deadline and for Philadelphia, listen, they have the support, internally ownership, even Joel Embiid in understanding and we’ve talked about this a lot that if they do a deal that doesn’t bring back a package that allows them to compete for a championship, it doesn’t make any sense not what Ben Simmons signed for years forward, but we certainly understand the pressure because of the way Embiid’s playing.
As the Sixers head into their Saturday matchup with the Kings, they are 29-19 and are right there in the thick of it to earn the No. 1 seed in the East again. That is why they are willing to wait on Simmons and have hope that he can rejoin the team after the deadline as Woj adds:
This is a team 10 games, 29-19 I think as we speak today, just two games out of first place in the East, and I think there’s always still going to be the hope that they get past the trade deadline, and somehow they can convince Ben Simmons to return and play for this team. He has been adamant that that’s not going to happen. I don’t think it’s an expectation that it’s going to happen, but it is still a hope in Philly. Listen, I think they need to be prepared that he’s going to sit out the season and he needs to be prepared for the fact that they may not find a trade for him until at least the summer.
It will be surprising to see Simmons sit out an entire season, but if this gets him to where he wants to go, then so be it at this point.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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