The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the top teams in the league led by a young star duo in Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. The team has had a lot of success in the regular season with them leading the way, but they have yet to have a breakthrough in the East.
With Daryl Morey in tow as the team’s new President of Basketball Operations, there has been a lot of thought that he would trade one of the two stars in order to find better fits. He is a guy who has a reputation of being one of the more active front office members in terms of making trades so it makes sense.
The big trade rumor has been that the Sixers would send Simmons to the Houston Rockets for disgruntled superstar James Harden. A report came out that Simmons was available in Harden trade talks, but Morey then denied that report saying that the team is firm in their stance of wanting to keep Simmons.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst then hopped on his podcast, “The Hoop Collective” and he believes that claim is a little phony:
Daryl Morey, in my view, and this is not a character assassination, it’s just a statement, he is not credible with what he says publicly about his trade intention. He comes out the other day and says, ‘We’re not going to trade Ben Simmons’. I do not find that credible. In addition to the fact that very good reporters have reported that Ben Simmons is available and I’ve heard myself that Ben Simmons is available.
The Sixers seem to be doing everything they can on their end to be sure that Simmons is fine and to douse the fires a bit. Along with Morey’s claim, coach Doc Rivers called Simmons to let him know that he will not be traded. Whether the team goes back on their word or not remains another storyline to watch with this team that was already worth watching to begin with. [lawrence-related id=40427,40423,40418]