The Philadelphia 76ers took care of a very important piece of business on Tuesday morning when they inked Joel Embiid to a 4-year extension. Now that that’s taken care of, they now must focus on putting the right pieces around him to win a title.
The hope was that Ben Simmons would be the one who would team up with Embiid to guide the Sixers to a championship, but it appears that the franchise has a different opinion after his playoff performance.
The Sixers have been taking trade calls on the talented, yet maddening, 25-year old 3-time All-Star and their asking price remains high. As training camp continues to approach in late September, the team is still looking to make a move, but they want a win-now player to help win a title.
Per Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN’s Get Up, the Minnesota Timberwolves have persistently engaged Philadelphia in a potential Simmons deal:
Philadelphia has continued to try to see if they could find a deal for Simmons before the start of camp. They have not had success in really getting any traction for the high asking price they’re asking for, for Ben Simmons. Minnesota is one team that has been persistent with Philadelphia, but they’ve needed to have really a third and even four teams in those kind of deals to get back Philly what it would want. And I think for the Sixers, if they’re gonna trade Ben Simmons, they got to get back players right now who continue on that Joel Embiid timeline of having an MVP level player in his prime, that you’re trying to win championships with, and that’s a hard package to get back for Ben Simmons, right now. There’s certainly there’s a very distinct possibility he’s going to have to come back to training camp with them next season. Remember, he’s got four years left on his deal. He’s nowhere near free agency, and they’re going to have to, it seems, if they don’t find a deal, try to increase his value get him off to a good start next year, and then revisit trades during the season, but things can change and certainly Philly’s still motivated to find a deal between now and the start of the season.
"Minnesota's one team that has been persistent with Philadelphia [in pursuit of a Ben Simmons trade]."
—@wojespn 👀 pic.twitter.com/FKHIT5keaX
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) August 17, 2021
The Timberwolves could put together an offer centered around D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley, but those two are not enough to get the Sixers over the top. The team will remain patient as they have their eyes set on Damian Lillard and it does appear that Simmons will have to report to camp in September despite reports that he is willing to sit out in order to get a deal done.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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