The Philadelphia 76ers have made it clear that they plan to trade Ben Simmons at some point. Early in the process, the front office put its asking price for him out there. Now it’s just a matter of someone meeting it.
Either in the offseason or at some point next year, the three-time All-Star will get a fresh start elsewhere.
One team that has expressed a ton of interest in adding Simmons is the Minnesota Timberwolves.
To date, however, nothing has actually come to fruition on that end.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, one major roadblock is continuing to prevent a Simmons-Minnesota deal: the necessity of a third-team’s involvement.
“Both sides want the same thing, which is a trade of Ben Simmons out of Philadelphia,” he said. “. . . The Sixers started conversations a few weeks before the draft with teams on trying to figure out which offer might be the best. I think they made some headway with some teams, but at the end of the day, they don’t have a deal done.
“I’m told they’re continuing to talk to teams, Minnesota is one of the most interested teams in Ben Simmons, but a package with them would require a third team, and those deals aren’t easy, so what I would expect is a climax to this situation to occur closer to the start of training camp because that’s when there’s going to be pressure,” he continued.
“Are you going to want to bring Ben Simmons into training camp? Are you gonna want to try to get something done before camp starts? I think that’s really where we’re gonna see all this stuff start to climax.”
Simmons has made it clear that he is ready to go to extreme lengths to get out of Philly. He is reportedly prepared for things to ‘get ugly’ in the process.
Will the Timberwolves be able to figure something out before things come to that? Time will tell.
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