It is no secret that the Philadelphia 76ers and Ben Simmons are trying to end their relationship with one another. Ben Simmons has asked for a trade in the aftermath of the 76ers-Hawks series, but thus far his trade request hasn’t been granted. He has also not played for the 76ers during the 2021-22 season.
A recent report by Marc Stein revealed that GM Daryl Morey wants a “player from the Damian Lillard/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tier” in return for Ben Simmons in any potential trade.
The 76ers have essentially completed a third of their season at 14-12 but league sources say that president of basketball operations Daryl Morey continues to hold firm on his ambitions in a Simmons deal, seeking a return package for Simmons headlined by a player from the Damian Lillard/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tier.
This isn’t the first time that the Philadelphia 76ers have been linked with Damian Lillard. A previous report suggested that the 76ers are reportedly one of the teams that are waiting on Damian Lillard to make a trade request. We’ll see if that ends up happening, but Damian Lillard has recently publically stated that he is not asking for a trade.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is an interesting player to potentially target. He is on a rebuilding franchise, and perhaps a trade package headlined by Ben Simmons and future assets could help sway the Oklahoma City Thunder into trading him.
Regardless of what high-level player they get in a Ben Simmons trade, it’s clear that the 76ers have been hurt by not having either Ben Simmons or the players that they’d potentially get in return from a trade. They were the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference last year, but have hovered around the middle of the pack this year.
We’ll see what happens in the future, and hopefully, this situation gets resolved. It would be great to see Ben Simmons play again, whether it be in Philadelphia or for another franchise.
