Everybody’s talking about the Philadelphia 76ers right now, but not exactly for the best reasons.
Ben Simmons is eager to be traded and it doesn’t seem like the franchise will be able to hold on to the former first-overall pick. But the true issue is that they won’t be able to trade him at his real value either.
Even so, some believe that this will be for the best, as his relationship and fit with Joel Embiid have never been that good.
That’s the case with former Bulls guard Jay Williams, who recently said that the two young stars don’t get along that well:
“See I think there’s something between Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, and let me tell you why I think this way,” claimed Williams in an interview, as quoted by Essentially Sports. “Couple of weeks ago when Joel Embiid extends that key, it’s the first time I’ve seen Joel Embiid do something like that. I actually praised him for that because this is the leader that you need to be. But that’s not the case between these 2. There have been so many reports about them not talking, these guys not hanging. And I’m not saying you need to be best friends when you’re teammates with somebody to win a championship, but it seems like they’ve been so far off.”
That contradicts a report from Kyle Neubeck of Philly Voice. According to him, Embiid still has faith in the duo and believes that they can win a championship together:
“Though it doesn’t look good right now, the Sixers continue to insist that their preferred outcome at this point is to bring Simmons back and try to work through this. Embiid has publicly stumped for Simmons and privately insisted they can turn this around if they simply get him back in the gym and around the team. Rivers does not believe this will be an issue in the locker room, using an example from his own playing days to show these situations can be rectified,” read the report.
Right now, it doesn’t seem like Simmons and the franchise can just bury the hatchet and make amends, so we’ll have to wait and see how this story unfolds.
