The Ben Simmons situation continues to escalate on a daily basis. The former first overall pick wants out of the City of Brotherly Love and they continue to look for a trade partner.
Nonetheless, there isn’t much interest in trading away multiple assets for a wantaway player. Daryl Morey doesn’t want to take a penny on the dollar, so he’s being inflexible with his demands for Simmons.
That’s why the Minnesota Timberwolves are the only team in a position to make a run at Simmons, as they’re pretty high on him and would be willing to move some pieces to get the job done, as per NBA insider Jon Krawczynski:
“Jon Krawczynski: I believe the Timberwolves are the team in the league right now that most want Ben Simmons. I think that the Ben Simmons market across the league is pretty dry,” reported HoopsHype.
Krawczynski said in his podcast that the Sixers would gladly take either Karl-Anthony Towns or Anthony Edwards straight up for Simmons.
Nonetheless, the Timberwolves are reluctant to move either of those players, and the relationship between Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns could also make things quite difficult.
The Timberwolves would have to give away Jaden McDaniels, Malik Beasley, multiple picks, and salary fillers; or well try and put together a trade around D’Angelo Russell, which could upset Towns.
But, in reality, it’s likely that the Timberwolves would need to get at least another team involved in any potential Ben Simmons trade.
Philadelphia would welcome those unprotected picks from Minnesota to try and flip them for another star. So, it seems like GM Gersson Rosas has a couple of decisions to make if he’s really determined to land Simmons before the start of the season.
