Even as Joel Embiid tears up the NBA basketball world, an injury to his co-star James Harden has made things tremendously difficult for the 76ers, who are just 7-7 on the season so far.
Their position, coupled with Embiid’s transcendent play, has put immense pressure on the franchise to make a win-now move and maximize Joel Embiid’s greatness.
This is why the Sixers have reportedly been active in trade talks, with one recent report even claiming they have sniffed around on the possibility of acquiring Kevin Durant.
Okay, so that’s the bad part of history repeating itself. But what about when the repeat has the chance to be a net positive? Like when the Sixers were reportedly interested in bringing Kevin Durant to the City of Brotherly Love over the summer. Surely that couldn’t possibly repeat itself, right? Not after the Brooklyn Nets and Durant totally, 100% buried the hatchet by agreeing to “move forward together.”
Guess again.
According to Heavy Sports insider Sean Deveney, the Sixers will almost certainly inquire about Durant at a time when the Nets are once again under a mountain of internal and external scrutiny.
“There is no doubt the Sixers have asked on Durant, they did in the summer, and will keep asking about him,” an Eastern Conference executive told Deveney.
Ben Simmons Deal May Disqualify Sixers From Durant Trade
The 76ers don’t have much left to offer, and they would likely need a third team to find the assets to bring in a guy like Durant. Besides that, the Ben Simmons trade could also hold things up.
According to Deveney, the 76ers may have made things more difficult for themselves after the Simmons deal in light of the star swingman’s abysmal return to the court so far.
“But the Nets are going to be a little put off by them already because of the Ben Simmons thing because they feel like they were set up to give away James Harden all along. So the Sixers burned them once, do the Nets want to go back and say, OK, sure, we’ll do a KD deal, too.”
According to the executive, the only sticking point could be what the Sixers have to fork over in return for Durant. And buckle up for more déjà vu.
When the Nets traded Simmons to Brooklyn, they said he was healthy and ready to go. Instead, he missed the entire second half of that season for the Nets and has come out to start this campaign looking like a bottom-tier rotation player at best.
It makes sense why, after that, the Nets would be hesitant to strike another deal with that team.
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