Are the Philadelpha 76ers willing to include Ben Simmons in a James Harden trade?
The pursuit for James Harden took another turn Thursday afternoon after it was reported that teams other than Brooklyn and Philadelphia were willing and beginning to jump into the potential bidding war for Harden.
Then, it took its biggest turn yet when it was followed up by a rumor that Philadelphia 76ers have signaled willingness to include Ben Simmons in a potential deal for Harden. If true, that has to be considered a huge game-changer in the growing market for Harden.
However, it wasn’t long after that another report emerged that kind of threw basketball twitter into a loop.
In response, 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey tells @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium: “We are not trading Ben Simmons — he is an important part of our future.” https://t.co/W6T7HQjjoP
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 18, 2020
At this point, it’s difficult to decipher what’s real and what’s not. What’s a smokescreen and what’s actual information coming from a reliable source. Not to say that Shams or Woj don’t exactly know what’s going on, but they could easily be fed wrong information to help push this narrative one way or another.
What many expect this saga to come down to is the Sixers, though. Ben Simmons is far and away the best individual talent that the Houston Rockets could likely get in any deal for Harden. If he’s included in any package, it’s likely one that the Rockets would accept.
Though, considering that James Harden is still on the Rockets, there’s a good chance that the Sixers have yet been willing to include Harden in any deal. This tells me that this recent report could be off. Maybe this is a smokescreen to get other teams to increase or add other pieces to its offers or perhaps it’s the Rockets trying to apply pressure on the Sixers to include Simmons in a trade.
One thing is clear – the end of this entire situation doesn’t appear near. This entire saga feels like something that is going to drag into the start of the season and, possibly, up until the NBA Trade Deadline.
Where will James Harden end up? At this point, anyone’s guess is as good as it gets in terms of a prediction. I don’t think there’s any leader in the clubhouse at the moment.