The biggest story ahead of the Feb. 10 NBA trade deadline is whether or not Ben Simmons finds a new home. Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey has been very patient while Simmons sits out, with no intention of pulling the trigger on a bad deal. There have been reports suggesting Morey is more than willing to keep Simmons past the deadline in hopes of getting a bigger fish in a trade down the road.
However, The Athletic's Sam Amick recently said on The Gastroenteritis Blues podcast that all the teams he has talked to think a deal will get done before the deadline:
“To the question of ‘Is the deal gonna go down before the deadline?’ For whatever reason, the mood among every team I’ve talked to is that the answer is probably yes, that something will probably happen before the deadline.” – @sam_amick on the lastest @GastroBluesPod https://t.co/PQhAbX9CbW
— The Gastroenteritis Blues (@GastroBluesPod) January 16, 2022
This obviously flies in the face of the other reports suggesting this thing is going to drag out for the long haul. At this point, who really knows what's going to happen? Morey has been holding firm with his Simmons trade demands and the Sixers are on a hot streak as they rise up the Eastern Conference standings without the three-time All-Star in the lineup. Sixers star Joel Embiid is supposedly on board with this patient approach.
Other teams might think it's crazy for the Sixers to keep him Simmons around for a full season without him playing, but perhaps Morey really will go that route and try to get a superstar in a trade in the offseason. James Harden, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal and Jaylen Brown are all at the top of Morey's list. Pulling that off still feels like a long shot, and maybe Morey winds up pulling the trigger on something else ahead of the deadline, but this seems totally up in the air right now.
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