KEY POINTS

  • Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers are past the point of no return
  • The Australian has not been returning any calls from Joel Embiid
  • The Sixers need to be realistic of their expected returns in a Simmons trade

Ben Simmons’ marriage with the Philadelphia 76ers have reached unsalvageable levels after they met a disastrous end to their championship aspirations last season when they were beaten by the Atlanta Hawks in seven games.

As soon as the game ended, the always passionate Philadelphia crowd made sure Simmons heard them when they started hurling insults towards him on social media and across many basketball forums.

The dislike for Simmons reached its peak when the 6-foot-11 point forward decided to pass up on a dunk in Game 7, in Philadelphia no less.

Even co-star Joel Embiid and Sixers coach Doc Rivers could no longer hide their disdain for Simmons in the post-game press conference, with Embiid being the more vocal of the two as he threw subtle shots at Simmons throughout.

Jason Dumas, the host of 95.7 The Game, tweeted out that Simmons is reportedly not answering or returning any of Embiid’s calls and with the rest of the organization.

With everything seemingly finished, the Sixers have been “trying” to trade Simmons away.

Trying is in quotation marks because, for as much as they want to trade Simmons, they still believe they can get a superstar return for him.

The best example of this is when they tried to trade Simmons to the Toronto Raptors for Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, and the fourth pick in the 2021 NBA Draft (which ended up becoming Scottie Barnes).

The reality of the matter is this: no team wants to trade for a player who has been viewed as “the second coming of LeBron James” but decides not to take over in crunch time and passes up the ball when they needed a bucket.

For as much as the Sixers want to trade him for a monstrous package, it’s Simmons himself who is the problem.

The Sixers reportedly view Simmons as their key to getting Damian Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers, but unless Lillard himself asked for a trade, that’s not happening any time soon.

The Golden State Warriors have also considered trading for Simmons, but the worry is how well he’ll fit with Draymond Green.

Regardless of what happens next, the Sixers need to be smart about this and cut their losses while there’s still some lingering interest in Simmons.

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