NBA TRADE TALK: TDL over

[Kammrath]

From Marc Stein:

Another source close to the situation told me: “Right now, I don’t see a scenario where Ben is back in Philly."

The source meant it with permanence. As in: Simmons’ career with the Sixers, to the source, is over.

Philadelphia looks no closer to a trade to bring an end to this stalemate.

Weeks of Philadelphia’s Simmons talks with various teams haven't brought the Sixers to the brink of a deal, largely because Morey is the one faced with trying to get commensurate value for his All-Star and still asking for so much in return in his determination to recoup a trade package that, as one source put it, keeps Philadelphia in title contention. History, however, says that Philadelphia’s president of basketball operations shouldn’t count on getting a glittering package back when a deal finally materializes — his own history.

You'll recall that Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and two future first-round picks were the price tag for Morey's Rockets when they acquired Harden from Oklahoma City in October 2012. Five years later, when Paul forced his way to Houston, Morey merely surrendered Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell, Patrick Beverley and a future first-round pick.

Yet league sources maintain, as noted above, that the Sixers are actively trying to convince Simmons to rejoin the team even though he has made it clear to management that he doesn't want to spend another second as a Sixer.

Toronto, Minnesota, Cleveland, San Antonio and Sacramento — all of them, league sources say, have engaged with Philadelphia in Simmons trade talks. They're also all bubble playoff teams at best based in markets not known for attracting free agents and surely love the idea of acquiring Simmons when the 25-year-old is locked into three guaranteed seasons on his contract after this one.

None of those aforementioned teams, though, has a perennial All-Star around whom to assemble a trade package. The Timberwolves could get there with Karl-Anthony Towns, but Philadelphia doesn’t need a center and Minnesota has made Towns and promising second-year swingman Anthony Edwards unavailable in trade talks anyway.

Morey is surely hoping that a slow start for Portland or Sacramento could lead to the sort of early tension that prompts Damian Lillard to finally ask for a trade, or the sort of desperation that nudges the Kings into making De’Aaron Fox available. Morey frankly needs an assist of some sort.

Because of the way his contract is structured, Simmons was scheduled to receive half of his $33 million salary this season in separate 25% installments on Aug. 1 and again next weekend on Oct. 1.

Any fines that the Sixers try to assess in response to Simmons no-shows, according to league rules, could not be docked from checks until November, after regular-season games commence, because that’s the standard starting point for when paychecks begin to be issued leaguewide.

Given that Simmons will have already collected half of his 2021-22 salary before the Sixers can actually inflict a cash penalty, it's thus possible that the advance payments will embolden Simmons even more to hold firm on his holdout to try to pressure Morey into trading him before he wants to.

Yet there is likewise great curiosity about the NBA's potential reaction. Would Commissioner Adam Silver go beyond exerting mere backchannel pressure on Simmons to report and step in to sanction him if he doesn’t? Several league insiders think so, but I’m not so sure.