News on Jan. 13 that the farce between Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers has made new progress, and this development may usher in the finale of the event.
Not long ago, a number of media reporters confirmed that Simmons' current agent company Rich Paul went to Philadelphia, has been in contact with the 76ers executives, and after the exchange of views between the two sides, a decision reached is: Simmons still has no plan to come back to play in a short period of time, and the 76ers plan to bring back a heavyweight player through a transaction.
In the course of the negotiations, it was clear that the 76ers were very passive, on the one hand they still wanted Simmons to come back to play (but was rejected); on the other hand, they made no progress in exploring a trade for Simmons, and the deadline for the trade on February 10 was getting closer and closer.
However, sources revealed that the 76ers are "casting a wide net and focusing on fishing" in trying to "trade Simmons", and the Portland Trail Blazers are one of their targets, although the team reiterated that they will not discuss Lillard as a trading chip, but are open to trading Simmons.
At present, the 76ers' strategy for trading Simmons is to try to trade through multiple parties, and finally achieve that they can get a top player in the league's top 25.