Just one day after the Philadelphia 76ers were eliminated by the Toronto Raptors after a game winning shot by Kawhi Leonard, the offseason has officially kicked off for the 76ers.
According to Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports, a report says that the team could look at trading away point guard Ben Simmons for LeBron James.
"Fair or not, Simmons failing to add some semblance of a jump shot in Year 2 of his career is seen as a reason that Philadelphia has to put him on the trade block. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking by rival executives. There has been no indication from the Philly side that Simmons is being floated or will be this summer."
It’s early in that process. Leonard’s shot just fell through the net. But one Western Conference executive brought up a name that could be a Simmons trade target: LeBron James.
'I think they very well might explore that,' said a rival executive of Philadelphia.
James doesn’t have a no-trade clause, but he shares the same Klutch Sports agent with Ben Simmons in Rich Paul. James has two seasons left on his deal before he can become a free agent. After a disastrous offseason in which their president of basketball operations abruptly resigned and they struck out on their top two head coaching targets in Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue, do the Los Angeles Lakers honestly believe they can put together a championship contender in the next two seasons?
If the answer is no, trading James has to be on the table. And if you’re going to do that, there’s a short list of players that would be worthy of being traded for the King. Simmons is certainly good enough to be on it.
Many executives see a big shakeup in Philadelphia this summer and that also includes Brett Brown’s tenure in Philly is certainly going to come to an end.
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