As reported Shams Charania for The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski for ESPN, the Sixers are in talks with Rich Paul to refocus the departure of Ben Simmons. The agent and CEO of Klutch Sports would have discussed with his client an alleged return to Philadelphia, which the franchise would see with good eyes. It has been more than a month since Simmons declared himself in default by refusing to attend training camp, a promise he has kept despite costing him a good amount of his salary. Charania points out that this would be done with the sole objective of keeping Simmons in the market, while Wojnarowski only stresses that his possible return is under discussion.
None of them finish clarifying whether the player’s will is to join the team’s discipline or remain outside of it. Any solution seems strange in a broken relationship in all eyes. Even so, in case the return ends up happening, several alternatives arise. The first and unlikely is that Simmons enters the team dynamic as if nothing had happened in order to revalue in the face of an imminent exit. The second would be to remove him from the competition in a move similar to the one the Rockets carried out with John Wall or the Thunder with Al Horford. Finally, Simmons’ move could be due to a purely logistical issue that would help him evaluate his options together with management.
In any case, the reopening of conversations could mean a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. The latest rumors suggest that Simmons’ devaluation is getting worse by the day. Yesterday, it was leaked that the player saw no inconvenience in playing for the Sacramento Kings, a team that has made it clear that Fox and Haliburton, unfortunately for Daryl Morey, are not for sale. The Sixers’ chief operating officer is within his rights to be ambitious and not undersell valuable cash, but it may be his only option at this point. Paradoxically, everything indicates that Simmons’ return to Philadelphia means that he is definitely away from the Sixers.
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