NBA Rumors: Another Team Expected To Join Ben Simmons Sweepstakes

 

While most teams are just fighting to put eight men on a roster from night to night, most trade talks have cooled off. But as suggested by NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, once teams start getting some players back, talks will heat up once again, and one team he believes will be in the heat of the Ben Simmons talks is the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Woj figures the Cavs, off to a great start this season, will be a team to watch. The trade deadline is about six weeks away (February 10), and he believes the Cavs will join the others — Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves — who've been at the forefront of talks with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Here’s an interesting thing to watch: the Cleveland Cavaliers, who before they went on this really incredible start to the season, had been engaged with Philly on Simmons. They’ve got some really intriguing assets either in a straight deal with Philly or perhaps a three or four team deal and we reported earlier J.B. Bickerstaff agreed to a new extension today through ’26-’27, but this is a team in Cleveland that’s just a game out of third place.

The Cavs are 19-13 to start the season, only a half-game back of the Miami Heat for 4th in the conference, and a game-and-a-half out of 3rd. Woj notes that while Cleveland has a young team on the rise, with all their key pieces — Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley — being 23 or younger, Ben Simmons would fit into that timeline, being only 25 himself.

The Cavaliers are already one of the better defensive teams in the league; adding Ben Simmons would make them a very tough team to score on. 

The Sixers, in the meantime, are at .500, just one game out of dropping out of the Play-In. They need to act fast if they are to avoid wasting a year of Joel Embiid's prime, and to rescue their season. 

Photo Credit:  Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports