2022 Trade Deadline 'Trade Ideas

Just because Daryl Morey talks to every NBA media person, it does not mean other GMs have to pretend that he has any chance of convincing them that Ben Simmons has great trade value. Brooklyn is bad without Durant, but that is a short-term problem. He will eventually return, and the Nets will be a threat in the East this year. The big picture problem is that Durant and the Nets hitched their wagon to Kyrie who set fire to everything he touched in his previous stops, and -surprise, surprise- has done it again. What good is adding another diva with an outsized sense of self-importance and a complete lack of concern for anyone around him? They don’t need the drama. Ideally, aren’t they going to want to keep Durant and Harden together and build around them? Even if, by some odd chance, Harden reaches free agency next summer and only wants to go to Philadelphia (I am sure there is a long list of Angelenos who have only had eyes on living in Philadelphia), wouldn’t they rather re-route Simmons elsewhere when more teams are amenable to altering their squads? Who knows where the Clippers will be after this year? If Golden State comes up short in the playoffs, maybe they come around to realize that you can’t win a title and build for the future at the same time. Who knows where New Orleans and New York will be with their rosters. Maybe Houston wants to take a step forward and compete should they get another top 5 pick in their mix. After all, they will soon have to start giving OKC their first rounders because of the tire fire Morey left them. I just don’t see the reason why Brooklyn would really give much credence to Morey’s latest semi-annual trade whispers.

Harden could leave for nothing if a team has around $50 million in cap space to sign him. No team will have that much. San Antonio, Detroit, and Orlando have the most likely space available, but well south of that range. None of them seem likely to go spend it on a guard going into year 14 while also probably carrying 10-20 lbs more than he did three or four years ago, and it is also fair to point out they don’t seem like places Harden will want to go. It is easy to forget that OKC has $27 million in dead Kemba cap next year (took on all that money two years out to net them Tre Mann and nobody points out that Presti might not be the best man to handle all that future draft capital) to go with the SGA extension. Then again, OKC would not have been a likely destination either. I also don’t think the teams with cap space will be likely to take Simmons to free up money for Philadelphia. All that said, even if Harden wants to leave, which is possible, Brooklyn will still have a say in the matter to facilitate a sign-and-trade. Again, someone needs to explain to me why a team that has been having to deal with Kyrie (well, they should have known what they signed up for) would have their takeaway be that maybe bringing in Simmons can help. Simmons has always been a front runner who runs scared when things have gotten tight in the playoffs. At this point in Durant’s career, it is those moments that matter.

I’ve been saying this for almost 6 months- best trade for Simmons and Haris is for Deangelo russell, prince, malik beasley and 1 or 2 firsts. Simmons needs 4 shooters around him, and KAT is the best 3 point shooting big… I don’t see Philly doing better than a russell.