 What's the word y'all? The Ben Simmons saga just got even deeper. Earlier today it came out that you know the whole thing about the 76ers being willing to just bring Ben Simmons back and act like nothing happened. Well that's a dead mission because Ben Simmons is in LA and he liking that LA weather. He put together a list of three California teams that he would like to be traded to and he said that the relationship is beyond salvageable. So Ben Simmons will probably be traded in the next couple days, next couple weeks. There's no way he's back at Philly right? There's no way. Joel and Bede makes a tweet, I know some things going on in the world of soccer slash football, but Joel and Bede happens to make a tweet talking about trade rumors. He's the ultimate troll. People in my comments section were calling him troll well and Bede. I see it. So Ben Simmons, I feel like the Ben Simmons, Bradley Beale, and Damien Lillar. Oh my god, why did that take so long for me to think of his name? The Damien Lillar things as NBA YouTubers, it's kind of like beating the dead horse right? We always want to talk about one of those three players being moved, but the Ben Simmons thing is actually like really, really going to happen. I would not be surprised if it happened sooner rather than later. And well, since all of this has come out, Philly is in a terrible spot. Let's be honest. Because for a while, they had at least a little bit of leverage, whether they actually believed it or not. Some people around the league thought that there was a possibility that Ben Simmons actually suits up for them, but he said he won't even show up to training camp G. So originally, if I was willing to throw four first round picks for Ben Simmons, we'd turn that down to two because you have to get rid of him and you have to get at least something back. So when he said three California teams, I felt so bad in the moment. I see there's four teams in California. We have the Kings, we have the Warriors, we have both LA teams. One of those teams was not on the list. And I want to say the Lakers weren't on the list, but we know the Lakers were on the list. You know the Lakers, they got nothing to give for Ben Simmons at all. But you know he would love to play for the Lakers, which means that the Warriors are on that list because the Warriors actually have a package and I could see him wanting to be with the Warriors just because you have a championship aspiration type team. So he won't have to step into a situation where he's in a rebuild or a barely making playoff type team. There's a team trying to win a championship. I feel like the Clippers shouldn't be on the list either. I don't think any of the LA teams should be on the list. The Clippers ain't got no assets either. They're about to have a year with Kawhi Linda's rehab been on his leg. They ain't got no assets, Ben. Ben don't have the leverage to say I want to go to only LA teams. What have you done? What have you done to make a short list, Mr. Ben Simmons? You know, when I think about teams or players have a short list, I'm thinking about the players that have did so much for the organization, but now it's time for us to part waves. For example, again, I'm going to keep saying this. If Damian Lillard decided that he wanted to request a trade, I think he should have, he's worried you're having a short list of teams. Now with the Portland Trailblazers to buy about those, probably just because you still have a reputation uphold. So if Damian Lillard tells the whole world he wants to go to three teams, you trade him a team number four that looks about in your organization as far as from a player standpoint. So yeah, they probably would do that. But Ben, yes, you've been, I don't want to discredit him and say like he has been an amazing defender, right? I think honestly, at this point in his career, he's relatively underrated considering how bad he was in the playoffs. And that's the lasting image of him. But even considering that, you're not in a position to tell Daryl Morey only LA teams, only California teams. Daryl looking around a league like, okay, he said California, but I know, I know Minnesota might have a decent package. I'm going to call Minnesota. I'm going to listen to Gerstine Rosas. Because me and Gerstine, Daryl Morey and Gerstine Rosas are like homies. They both worked in Houston. Ben, I know you're one of the LA teams. If I'm Gerstine Rosas, there's no negative part of trading for Ben. Because sure, he can say he won't report to Philly, but he can't get traded to Minnesota and also say, I'm not going to report. Are you going to retire? Because you're going to report. So you can't do that. And he's under contract. It's not like Anthony Davis situation where I have the last year on my deal and I would only resign to the Lakers. So you have to trade me to the Lakers. No, Daryl Morey can trade him to any of the 29 teams if the package is right and not feel bad about it. We need a, we need a collection of assets that we need to be decent enough for us to continue to compete. Now the terrible thing is, again, you really don't have any leverage in this anymore. So you wanting four first round picks and plus players is a dead mission. We're going to see a Ben Simmons trade where we look back on and probably say, man, that's a lot different than almost getting James Harden a couple of months ago. That's a lot different than almost getting James Harden a couple of months ago. It's kind of insane how things work. And I would have to go back and research, but if I am not mistaken, part of the reason why the James Harden thing did not go through, it's because they weren't willing to give up either way. It was Matisse or Maxie, one of the two. And at this point, God, you'd be willing to give up one of those two players if that means you don't have to deal with the Ben Simmons debacle and you also would have had James Harden right now. Because as James Harden just said a couple of days ago, a healthy James Harden, that's a scary sight. And it's facts. So you know, Andy Bailey and BR, they had to do what they had to do. News broke and it said five trade ideas to help the 76ers deal Ben Simmons before training camp. Again, before training camp, obviously means that they don't have a lot of leverage. Okay. So here we go. I have not looked at this at all. I would imagine that you don't see the typical Damian Lillard for Ben Simmons thing because that's not happening. If you have to trade him before training camp, you're not getting Damian Lillard. I'm sorry to break the news to you. You might be able to get his teammate though. That's something I've seen on Twitter. First trade is his teammate. Yikes. Oh man, from James Harden to CJ McCullum. Now CJ is a very competent, very good player. He's a borderline all-star type guy, 100%. Again, you got to keep comparing it where you're going to keep comparing it to potentially getting James Harden. But in this trade, Ben Simmons gets CJ McCullum in a first round pick swap and then an unprotected one in 2024. Yikes. But I am definitely under the opinion that CJ McCullum is the type of player that I would want alongside Joel Embiid. Do I want him to be my second best player alongside Joel? Probably not. Probably not. I don't know. I don't know if we're in a championship if our second best player is CJ McCullum. I just don't know. But that type of bucket-gitter type dude that can run some PNR with Joel, I think it's the prototypical type dude that you would potentially want. And that's, again, why James Harden was so nice because who's better than the pick and roll of James Harden? Not many people in the entire world. Not many people in the history of basketball. So let's see. Trade number two, obviously a huge drop-off of what people were saying just a couple days ago with Damian Lillard potentially being in this thing. But again, Philly been trying to wait for a Damian Lillard request, but Damian Lillard ain't like that. He ain't going to do it. The Spurs land a new cornerstone. Dijante Murray, Derek White, a 2022 first-rounder in a 2024 first-rounder. Wow. So this would be relying on Toby to buy his hair is to really step up and turn into a secondary All-Star. As great of a player as Dijante Murray is and he's really, really good and still young. And as good of a player that Derek White is, neither of them are going to be number two. Neither of them will be number two. It's not a terrible package, all things considered. But again, the 76ers are trying to win a championship. And they're always going to think about, man, we have this All-Star that's 25 years old. You're telling me we're getting back at this point in their careers? I'm not saying they can't blossom into more. Good starter slash road players. And then somebody that's going to enter this year's draft and then somebody that's 17 years old or 16 years old, about a time they hit the draft in 2024. Number three to the Bay. Ooh, this is one of the the California teams. Wiggins, Moses, Moody, a pick swap, a second pick swap and one more. They ain't even have to get up. Well, you don't want wise men if you're Philly, honestly. Ah, I feel for Philly fans right now. Ben Simmons is probably the most hated player in Philly at the moment, a person in Philly right now. Just because he backed them into this corner. He backed the organization into this corner. And we're going to talk about the process a little bit later. Let's see these last two trades and not spend too much time on them. Kings, this is the team. I want the kings to go all in. Their vision of all in is Buddy Davion, a pick swap for 2023, a first round of 2024, a pick swap of 2025 and a 2026. That's definitely going all in. I would, I definitely expected a different package that also had either HB or Bagley in it. I think Harrison Barnes is a really solid player, but I guess you already have a couple of Harrison Barnes type players on the 76ers already. This gives you the shooting and Buddy Hill that you desperately been needing. And then Davion Mitchell in summer league at least was an absolute stud on the offensive side of the ball. But again, I mean, this is like, hey, Joel, we're going to be good eventually. I know you 20 something years old with a lot of injury history, but we traded your secondary star who you've basically said you wanted to be traded for a guy that won't hit the league for five years. It's hard to convince a MVP type player like Joel that we're about to take this big of a step back because Buddy Hill and Davion on court in 2021 will not be the production that you want to win a championship. Next, we have Pascal 2022 first, 2024 first. I'm actually surprised that this is here. Has Pascal fallen from the graces that much? I know he had a bad last year. I mean, not a bad last year, not a terrible last year at least. But a couple of years ago, he was really good, all star and all NBA and stuff. I don't hate this one. I guess. I mean, best sentence is practically one of the four anyway, a ball handling four. You got some picks. You got another player that you might be able to convince fans can turn it to an all star again. The point I'm trying to make is what you're getting back from Ben Simmons is probably not going to be a lot, or you could see another general manager that sees all that is going on that. Oh man, they get in low ball offers. Let's give them a nice adequate offer. So I know that they're going to accept it. D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, a pick or whatever, whatever, whatever it may be. And depending on how this goes, and we're still years and years away from this, we have to revisit the process. We have to revisit how the process was dealt, how the process was created. You ended up with the first overall pick and they'll be in Ben Simmons. So far, pretty solid. I mean, Ben Simmons doesn't fit what you have right now. And they continuously every single year, instead of picking for fit, they picked for a talent. They picked for upside. And it worked out with Joel. I remember Joel being drafted. He was sitting in his hotel room or at home and he was like he was very mad to be going to Philly. But that was before Philly had become an organization that you want to play for. I think we got to revisit the process eventually, depending on what Ben Simmons turns out to be when it comes to these traits. Let me know what you think. What do you think could be the potentially like realistic best offer for Ben Simmons? Because it's probably not going to be another All-Star. 95% sure it's not going to be another All-Star. It's going to be maybe some good starters and some upside in some picks. They're in a rough spot, man. Definitely in a rough spot.