Timberwolves still trying to trade Ben Simmons but will need a third team

With a new owner and an aggressive management team, the Minnesota Timberwolves are looking to build a winning team around the great man Karl-Anthony Towns. They might have something special with second-year winger Anthony Edwards, and they paid a lot of money to bring D’Angelo Russell, but they’re still a team whose top end is a place for them. a play-in match. The Timberwolves need more talent.

They’ve been the most aggressive in going after Ben Simmons and continue to make calls, but they’ll need a third team (or more) to get into the mix in order to provide the winning players that Philadelphia wants back in. a deal with Simmons, according to multiple reports.

Here’s Jon Krawczynski from The Athletic:

The Wolves continued to have discussions with the Sixers over Simmons, sources said, but the lack of winning assets they could provide the Sixers in their quest for a championship has been a hindrance. It would almost certainly take a third team to get more immediate impact assets for the Sixers, and it’s a complicated business.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said essentially the same thing in a Tuesday appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up”, with a hat-tip to (and transcript via) NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Adam Hermann.

“Philadelphia kept trying to see if he could come up with a deal for Simmons before camp started. They haven’t had any success, you know, haven’t really gotten the traction for the high asking price they’re asking for Ben Simmons. Minnesota is a team that has persisted with Philadelphia, but they had to have, really, a third and even a fourth team in those kinds of deals to get back to Philly what they wanted.

“I think for the Sixers, if they want to trade Ben Simmons, they have to get players back now who continue on this Joel Embiid timeline of having an MVP level player in his prime that you are trying to win championships with, and that’s a tough package for Ben Simmons to grab right now. It is quite possible that he will have to return to training camp with them next season.

Make no mistake, Philadelphia wants to trade Simmons before training camp begins, but it won’t take a lesser deal for that to happen. Which means – as NBC Sports and others have reported before – that the tough times of Simmons’ return to Sixers training camp are increasingly likely.

But Minnesota keeps trying.