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While he’s a good player, Simmons’ limitations as a scorer have left him short of true superstar status, which likely explains why Morey and the 76ers have yet to find any trade to their liking. That makes sense for the 76ers, since Simmons - a three-time All-Star at only 25 years old - was and is a better player than anyone in the Brooklyn proposal.īut for Stone and the Rockets, the superior short-term value was not weighted all that heavily in their thinking, since they did not see themselves as anything close to a title contender - even with Simmons on the roster. The trade involving Brooklyn resulted in a historic haul of future first-round draft assets, whereas Philadelphia had offered fewer draft picks due to the presence of Simmons in their bid. It would seem plausible that hard feelings from being dangled in trade talks with the Rockets last season could be playing at least a small role in Simmons’ current assessment.įrom Houston’s perspective, the basketball calculus was fairly simple.

Reports in recent days have stated Simmons wants to be traded out of Philadelphia, and he’s threatening not to report to training camp for the 2021-22 season. It’s worth noting that even Morey himself reportedly told confidants that he believes Houston “ made a great deal” for Harden. That’s why this James Harden type of package that they (Philadelphia) are asking for … that’s not the market for Ben Simmons. I don’t think that the Rockets’ opinion of Ben Simmons is an outlier. Now, they feel like they’ve got one of those guys in Jalen Green. They did not feel like he was a “build your franchise around this guy” kind of player. 2 and not sending the fifth pick to OKC.īut if they take Ben Simmons, the Rockets win a handful more games, and they are just, at best, on a path to mediocrity. Now that things have played out … certainly there was some luck involved with the way the lottery ping-pong balls bounced, with them ending up at No. The Rockets felt like, ‘If we’re trading James Harden, this is a full-fledged rebuild, and Ben Simmons is not the centerpiece of a rebuild.’ There’s been a lot of discussion about the Morey dynamic, but it simply came down to this. Here’s what MacMahon had to say on the latest edition of the “Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective” podcast: According to longtime ESPN reporter Tim MacMahon, the thinking by the Rockets - now led by Rafael Stone, who replaced Morey as GM - simply had to do with their assessment of Ben Simmons as a trade piece. Understandably, many fans and media across the league wondered if those events were connected, and whether Fertitta might have been determined to send Harden anywhere but Philadelphia in a trade.

Within weeks of leaving Houston, Morey resurfaced with the Sixers, and Harden’s trade request became public knowledge shortly thereafter. When Houston declined a trade proposal from the 76ers for disgruntled star James Harden, many around the NBA wondered if the decision was due to alleged friction between Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta and Daryl Morey, now the president of basketball operations in Philadelphia.Īfter spending approximately 15 years with the Rockets, Morey stepped down as general manager in October 2020.