Contrary to the Sixers‘ belief, it seems Ben Simmons will indeed sit out of training camp. The team, though, still has hope of convincing him otherwise.
According to Marc Stein, despite the reported feelings from the Sixers that Ben Simmons would, in fact, report to training camp, it appears that will not be the case. Stein also mentioned that even with that being the case, the Sixers haven’t given up on trying to convince him otherwise.
The headache continues for the Philadelphia 76ers and their fans. There is clearly no way this ends positively for all sides. Despite Simmons’ ability to increase his own value by reporting to camp and proving himself during the season, Simmons clearly feels (or more likely has been told) that it is not his job to raise his trade value.
Ben Simmons’ decision to hold out isn’t surprising only because of everything that has been said by his camp. They truly feel or at least are portraying, that there is no benefit to Simmons by showing up to camp and playing for the Sixers.
It’s hard to imagine that the Sixers actually have hope to convince Simmons to show up, but what can one expect them to say at a certain point? There is no clear solution here as the most obvious outcome, a Ben Simmons trade has been derailed largely due to Simmons’ lack of corporation.
The only way this situation can be described is as an absolute mess.
Training camp starts on September 28th, so there will finally be an answer to the will he, won’t he conversation in just over a week. Until then, there’s sure to be more and more speculation and almost assuredly a collective sigh of relief when it’s finally over.
