NBA trade deadline:

It was reported about a week ago that Sacramento was OUT on Ben Simmons, and this confirms it. Instead of the Sixers going for one or more of Hield, Haliburton, and De’Aaron Fox, the Kings worked a deal with the Pacers to rebuild their struggling franchise.

Personally, I have no idea what Sacramento is doing here, but in the Sixers’ case, they could have eclipsed this offer. They could have done better than Sabonis+Lamb+Holiday for a Haliburton and Hield package. It would suggest to me that Daryl Morey had his sights set higher, and didn’t want to settle for this type of return.

Regardless, this takes two teams out of the running if you were gonna try to swing a three-team deal here. Sacramento is essentially saying that Fox is their franchise guard now, so even though he can still be moved that seems very much unlikely, like close to 0.000001%.