Philadelphia 76ers: Why are Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons always being traded?

Throw up enough smoke, maybe you get fire

There are a lot of downtrodden franchises that would love to add an Embiid or Simmons to their team. A whisper in the ear of a well-placed media member that ‘maybe’ the Sixers should be trading Embiid or Simmons due to whatever produces some buzz, other media outlets pick this ‘report’ up and suddenly everyone is talking about it.

Now, the star and his group hear these reports, get ticked off that they even exist, and maybe confront management about it. Charles Barkley has said he demanded a trade from the 76ers because … he had heard rumors they wanted to trade him and it ticked him off.

Planting stories to poach a star off a front office that struggles making good decisions is the kind of things smart GMs do.