3. D’Angelo Russell

One of the teams who have shown the most interest in acquiring Ben Simmons has been the Minnesota Timberwolves. When at full strength, they have been a solid squad this season.

The addition of veteran point guard Patrick Beverley has helped set the tone for the team to change their culture. He has spearheaded an impressive defensive turnaround in Minnesota which Simmons would help keep going.

For the 76ers, they would have to identify who they want from the Timberwolves. Matching value isn’t easy unless D’Angelo Russell is on their preferred list of players. There is as much of a question of if the Timberwolves would even want to move him, as he is one of Karl-Anthony Towns’ good friends.

For Philadelphia, Russell would provide an intriguing No. 3 option behind Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris. While his efficiency has waned this season, he has started putting things together defensively.

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Even with his shooting percentage drop, he is still more of a threat to score than Simmons and his improvement defensively means it won’t be as big of a drop-off there as in years past.

Depending on what else the 76ers got from Minnesota along with Russell, they could still have enough pieces to swing another deal should they want to further upgrade the roster.