1. Philadelphia 76ers

There were rumors shared by Stephen A. Smith said last week that Kyrie Irving would be on the Philadelphia 76ers were it not for Kevin Durant. Durant was essentially blocking any trade of Irving to the 76ers.

Ben Simmons would be heading back to the Brooklyn Nets in the information that Smith shared. While this is something Durant doesn’t want to happen, for both teams involved, this deal would make a lot of sense.

The Nets would be getting a defensive ace in Simmons that can help shore up some of their biggest problem areas. He can defend every position on the field, improving what was an abysmal Nets’ defense for a majority of the season.

If Brooklyn wants to move Simmons off of the point guard position and use him more as a frontcourt player, they have James Harden that can run the offense as the point guard.

For the Philadelphia 76ers, Irving would solve virtually all of their offensive woes. He and Joel Embiid would combine to be one of the best duos in the NBA as teams would struggle mightily to slow down their pick-and-roll attack.

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While Irving won’t have the same defensive impact as Simmons, the Philadelphia 76ers would still have enough players to get the job done on that end of the court. The improvement their offense would make would be more than enough to compensate for the decrease in defense.