One team turned down Simmons, two firsts before Harden deal

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It's no secret that Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey was talking to a number of teams around the NBA in the days and weeks leading up to last week's trade deadline before he finally nabbed James Harden from the Nets.

A guy like Morey will have his preferred ideas, but he'll always be placing calls just to make sure there isn't a better option out there.

And while he's plenty happy that he landed Harden - the two are close, Harden is a Hall of Fame talent, and he brings immediate star power to the organization - it sounds like Morey was trying doggedly to land a different player just a few days before he shipped Ben Simmons to Brooklyn.

RELATED: 5 takeaways on Harden's first Sixers press conference

In an appearance Wednesday on The Colin Cowherd Podcast, Morey detailed the fascinating talks he had with a general manager in the Western Conference a few days before the Harden trade went down:

"We're debating whether we give up two first-round picks [for Harden], and I'll rewind a couple of days: I was talking to a Western Conference team who, we liked a player on their team. We offered one first for that player, they said no. I got a little bothered with their GM, I'm like, 'This guy's never going to give this player up', but I'm just going to offer two firsts to see what happens. Very quickly he's like "No" to two firsts. This is a player, by the way, that every 2K player, Colin Cowherd, Nick Wright - every human on Earth would've said, 'Oh my god, you have to give up that player for two firsts.' I just did it, just to see. He said no immediately.

"So fast-forward to the final day and we're debating the two firsts, and one of our great front office people are like, 'Three days ago we couldn't even get this player for two firsts, why are we debating this? Why are we talking about this? We can get James Harden, a Hall of Fame player, and you're worrying about a first in the future that's protected?'"

Hmmm. The way Morey phrases this interaction leaves a very slim number of players who he might be talking about.

Who would Morey (theoretically) be willing to offer one first-round pick for along with Simmons, while also being a player anyone in their right mind would trade for two first-round picks? That's a tight window.

Could it be the Kings and Tyrese Haliburton? Haliburton was probably still in Sacramento at this point in the negotiations. If that's who Morey is talking about, the Kings are truly a doomed organization. Flipping Haliburton and other players for Domantas Sabonis, Jeremy Lamb, Justin Holiday, and a second-round pick is so much worse than Ben Simmons and two first-round picks. It's really not even close.

RELATED: What Rivers, Simmons said to each other after trade

Who else could it be? Would Oklahoma City really turn down two first-round picks for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander? I can't see it. Sam Presti loves picks, and while SGA has been great in his first three-plus years in the league, bringing Simmons back plus the draft capital probably would've been enough to get it done. (Unless Tobias Harris was also involved. But even then...)

I saw Donovan Mitchell floated around as a theory. I can't see that one - Morey wouldn't have been frustrated with Utah GM Justin Zanik for saying no to Simmons and a single first-round pick. But I also don't think Zanik would ever trade Mitchell, and probably would've immediately said "no" to literally any offer, so I guess you never know.

Ultimately, it's all in the rearview now because James Harden is a Sixer. But it's always fun to play "what-if" and think about the wild world of being an NBA general manager.

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