The Philadelphia 76ers have emerged as the frontrunners to sign DeAndre Jordan either as a waiver claim or a free agent signing. 

The Sixers have been aggressive in pursuing a backup center since trading Andre Drummond to the Brooklyn Nets as part of the James Harden trade.

Jordan, who signed a one-year, $2.6 million minimum deal to join the Lakers this season, would save the Sixers $2.3 million in luxury tax if he signed a free agent deal instead of getting claimed on waivers.

The 76ers have an open roster spot to sign Jordan. 

Joel Embiid was pushing the Philadelphia 76ers to trade for Bradley Beal ahead of their deal for James Harden, according to sources that spoke with Bill Simmons.

"This is what I heard," said Simmons on his podcast. "I've had pretty good intel throughout this whole thing. This is what I was hearing in the moment. That Embiid really wanted Bradley Beal and was pushing really hard for it. And was talking to him all the time. And was pushing, pushing, pushing. And part of the reason the trade stuff took so long was because there was this Sixers' side that wanted Harden. Obviously Daryl [Morey], because Harden is his guy. But Embiid really wanted Beal because he felt like he was a better fit. And was pushing, pushing, pushing.

"Then Beal gets hurt. But then Embiid is still pushing. 'No, no, no, Beal, Beal, Beal.' Still working on him. And then Beal's like, 'I'm out.' And he gets surgery. And then that's how we end up with the Harden situation."

The announcement that Beal would undergo season-ending surgery came two days before the trade deadline. 

While Zach Lowe was a guest on the podcast with Simmons and didn't interject, he previously reported that there is a theory going around the NBA that Harden could take less money in hopes of Philadelphia signing a third star this offseason. Beal projects to be the highest profile free agent this summer.

Seth Curry believes Ben Simmons will be fine settling in with the Brooklyn Nets and also indicated he doesn't believe Simmons need to apologize to anybody. 

"Business is business," Curry told ESPN after Thursday's shootaround. "I said from day [one], even when he was out early in the season, people were asking me if I feel like, if Ben comes back, should he apologize to us or whatever? I understand the business; he doesn't need to apologize to anybody. When he's on the court, I know he's going to do his job and he's going to do what he does. So I understand the business. He was doing what he felt was best for himself business-wise and personal-wise.

"And the team's going to do the same thing as far as making trades or whatever, so I understand it, I've been around it; I don't take anything personal. When we're on the court, we're teammates. Everything's fine. And we depend on each other to do good things. There's been nothing negative he's done to me personally, so I'm fine."

Danny Green revealed on a podcast that the relationship between Curry and Simmons wasn't "cordial."

"The relationship was fine," Curry said. "He wasn't around. So I don't know what [Green] meant by that. 'Wasn't cordial,' I don't know what that means, but the relationship was fine. He just wasn't around so we didn't see him a lot or we didn't talk a lot. But as far as now, he's on my [team]. I went to battle with him last year, we did a lot of good stuff and I'm going to go to war with who I'm going to go to war with and who's on my team, so I'm looking forward to getting back out there with him and doing good stuff."

The Philadelphia 76ers will sign Willie Cauley-Stein to a 10-day contract.

Cauley-Stein appeared in 18 games with the Dallas Mavericks this season before he was waived.

While there has been speculation about the future of Doc Rivers as head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, a source insists Rivers has "won considerable admiration from his bosses" during what has been a tumultuous season.

With the 76ers trading for James Harden at the deadline, there has been league wide speculation that they could target Mike D'Antoni as head coach. Harden won his MVP under D'Antoni while the former head coach also worked with Joel Embiid as an assistant coach.

Rivers is in his second season with the 76ers and his tenure predates that of Daryl Morey. 

As part of his annual All-Star media availability, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was asked if the NBA is investigating the Philadelphia 76ers for tampering with James Harden. Silver said that not only is there no investigation, but that no teams have complained about the trade.

"I think, in this case, you have two teams that seem satisfied with the outcome of the trade," Silver said.

Silver went on to say that he doesn't like the idea of players under contract requesting trades. His preference is that both teams and players honor the contracts. However, Silver added that he doesn't think trade requests are anything new.

"There is a sense the league can improve our system, but it's not a new thing for players to exercise their right to play where they want to play," Silver said.

In an appearance with Colin Cowherd on Volume Sports, Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey proposed radical changes to the NBA schedule. Morey is in favor of changing both the regular season schedule and how the NBA Playoffs are run, in hopes of boosting ratings for both.

After Cowherd suggested shortening the regular season slightly and returning to best-of-five series in the first round of the playoffs, Morey upped the ante.

“You’re too timid, but you gotta go farther,” Morey said. “I like 58. Every team plays every (other) team two times. The playoffs, I 100 percent agree, shorter is better.”

The playoffs are where Morey took things to another level.

“I would have it one-and-done,” Morey said. “There’s a reason everyone tunes into every game at huge ratings in the NFL. It is literally one-and-done. And the NCAA Tournament, in 63 games, gets more money than we do in our entire regular season."

Morey said the goal should be to surpass the Super Bowl in popularity.

“Any sport should want more games that are close to the Super Bowl," Morey said. "Nothing’s going to beat the Super Bowl for a little while, though I think the NBA can pass the NFL in my lifetime for sure for their biggest game being a big deal.”

Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic headline ESPN's second straw poll of the 22-23 season for MVP.

Embiid, who had 45 first-place votes and finished with 789 total points, was the only player selected to all 100 ballots submitted. Jokic, meanwhile, finished with 43 first-place votes and had 754 points -- while being left off of five ballots completely.

Embiid and Jokic were followed by Giannis Antetokounmpo (512 points, nine first-place votes) in third, Stephen Curry(one first-place vote, 211 points) in fourth and Chris Paul(two first-place votes, 157 points) in fifth.

Ja Morant, DeMar DeRozan, Kevin Durant and Luka Doncic round out the top-9, while Devin Booker and Jimmy Butler are tied at 10th with one fifth piece vote apiece. 

The interest from the Brooklyn Nets in Ben Simmons dates back to when the Philadelphia 76ers made him available in a trade for James Harden with the Houston Rockets at the start of the 20-21 season.

"Another little tidbit to bolster my first fake conspiracy theory is that I've heard, and I think this is accurate, that the Nets.. so Harden said 'I wanted the Sixers originally when I got traded to the Nets' I'm pretty confident when that first started happening, the Nets were interested in Ben Simmons," said Zach Lowe on his podcast. "They obviously preferred Harden and chose Harden. They would have been happy to get Simmons as the outcome of a three-team trade. So here we are."

After the situation with Harden became untenable leading to the 2022 trade deadline, the Nets acquired Simmons along with Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first round picks. When the Nets traded for Harden, they sent out Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert as well as first round picks in 2022, 2024 and 2026 plus pick swaps in 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027.

During Harden's introductory press conference in Philadelphia, Daryl Morey referenced the possibility of a three-team trade last season and that it would have been the best outcome for all parties. 

James Harden intended to file the paperwork to opt-in to his contract for the 22-23 season as part of his trade from the Brooklyn Nets to the Philadelphia 76ers. Harden didn't file the paperwork in time to meet the deadline, but he said he intends to opt-in later this year. But some in league circles are speculating that Harden could decline his option and take less money in order to give the 76ers the opportunity to acquire a third max player.

"So here's my second conspiracy theory," said Zach Lowe on his podcast. "This one, James Harden himself just debunked, if you care about what is said at press conferences. So James Harden, it was reported I think by The Athletic, that James Harden opted in as part of his trade to Philadelphia. Then it was reported hours later that he in fact had not opted in. Then it was reported days later that the reason he had not opted in was that he just missed the deadline to file the paperwork with the NBA league office. The fax got stuck in the machine. Or the signature couldn't be found or something.

"Here's the conspiracy. This is the one going around the league that James Harden, to be clear, just debunked. He's going to decline his option, re-sign for less money, so that Philadelphia can dump Tobias Harris into somebody's cap space and open up if they dump some other people an almost, almost, almost max slot for a third star. That's the one that's going around the league. And people who say that are like, 'If that happens, some eyebrows at the league office might be raised.'

"Again, James Harden says it's his intent to pick up the player option. I believe him. Maybe it was just a paperwork snafu. We've all had paperwork snafus. You send something to the wrong address, it gets sent back to you. You type in something wrong on the auto form, you have to fill it out again. It happens. Maybe it's just a conspiracy theory."