One team that's been involved in the Ben Simmons sweepstakes since the early stages is the Minnesota Timberwolves. When the Philadelphia 76ers started taking calls regarding a Simmons trade, the Timberwolves were one of the top suitors.

However, Minnesota wants to land Simmons to pair him up with Karl Anthony-Towns, Anthony Edwards, and D'Angelo Russell. They reportedly don't want to part ways with one of the three to replace them with Simmons.

As expected, that halted trade discussions between the Sixers and the Wolves. And over the last couple of months, the Timberwolves slowly faded out of the conversation. Meanwhile, new teams entered the Simmons sweepstakes.

Lately, the Atlanta Hawks became a serious suitor as they reportedly discussed a deal centered around John Collins. As Philadelphia is reportedly interested in the veteran power forward, it seemed there could be legs on a Collins-centric package for a package centered around Simmons. However, talks halted when the Sixers reportedly put Tobias Harris' contract on the table.