Great things were expected out of the Philadelphia 76ers this season, but what has transpired so far has been disaster of near-biblical proportions. With the second half of the present campaign yet to begin, the team already seems like it would badly benefit from the season just shutting down out of the blue.
The 76ers, owners of an abysmal 15-27 win-loss card, are slated to finish comfortably in the lottery at this rate. To make matters worse, the would only get to keep their first-round pick this year if it is within the top six — a dicey proposition for a squad that is somehow now terrible enough to truly bottom out even if it wants to.
While the franchise still has a lot of years to spend with its current nucleus of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George, this season alone could compel them to seriously consider moving some big parts. After all, it would be pretty dangerous to hope that this team could somehow drastically improve when most of its pieces are starting to show significant signs of decline.
Former GM says the 76ers should trade Joel Embiid
The 76ers have been so bad that they have been one of the biggest talking points among pundits this season — so much so that a former NBA general manager suggested that the front office should just blow it all up.
Scot Perry, former GM of the New York Knicks from 2017 to 2023, hopped on a Yahoo Sports segment with Vincent Goodwill, dishing out that it is now the best time for Philadelphia to trade Embiid given his injury history and age.
There were already some sentiments about how the 76ers should already explore the possibility of trading Embiid, but that was quickly quelled by his stellar, yet short campaign last season. In addition, the struggles of Tyrese Maxey holding down the role of nominal alpha at present has not helped bolster the case for trading the 2023 Most Valuable Player.
Having said that, the situation has not been more ideal than now to at least deem the idea as a tenable one. Not a lot of team would benefit more from a complete rebuild than the 76ers, and Embiid still packs a ton of value for teams desperate to have a much higher floor.
Unfortunately, trading Joel Embiid would currently be unrealistic for the Philadelphia 76ers. They have invested way too much money and energy onto their core, and tearing it down after an injury-riddled first year is just as much of an argument against trading the superstar away.