The Philadelphia 76ers have turned out to be the darlings of NBA-centered hate speech this season. While never ideal, such condition did not just sprout out of nothing. On the heels of one of the most single-season performances by a team in recent history, not even an abundantly talented roster can get them to qualify for a top-10 finish in the Eastern Conference.
Sure, only 2.5 games separate them from the final play-in tournament spot, but the 76ers have been so putrid as of late that it is only wishful thinking at this point to deem them as a serious team in pursuit of a playoof spot. But most importantly, this franchise just seems to be in the gutter, operating under misplaced faith on a nucleus that seemed so lethal not too long ago.
At the core of their projected misery for the near future is Joel Embiid. The superstar big man has once again been the poster child of load management this season, but now, every grain in his road to recovery has become much staler than before. To make matters worse, the 76ers have no possible avenue to pivot off of him.
Latest rumor has 76ers missing out on huge opportunity to pivot away from Joel Embiid
While Embiid is still capable of playing like the MVP that he is when healthy, his physicals just could not handle his sheer talent anymore. As everyone is already harping on, the 76ers will get nowhere as currently constructed given their heavy realiance on him as their franchise player. Heck, that maximum extension he signed would most likely not age like fine wine.
Good luck trying to trade that.
Well, actually, the could have done exactly that. According to Jake Fischer, the Knicks were heavily interested in trading for Embiid before they shifted to the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges.
“Once upon a time, Philly presumably could have extracted every draft pick that New York possessed before it splurged on trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns. The Knicks were always the rival threat, sources said, that Sixers officials knew was waiting to pounce if Embiid ever reached the trade market”.
The temporality of the situation should not be glossed over, of course, but from the likes of it, it could be inferred that New York had eyed a deal for Embiid after or during last season when he was also sidelined for a significant chunk of the campaign due to a knee injury.
Given how the Knicks delighted in what was basically a largesse for both Towns and Bridges, Fischer’s report seems to be spot-on with how they could have gone about offering nearly everything for Embiid. And such non-occurrence, in hindsight, is pretty unfortunate for the 76ers.
Naturally, we cannot just engage in guesswork and haphazardly oversimplify by saying that the 76ers probably rejected this offer. There are a slew of factors at play, and while there were clear signs, Embiid was just coming off an MVP season and was slated to repeat last season before his injury.
Still, the Philadelphia 76ers have no way to quickly redirect themselves, making this one sting really bad in light of what has transpired as of late and what could transpire later on.