Trading Joel Embiid Would Be Insane, Stop Suggesting It

Things got bleak for Sixers fans the night before the draft. News broke that the Knicks were trading for Mikal Bridges. Bridges in general is a sore topic for Sixers fans, given he was a Sixer for a few brief moments before they traded him. But no matter how bleak things get, trading Joel Embiid is not the answer.

When we talk about rebuilding the goal of doing so is to get a player like Embiid. The Sixers already accomplished that part. They got the Superstar. Embiid is a perennial MVP candidate, a top 5 player in the entire world. You can argue he is the most talented player in the NBA.

No matter how good of a package you get, the return will never be as good as you hope. The total sum will not equal Embiid. The Sixers will be back to where they were pre-Process.

Go back through the modern history of Superstars being traded. How many worked?

Did the Pelicans win with that Anthony Davis trade? They got a lot of pieces, but they are no closer to being a winning team now than they were. They got Zion from that deal. They got a guarentee for high-end talent. They also got a haul of quality pieces. It still didnt work. But that is one of the best examples for teams who traded their superstar.

The Paul George trade is finally working out for the Thunder, but they got a great player, SGA, back in that deal. That usually is not going to be the case, and I find it highly unlikely that is what happens if the Sixers trade Embiid.

The only case I could find, where it definitely worked out for the better, was the Nuggets trading Carmelo Anthony. Even in that case, the haul wasn't that good, they just got lucky and 1 of those picks turned into Jamaal Murray. That said, Murray is not good enough to win as the primary piece.

The vast majority of these trades, do not pan out well for the team trading away the star. Future draft picks are a lottery ticket. You don't know where those picks will fall, and you don't know what those drafts will be like.

Is getting 6 picks between 20 and 30 worth giving up a top 5 player? If you get lucky maybe it is. But most of the time, those picks arent going to turn into great players. You could give me 10 futures picks, and it still might not equal 1 Joel Embiid.

Yes you have occasional players like Tyrese Maxey that go outside of the lottery. But look at the last 10 drafts. How many great players came outside of the draft lottery? There is maybe 2 All-Star caliber players a season, if you are lucky.

Some Sixers fans and media members are saying the window is closed, and that trading Joel Embiid is the only way to ensure they win down the line. First off, it is impossible for them to know the window is closed. They are just saying that. it is soemthing they amde up in their head because they don't like the current situation. Embiiud is still a Super Star though, so the window is not closed.

But more importantly, the Sixers already won the lottery. They got Embiid, a MVP caliber player, and they hit on Tyrese Maxey outside the lottery. Thet got step 1 and 2 done. They now need the pieces around those 2. Starting over would be trying to win the lottery again, and then still hoping you can also get the pieces around that hypothetical superstar.

What has kept them from competing, is not Joel Embiid. People might like to put the blame on him, but he has played well enough for them to win in nearly every playoff series. The problem has been, and still is, the cast around him.

Embiid was a +46 against the Knicks. He was a +51 against the Hawks a few years ago. He was a +90 against the Raptors.

Has he made mistkaes? Yes. has he had bad games in the playoffs? Sure. The Celtics won this year, despite Jayson Tatum having terrible games. Players have bad games. The difference is the Celtics have enough talent around their best player. They pick him up when he struggles. Embiid has never had that luxury.

Maxey picked him up 1 time. In game 5, Embiid struggled to score (though he played great defense still) and Maxey picked him up by scoring 46 points.

Otherwise, anytime Embiid struggled, his team struggled with him. He has been stuck with guys like Ben Simmons, James Harden, and Tobias Harris who disapear in the playoffs.

Yet, for some reason, people want to blame him. They want to make bold, and dumb, statements like "you will never win with Embiid."

It makes no sense. Joel Embiid is one of the best players in Sixers history. He is their best, and only chance, at winning anytime soon. To have a generational player, a sure fire 1st ballot Hall of Famer, a guy who currently leads all players in NBA history in points per minute, and want to trade him, for the hope that maybe one of those future picks will work out, is flat out stupid.

Sorry if I offended you by calling what you said stupid, but I am not going to nice up my words here. If you want to trade Joel Embiid, you are not thinking clearly. Get a grip, and join the rest of us in reality.

Not only would it hurt this franchise, it is flat out not going to happen. You add nothing to the conversation by calling for it because it is not something that is feasibly possible.

Until Joel Embiid is over the hill (which might not happen for years still), or he requests a trade, you ride it out with him. That is the only path forward. There isn't an ounce of logic that defends trading Joel Embiid.

You have a Lamborghini In Joel Embiid. You dont sell that Lambo for lottery tickets, because you think if you hit on them, you can maybe afford two Lambos. That is exactly what the trade Joel Embiid crowd wants to do though.

The "Process Era" for the Sixers has been a bit of a mess. They have tried so many running mates for Joel Embiid. First, it was Ben Simmons, and we know how that ended. Then it was James Harden, which went about as well as the Simmons era went. They have also had 3 coaches, 3 GMs, and multiple Teams. But one thing that has changed more than any of those things, has been Joel Embiid's backup.

He has played with over a dozen backups since he made his Sixers debut in the 2016-2017 season. From Nerlens Noel, all the way up to Paul Reed and Mo Bamba this season. They have tried big guys known for their defense. Smaller guys who could maybe score more. They have gone with veterans, and they have gone with young guys. The Sixers have tried so many different answers, and yet you can count on one hand how many of them have actually worked.

And while Paul Reed is playing okay this year, the Embiid-less minutes, and especially the games he is out, continue to be a massive issue for the Sixers. Mo Bamba can't even get on the floor unless Embiid is out. But even if those two have not played well enough, Reed is far from the worst backup center Embiid has played with. But who is?

Here are almost all of the backup centers the Sixers have tried. I didn't count Mike Scott or Ben Simmons. Because even if they played in the "Center" a few times, they were not actual centers. I am sure I missed a few guys who got a small handful of games here and there. But these are the Joel Embiid backups I could recall. All 20 of them.

Jordan was clearly over the hill by the time he landed in Philly. But what made his stint here even more frustrating was Doc River's insistence on using him. He was getting cooked every time he stepped onto the floor, but Doc kept throwing him out there.

Embiid took heat for his performance in the Raptors series in 2018. But you know what their real issue was? The -90 when he was off the floor. Greg Monroe got cooked on defense and offered nothing in terms of offense.

How many people remember Splitter being on the Sixers? He played 8 games here in Embiid's rookie season, and then never played in the NBA again. He still goes above Monroe and Jordan because not remembering him at all is better than my memory of Jordan and Monroe actively destroying the Sixers hopes of winning.

Cauley-Stein was here for only 2 games, for 6 total minutes, and he scored no points. Like Splitter, he never played another game in his career once the Sixers moved on. I am sensing a trend.

Milsap was thrown into the James Harden deal. But like several other guys we talked about, he struggled to get onto the floor. He did start one game, but he didn't make much of an impact, and wound up being mostly left out of the rotation altogether.

Can't get onto the floor, fails to make an impact when he does get on it. I feel like a need a keyboard shortcut to enter that exact phrase because I am writing it a lot.

Pelle was an interesting player. The athleticism was there. And he made some explosive plays. But those rare moments weren't enough to overcome his lack of offense and his poor instincts.

Like Pelle, there were things to like about Bassey. Those things just weren't abundant enough. His offensive game just was not developed enough to be a realistic option when he was here. To his credit, he is still sticking around with the Spurs. But even now the game isn't good enough to be a backup on a playoff team.

Okafor couldn't score outside of the paint, didn't play defense, and didn't rebound. So pretty much he had none of the qualities you want in a center. The Sixers held onto him for way too long until his value reach 0. They probably should have traded him after his productive rookie season. Or maybe the genius Sam Hinkie just shouldn't have drafted his 3rd center in 3 seasons.

We loved Boban. But it was also very clear he was not good enough. He was pretty much unplayable against any center who can move outside of the paint. And while watching him sunk without jumping, and his relationship with Tobias, were all fun, he was not a very good backup center except against very specific opponents.

O'Quinn wasn't great, and he wasn't bad.  But he was part of that ill advised Horford season, and didn't see the floor too much with Horford taking a lot of the backup center minutes. But he was fine, just nothing special. He did not have a negative impact on the team like many of these other players, but he didn't have much of a positive one either. The Sixers were the last team he ever played

Amir was actually solid when he first got here. In 2017-2018 he was a solid although unspectacular backup. But the next year was a bit of a mess. So he averages out to being the 10th best, or maybe the 11th worst. Whatever way you want to phrase it.

Sixers fans loved this guy. he had a few great games, then got traded, and some Sixers fans lost their mind. We got calls for another two years from fans complaining that he was traded. But look at the rest of his career, and you will see he is at best an adequate backup. But Sixers fans have been so starved for backup centers, they saw one guy have a few good games, and fell in love.

Another guy who couldn't get on the floor enough. They brought him in thinking he would at least bring a scoring threat, even if his defense was lacking. But he couldn't score enouhg, and his defense was lacking. But there was at least a semi-nice pick an roll game between him and Harden when he did play.

There is a lot that Paul Reed does well. He brings a ton of energy to the floor. And when you are just asking him to play 14 minutes behind Embiid, he gets the job done. But the problem is if you need to him to start in place of an injured Embiid. That is when some of his flaws have been exposed.

There was a ton to love about Holmes. He could make some incredible plays. The problem when he was here, was the simple plays. Too often he was out of position, or getting himself in trouble by trying to make one of those great plays. Still, his ability made him amongst the best backups Embiid ever had.

Noel could defend his position at a very high level. At least in terms of being a backup center. The offensive game was not good enough. But it would be nice to have a guy you can put in for Embiid, and at least know the defense wont fall off too much.

Horford time here was a disaster. That was not all his fault. The idea of putting him and Embiid on the floor together was flawed from the onset. But his effort and his play was also lacking in his time here. But as bad as it went, you cant deny Horford talent. And when he slid over to Center in place of Embiid he did a good job. It was just a poor fit and a bad roster that season.

There were times when having Howard as the backup was fantastic. There were times it was not. But when it came down to the playoffs, he was not playing very well. It seemed like the perfect fit at the time, and in some games it was. But he let them down in the Hawks series.

Andre Drummond was by far the bets backup Embiid has ever had. The key was he was too good to be a backup. But for whatever reason he was not getting much attention and free agency, and the Sixers were able to bring him in on the cheap. He had to be sent to Brooklyn in the James Harden trade, and Sixers fans have missed him ever since.