NBA analyst Max Kellerman believes the Philadelphia 76ers are better off without Joel Embiid.
It’s mind-blowing when you hear trade talks surrounding a franchise player. It’s even worse when it’s a player who’s given his entire heart and body to the team and now people want them out.
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has had people talk about letting him go since signing his contract extension roughly two years ago. Now it isn’t the organization stating these claims, but all the outside noise.
Analyst Max Kellerman has come out and said that he believes that the 76ers should be on the lookout for trade options regarding the All-Star center.
In his discussion with agent Rich Paul, he explains that even though Embiid is such a great player, his health creates dysfunction among the team. Not within the players, but with the intervention of getting him going in the offense.
Kellerman did go on to admit that when healthy, Embiid is the best player on the team. So if he’s the best player on the team, why trade him? His absence would be a hard pill for the team to swallow. Then if you trade him, what are you looking to get for him? Better yet, who is going to want a player they feel won’t be there when it matters? He’ll end up just like Kristaps Porzingis and navigate his way around the NBA looking for a home that can monitor his minutes.
Rich Paul argued back, saying it’s the wrong decision because of what he means in terms of mismatches for opponents. If Philadelphia wanted to get rid of Embiid, they wouldn’t have signed him to his current contract. The only thing that makes sense would be getting the contract off the books. But then again, that was a move they should’ve made earlier in the offseason.
This would be a terrible decision by the front office because once he’s gone, who’s filling that void? You can’t just bring in a center that gets you 20-plus points a night and be a fit to go with the new roster. Could they find someone younger? Sure, but that doesn’t mean he can have the same impact.
In fact, the move would lessen the chemistry that team already has. Adding LeBron James and Jaylen Brown will be an adjustment, but an Embiid-less roster is a bigger hole than they could fill. They'd be losing the one piece that isn’t interchangeable. That defensive anchor now being cast aside would leave a disgruntled fanbase and agitated James. It would fall on him to pick up the slack, and that’s just not possible at his age.
Trades to improve the team are one thing, but this would be nothing but a regression and a detriment to what the team is trying to do.
