The Philadelphia 76ers are coming off yet another early playoff exit following their third consecutive Round 2 ouster. They had a 3-2 lead over the Boston Celtics with Game 6 at home, but they weren’t able to finish it off as they fell to the Cs in seven games.
That leads to an offseason of uncertainty for the Sixers surrounding the status of James Harden. The Beard is set to enter free agency and there is a belief that he will be heading back to the Houston Rockets for a reunion. If he does leave, there is a school of thought that the Sixers should move Joel Embiid as well and hit the reset button.
Before we go any further, the Sixers are not thinking about trading Embiid. The team believes in him and they are going to continue to build with him as their focal point for this championship quest they are on. For good reason, too when considering he just won the MVP award and he’s a top 5 player.
Just for fun, in this exercise, Sixers Wire will make a case for and against trading Embiid in the 2023 offseason:
The case for trading Embiid
If Harden leaves, the Sixers will be very close to having to hit the reset button. The options they have to improve the roster would be slim as they only have the mid-level exception and veteran minimum contracts to use in free agency. There’s just no clear path to replacing a guy like that.
The second-best player next to Embiid would be young Tyrese Maxey and he still has steps to take before he’s a serious All-Star player in this league. The third-best player would be Tobias Harris in the final year of his deal and he will make $39 million in the 2023-24 season. H could be a trade option around the deadline, but considering his production, not a lot of teams want to take on that contract.
President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey almost assuredly has some type of backup plan in motion in the case Harden leaves, but it’s hard to see him bringing in a difference-maker to help move them forward. The Eastern Conference is tough and it seems that the Sixers are going backward rather than forward.
So that begs the question of why waste Embiid’s or their own time? Why don’t the Sixers just cut their losses and just start over? Especially, when considering that Embiid is 0-5 in Round 2 and he’s 0-3 in Game 7s in his career. There’s the case to move the big fella now and just start over.
The case against trading Embiid
So here’s where patience on both Embiid’s part and the Sixers’ part would have to come in. If Harden leaves, then the 2023-24 season is essentially a holdover season. As mentioned, they would not have a championship-caliber roster without him. The Sixers would make the playoffs, but Embiid wouldn’t have the help he needs to get the job done in the postseason.
However, the Sixers could be players in 2024 with Harris’s big contract (if he isn’t traded) coming off the books. That would allow the front office a lot of room to go out and bring in a major player to help Embiid win in the 2024-25 season.
The caveat to that plan is the Maxey extension in 2023. He is eligible for an extension starting July 1 and he will become a restricted free agent in 2024 if he and the franchise can’t come to an agreement by mid-October. If the Sixers can get him to wait until 2024 to sign an extension, it would be a big help in terms of salary cap purposes and Philadelphia would have more money to play with.
Now, Embiid is set to enter the first season of a supermax contract in 2023-24 as he will make somewhere around $46.9 million and go up to $50.7 million in 2024-25. He is in win-now mode. Maybe he doesn’t want a holdover season, but he loves Philadelphia and the organization will figure something out.
Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire