They can sell if they are willing. Plenty of pending free agents and expiring contracts without trying to do anything big. Question is, are they willing?
I hope the last parts of this aren't correct but it's not like we haven't said it here sometimes too - that they simply won't ever get over the hump with even the better versions of Joel (who still ends up getting hurt or not playing enough even when performing at an MVP level part-time).
Press the Sixers on Embiidās status and their immediate strategy for the season, and theyāll insist that shutting him down and bottoming out for the sake of a higher draft pick are non-starters. Hereās their argument: Embiidās lingering knee issues and his more recent foot injury are such that he wonāt benefit much, if at all, from rest and rehab and a fresh start in the fall. Because of a 2020 trade with Oklahoma City, they keep their first-round pick this year only if it ends up in the draftās top six, and the chances of their ending up with one of those six ā better than 26%, according to the online database Tankathon.com ā are too remote to be worth pursuing.
Those objections seem mere excuses, though, for a franchise enveloped by fan indifference at its home games, by public anger over its campaign for a new arena, by a strategy that not only isnāt working in the here and now but also has hamstrung the team into the future. The Sixers had their shot with Embiid.
(their shot being '19 and '23, and the missed opportunity of keeping Butler).
They apparently have consigned themselves now to a new stage ā to stringing everyone along and hoping that his broken-down body cooperates just enough to hold peopleās interest for a night here or there. We havenāt seen the last of Joel Embiid, but itās clear now that weāve seen the last of the best of him ā¦ and that maybe, just maybe, we should have seen this coming all along.
