The process In Portland?
In the Eastern Conference, much like the Blazers this year, the Philadelphia 76ers were expected to be major contenders after making it to the Eastern Conference Finals last year and then adding Josh Richardson and Al Horford in the offseason to make what was expected to be a devastating lineup around the duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
In Philadelphia’s case, their superstar duo doesn’t fit together. Joel Embiid is a beast in the paint who needs touches and the ability to play his game off of more traditional NBA guards, while Ben Simmons is a unique talent with size and passing ability who needs to be surrounded by shooters.
With Joel Embiid being the older player, with less potential than Simmons, it appears that in time he might be available as well. He could become the Blazers’ version of Kawhi Leonard.
A trade for Embiid would probably play out with McCollum as the main piece with another player or maybe some draft capital involved. Much like Raptors did with moving DeMar DeRozan, the Blazers trade one star for another won with more potential.
The Trail Blazers adding Embiid gives Damian Lillard another player that is a top 20 NBA talent who would improve the Blazers offense and defense to much higher levels. Head coach Terry Stotts runs a pick-and-roll heavy offense and having a Lillard-Embiid combo would give him many threatening combinations to work with. This offense having the high-low threat becomes much more dangerous now, and the team’s defense would also improve as Joel Embiid at his highest level can be an excellent rim protector.
For Philadelphia, they would finally be giving Ben Simmons full control and offering him shooters to dish to. McCollum is a 40 percent 3-point shooter who would be added to Tobias Harris and the 76ers could possibly receive Rodney Hood or Zach Collins as well which could give shooters at every position for Simmons. Moving Embiid then allows Al Horford to go back to the center position where he’d be much more effective with Simmons.
This could end up as a great trade for both teams as they head in their respective directions and potentially be the reset Portland needs to get back onto the championship path.