NBA Rumors: As the concerns around Joel Embiid's future continue to develop, the Philadelphia 76ers are inching closer toward the need to make a big decision.
Even though the Philadelphia 76ers have continued to inch their way out of a big early-season hole, it's far from a guarantee that they're going to be able to carve out a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Through more than half the regular season, the Sixers are currently in 11th in the standings. They may only be four games (in the loss column) out of the 8th seed, but the continued inconsistency from Joel Embiid has certainly made the task that much more difficult for Philadelphia.
Heading into NBA All-Star week, Embiid has only played in 16 games so far this season for the Sixers. He's continued to battle knee soreness for the majority of the season. It's gotten to the point where there's a belief he may need another offseason surgery in order to completely get to the bottom of the injury. If that does end up being the case, the Sixers may have no other option but to seriously reexamine their future with Embiid.
Is it time for the Philadelphia 76ers to cut ties with Joel Embiid?
After having two of the healthiest seasons of his career during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 NBA seasons, it's almost as if the opposite has happened over the past two seasons for Embiid. Last season. Embiid only played in 39 games and he's on pace to play even less this year. So far this season, Embiid has appeared in just 16 of the team's 52 games. That means he is on pace to play right around 25-26 games this season. At best, even if Embiid plays in every remaining game, he would still fall short of 50 games played this season. Then again, I'm not sure how realistic that is.
Either way, this offseason may be a good time for the Sixers to take a step back and make a long-term decision on Embiid. He has three years left on his contract (with a player option for a fourth). At 30 years old, he is right at the peak of his abilities, so the Sixers could view this offseason as the perfect opportunity to move on at just the right time.
Despite his injuries, the trade market for Embiid would be sky-high, largely because he's still young enough at this point. If the Sixers feel that while Embiid may be an extremely unique talent but also not reliable enough (at this point) to continue to build around, moving on from him this summer (especially ahead of this draft) would be an understandable move.
Of course, the decision to sign Paul George last summer doesn't make much sense if the Sixers end up moving in that direction, but there's reason to believe that a Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain duo is interesting enough to explore pivoting around.
I'm not sure if the Sixers will pull the trigger but if they did want to find the right time to pivot away from Embiid, the argument could be made for that to happen this offseason. Given the way this season has gone, would anyone be all that surprised if they did decide to move in that direction?