Amazed at the TNT announcing crew just keeps hammering home how many games Embiid has missed this year and throughout his career. You almost never hear that stuff coming out of national announcing crews. It's usually all hype, hype, hype.
I've been pondering this. Are the Sixers better off moving Embiid instead of Simmons. Embiid is clearly the better player and he is locked up long term so even with the shaky health I believe they could get more for him then they could for Simmons. Perhaps then the Sixers can get better fitting parts around Simmons. Just a thought
Makes sense. If they and the medical staff think Embiid might constantly be missing 20 games a year and be hard to keep healthy for the playoffs, now might be the best time to move on from him. If next year he misses another 20-25 games and is on a minutes restriction or hurt for the playoffs, hurting the team, the Sixers certainly wouldn't get what they would if they moved him this summer.
Would the Knicks trade their pick for Embiid to match him up with an incoming Durant? Would make more sense for the Knicks than Durant trying to train Zion on how to play championship quality NBA ball for a couple years.
Knicks build around Durant/Embiid and Sixers have Zion/Simmons/Butler/Harris to move forward with, though maybe Butler takes off if he feels he has to give shots to a rookie. Probably lose Butler so maybe that trade isn't so great.
If the Sixers are stupid enough to put Embiid on the market, Danny better be the first in line to make an offer.
The Sixers ran Embiid into the ground (only missed 4 of their first 58 games). 65 games a season is plenty for Embiid and it will easily get the Sixers into the playoffs. Kawhi has only played more than 66 games twice in his 8 seasons. Don't see anyone suggesting he be put on the trade block.
Kawhi also has never had a fit problem with another potential superstar on his roster either. If the Sixers think that Embiid and Simmons are fine together, then they don't need to move either one, but if they are ultimately going to have to decide between Embiid and Simmons, then they should probably just make that move this summer. It is in that scenario that I'm talking about perhaps moving on from Embiid as opposed to Simmons.
What "potential superstar" has Kawhi played with? What star player has Kawhi played with that had the significant limitations that Simmons has? Dudley was 100% correct that Simmons is great in transition but average in half court. That's not a player you can build a championship team around if he doesn't significantly improve his game. If he does improve it, the talk of fit issues with Embiid go away.
The notion that Embiid and Simmons don't play well together is narrative in search of evidence. Their starting lineup last year with Saric and Covington was dominant. This year the numbers were solid with Chandler when he was healthy and are top notch after the Harris trade even though they've had the most roster turnover since the Process began.
2019 Starting Lineups Min Offrtg Defrtg Netrtg
.J. Redick, .W. Chandler, .J. Butler, .J. Embiid, .B. Simmons 293 114.1 101.1 13.0
.J. Redick, .T. Harris, .J. Butler, .J. Embiid, .B. Simmons 161 119.0 101.4 17.6
2018 Starting Lineup
.J. Redick, .R. Covington, .J. Embiid, .D. Saric, .B. Simmons 601 113.6 92.6 21.0
When the Sixers won the last 9 games last season and looked so good, some Sixers fans talked about being better with Simmons running the show and Embiid off court. Then they faced us and reality hit.
Simmons should dominate the Nets because they are a mediocre team and have no one to guard him. Simmons isn't doing that against the Raptors, Bucks or us.
If it is a choice between Embiid and Simmons, that's no choice at all unless the Sixers have some secret medical info that they think means Embiid will be out of the league within 5 years.