Joel Embiid rumors

[mojomarc]

I say just tank for the rest of the year, win the lottery and take Victor to pair with Dame, Sharpe, Grant, and Simons.

I can dream, can't I?

[JasonStern]

When Harden got traded, Portland was on his second - not initial, but second - list of destinations he was willing to go to. So Olshey offered three first round picks and Gary Trent Jr.... for rentals of Robert Covington, Norm Powell, and Larry Nance Jr. If Joel Embiid is ever a Blazer, he will be playing the Carmelo role - 35, washed up, minimum contract, with no other teams giving him a chance.

[DusterBuster]

Simons, Nurkic, Sharpe, 2023 lotto pick, & a future pick for Embiid & Tucker works.

Players work, but Blazers need to find a way to give up a KD-level amount of first round picks to make that work for Philly... even if Embiid is demanding out.

I'd also be curious if Morey plays hard-ball with Embiid and calls his bluff about a trade demand and they just straight up say no to his trade demand.

[Jsun947]

Let’s just say for kicks Harden leaves Philly for Houston, then Embiid demands a trade.

Portland’s offer to get him would have to look something like this to match salaries

Simons
Nurkic
Sharpe

Then we’re talking Draft compensation on top of that which would likely include trading the 2023 Knicks 1st round pick to the Bulls to get our own 1st round pick back, thus allowing us to trade future picks again. You know Morey would want our entire future draft too but would definitely require all our future 1st then probably end up negotiating on number of swaps targeting the later years.

2023 Knicks 1st to Chicago
&
2023 Blazers 1st To Philly (Likely 8-10)
2024 Swap
2025 1st
2026 Swap
2027 1st
2028 Swap
2029 1st
2030 Swap

Let’s figure the following assets leaving are the net result of the trade

Simons
Nurkic
Sharpe
2023 NYK 1st (To Chicago)
2023 Portland 1st (#8-10ish) - Post Draft Trade
2024 1st
2026 1st
2027 swap
2028 1st
2029 swap
2030 1st

Leaving a roster of ($105.2 mil)
Lillard
Embiid
Little
Johnson
Watford
Walker

Team Option ($3 mil)
Knox

With free agents ($Uh Oh)
Grant
Reddish
Thybulle
Winslow
Eubanks

And after all that, assuming we resign and keep everyone, when the team salary is likely around $160-$170 mil our depth chart is

Dame/?/?
Thybulle/Johnson/Knox
Reddish/Little/Walker
Grant/Winslow/Watford
Embiid/Eubanks/?

I don’t even know if that’s a championship caliber team despite Dame & Embiid’s greatness. Is it better than the current Philly team? Maybe, Maybe not????

A more interesting question to me is if we move up in the draft to anything but #1 would we trade that pick for immediate help?

[DusterBuster]

If the Blazers get a Top 2 pick by some miracle, it’ll create for an interesting problem. It’ll be the most valuable asset the Blazers will have had since 2006. There will be a lot of ways the Blazers could go and a lot of teams would be willing to move their stars for that. I honestly think Philly would move Embiid for that pick, especially if Harden seems a lock to leave for Houston. But does Portland roll the dice on a generational talent that could end a bust (no indication he will be to be clear, just that almost no pick is guaranteed to work out)… or take a guaranteed star on Lillard’s timeline?

My gut says Portland would make the pick and hope for a Spurs situation when they had Robinson and picked Duncan. Hope Wemby or Scoot is good enough from Day One to open a championship window for Dame right away and lead the team post-Dame.

The more likely scenario of Portland not getting a pick that high, then yeah, just need to hope for a player to get so frustrated on their current team they demand out. Embiid and Butler seem like the likely candidates rn. For Portland, they need to convince Chicago to take the Knicks picks before any of these players start to ask out so the Bulls don’t have solid leverage over Portland by knowing getting rid of that pick obligation is required to get a bigger deal they have on the table done.

[The Sebastian Express]

I don't think they pick Scoot. I think they use anything that is 2-10 (plus other assets) to try to acquire a star.

I don't think they'd trade Wemby. But I do think they'd still try to use future picks plus Simons and/or Sharpe to get another asset.

I think stuff becomes real interesting if you're looking at something like Dame/whoever/Butler/Grant/Wemby.