The Philadelphia Sixers drafted Joel Embiid with their top pick in the draft and this offseason the team may look at a trade with Michael Carter-Williams and Thaddeus Young, as teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Brooklyn Nets or Houston Rockets could be interested in making a move and this comes after the team made a move of their own to acquire Dario Saric for Elfrid Payton at the NBA draft last week.
The Sixers are in a hard rebuild right now and while Williams was rookie of the year last season, it didn't stop rumors from popping up that he could get traded. Before the draft, Pro Basketball Talk reported that a deal for Carter-Williams to the Lakers could be in the works, but obviously that did not go down and now that the Sixers have drafted and traded Payton, Williams likely is staying. GM Sam Hinkie operates his own way and if he sees a deal for MCW that can help the team in the long term, he likely will take it, as the Sixers are not going to compete for a number of years, but when they do, they could be deadly.
The Sixers come into the offseason after going just 19-63 on the season and now they are looking towards the future, as they have a number of young players like Embiid and Noel to build around. Last season the team went double digits without wins and had one of the worst seasons ever, but now they have a young core and even with all that, they ranked 19th in points per game and players like Williams and Embiid have promising futures if they stick it out in Philly. The team traded Jrue Holiday last season for Noel and a pick and they turned that into more players and now Hinkie is angling to build the team into next season as well.
Embiid likely would have been the first overall pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers had he not been injured, which is one reason why the Sixers picked him in the first place. According to ESPN.com, Embiid may miss the season, but the Sixers do not regret the pick, as they saw him as a first overall talent coming in at number three and now Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins and Embiid could go down as one of the top talented trios in draft history. In some alternate universe, the Cavs have Kyrie Irving and Embiid, while the Sixers have Wiggins or Parker, but this is the world we are living in now.
If Embiid misses the season, it would be the second time in as many years (and third actually) for the Sixers and their big men, as Andrew Bynum and Noel missed the previous year and last year respectively for the team, so they know how to deal with a situation like that. Embiid had a very good season at Kansas and now he could be out with a stress fracture in his foot and the Sixers may just hold him out for the year rather than risk any of it.
