Joel Embiid Rumors: 'Keep an Eye on the Knicks!' - Insider
Clap your hands, everybody ... for the Philadelphia 76ers' MVP in New York?
ESPN NBA insider Nick Friedell addressed the previously-debunked concept of Joel Embiid taking Manhattan on Monday's edition of "First Take," reasoning that the idea of the newly-minted NBA MVP moving onto the New York Knicks could be revisited if the 76ers once fall short of their long-lofty goals
"What happens if they go back into the postseason and this team just cannot get through the brick wall that is the second round? What happens then?" Friedell asks. "It means, a year from now, we're going to be sitting here and the NBA world will be wondering 'Has Joel Embiid had enough?'. It is the question that has been rumbling underneath the surface around the league right now."
"At what point does Joel Embiid go 'It's not happening for me, here, I need to go elsewhere." I'm telling you all right now: the team to keep an eye on sits right here in New York City, and it's the Knicks."
After another second-round washout (its third seven-game defeat in the conference semifinals over the last five years), the 76ers fired head coach Doc Rivers and brought aboard former Toronto Raptors boss and 2019 NBA champion Nick Nurse. There were initial fears that James Harden would move back to Houston but the case for a Philadelphia return appears to be strengthening with Nurse at the helm.
Embiid inked a four-year, $210 million contract extension in August 2021 and has a $59 million player option for the 2026-27 season. His talents make an earth-moving trade more than acceptable and Friedell believes that the Knicks have a long-term blueprint that would allow Embiid to hunt for an elusive championship. He hints that "every asset they have" would be on the table with the exception of sending Villanova alum Jalen Brunson back to Philadelphia.
"They would love nothing more than to put every asset they have, just like every other team, (but) say, 'Hey, Joel, come play at (Madison Square) Garden, come be around Jalen Brunson and be in a situation that is ready-made for you to compete for a title right away."
Though Philadelphia has been a far more prevalent postseason prescience than the Knicks, each side's journey ended in second-round heartbreak: whereas the 76ers fell to the Boston Celtics in seven games, the Knicks were ousted in six by the eventual conference champion Miami Heat. New York (23 years) and Philadelphia (22) own two of the four longest conference final appearance droughts in the NBA, behind only Washington (44) and Charlotte (33).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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