I understand that people are bored and tired but I think they're missing the obvious solution: just stop watching the team. The moment Embiid went down I switched from a Sixers fan to a RTRS fan and it's honestly been pretty fun. The content on the pod and here is great, I am aware of what is going on with the team - not great! - but not actually suffering through it.
The other benefit is that I'm not getting warped ideas about this team while they play without the best player in the league. I've been arguing for years that the team should be built specifically to maximize Joel, that this was a more proven route to contention than "stah hunting," and thankfully they've done it. Of course they're going to be ass without him. I'd rather this than having a few extra wins with, say, James Harden here and no realistic hope of winning anything in the spring.
I'm happy to keep reading about Cam Payne and Doc Rivers and wait for Embiid to get back and watch him be the historically dominant player we know he is.
Spike, thanks for laying out your rationale behind your position that the Sixers can’t (or shouldn’t) consider trading Embiid. Even though I think your argument is really flawed, I won’t call it “galaxy brain stuff,” as you termed my entire argument for trading JoJo. Your position on this trade idea really flies against most of what Rights to Ricky Sanchez has been about for me. And that is this idea that the Sixers, at whatever the present point in time is, are not good enough to win a title. Thus the podcast talks about how we make them better.
It's inarguable that the Sixers have not been a title contender during the Embiid years. You’ve spent hours upon hours detailing all of the ways in which the team around JoJo (and Embiid himself) have not been good enough to win. Even at times when the roster has been more stacked and talented than it is right now (assuming a healthy Embiid), you’ve devoted endless podcasts discussing why this wasn’t enough.
And NOW, you’re arguing that we should just be happy having a middling team with a guy on it who is a top five player in the league because…well, top five players are really impossible to get. Is THAT what this has all come to? You sound like the ownership group of a franchise trying to sell season tickets for a team nobody thinks has a chance to win.
What this ignores is that this top five player has never been enough, even with a good roster around him, to get past the second round. What this ignores is that this top five player is now 30 years old and plays a position where guys don’t have a lot of productive years after that age. What this ignores is the state of the Sixers roster when this current mess of Sixers season ends. It’s like you’re making the argument to keep an Embiid that we had five years ago, not the one we have now.
Many Sixers fans (apparently you included) are hopelessly stuck on this idea that the only way to look at the post-Embiid era is “Process II.” In other words, without Embiid we’re all stuck with a sub-15 win team for years on end. And who wants THAT? So…keep Embiid.
Give me a break.
The Process was a very specific approach to rebuilding a team that was centered on bottoming out in pursuit of a top three pick across multiple years. Look, I agree that there’s no guarantee you get franchise players in the top three picks. And that’s one of the reasons why that old Hinkie strategy was problematic. That kind of tanking isn’t the only way to fix a roster and take a team back to the playoffs. Surely we can agree on that. OKC currently has the second best record in the NBA. And they didn’t tank for years to get there. That franchise made the playoffs every year but one during their last great era from 2009 to 2020 (and these appearances weren’t all just second round flameouts). Then the last three seasons they have retooled and missed the playoffs. Now they’re back again as a favorite. They built around young players and the draft. Sixers fans need to stop it with the copout that Trading Embiid this offseason means an immediate return to 5+ years of “The Process.”
Embiid has a significant value right now. We already know what that value is to us if he remains on the team. And it’s not good enough to win a title with Maxey and some supporting guys. It’s not good enough to attract top free agents to sign and play here. And he’s such a specific kind of player that when he gets injured (which he does every season) the team isn’t constructed to win without him.
So the obvious conclusion should be to investigate what his current value is to the Sixers as a trade asset. In your essay you assume that the value would be as almost a straight-up, one-for-one swap for some other superstar. But the last 2-3 comparable players to get traded in the NBA were Durant, Irving and Gobert. And those three all returned both first round picks and young, talented players. So to PROPERLY evaluate the case for trading Embiid, you absolutely have to consider what THAT kind of return would mean to the Sixers franchise.
This offseason, one where we enter it with only Embiid under contract for 2024-25, getting several young, talented players and several first round picks would absolutely be important to the franchise. The alternative to that is what? Signing a half a roster full of guys on one-year cheap deals…a half-roster worth of Mo Bambas and Kenyon Martins?
You also don’t explain how, should the team KEEP Embiid, the Sixers prevent a “Process II” from immediately being triggered by the end of the productive part of JoJo’s career. And that end could be in two seasons…in three seasons…but it’s more near than it has ever been. This also could be triggered by Embiid just deciding to demand a trade. And the instant he does that, his value drops. The opportunity cost for not trading Embiid NOW is that when he’s all used up he will not be able to return any value to help with the eventual re-tooling. And we KNOW how this goes because we’ve already watched what happens when the Sixers trade a Charles Barkley or an Allen Iverson too late to get any real value. Shouldn’t we have learned from these mistakes when it comes to thanking your superstar player for some great years in Philly and sending him out of town at a high water mark on his own trade value?
In the end, I have no doubt you and Mike and the others here on your Rights to Ricky team will come around and be ready declare the Sixers should trade Embiid – or even be ok when he eventually asks for a trade. It will surely be for essentially all the same reasons I have explained here and before. You’re holding such an obvious losing hand on this position of “keep building around Embiid.” This season has been a disaster for your side of the argument. And yet, you still hold firm to it – for now. Tick tock…
I understand that people are bored and tired but I think they're missing the obvious solution: just stop watching the team. The moment Embiid went down I switched from a Sixers fan to a RTRS fan and it's honestly been pretty fun. The content on the pod and here is great, I am aware of what is going on with the team - not great! - but not actually suffering through it.
The other benefit is that I'm not getting warped ideas about this team while they play without the best player in the league. I've been arguing for years that the team should be built specifically to maximize Joel, that this was a more proven route to contention than "stah hunting," and thankfully they've done it. Of course they're going to be ass without him. I'd rather this than having a few extra wins with, say, James Harden here and no realistic hope of winning anything in the spring.
I'm happy to keep reading about Cam Payne and Doc Rivers and wait for Embiid to get back and watch him be the historically dominant player we know he is.
Spike, thanks for laying out your rationale behind your position that the Sixers can’t (or shouldn’t) consider trading Embiid. Even though I think your argument is really flawed, I won’t call it “galaxy brain stuff,” as you termed my entire argument for trading JoJo. Your position on this trade idea really flies against most of what Rights to Ricky Sanchez has been about for me. And that is this idea that the Sixers, at whatever the present point in time is, are not good enough to win a title. Thus the podcast talks about how we make them better.
It's inarguable that the Sixers have not been a title contender during the Embiid years. You’ve spent hours upon hours detailing all of the ways in which the team around JoJo (and Embiid himself) have not been good enough to win. Even at times when the roster has been more stacked and talented than it is right now (assuming a healthy Embiid), you’ve devoted endless podcasts discussing why this wasn’t enough.
And NOW, you’re arguing that we should just be happy having a middling team with a guy on it who is a top five player in the league because…well, top five players are really impossible to get. Is THAT what this has all come to? You sound like the ownership group of a franchise trying to sell season tickets for a team nobody thinks has a chance to win.
What this ignores is that this top five player has never been enough, even with a good roster around him, to get past the second round. What this ignores is that this top five player is now 30 years old and plays a position where guys don’t have a lot of productive years after that age. What this ignores is the state of the Sixers roster when this current mess of Sixers season ends. It’s like you’re making the argument to keep an Embiid that we had five years ago, not the one we have now.
Many Sixers fans (apparently you included) are hopelessly stuck on this idea that the only way to look at the post-Embiid era is “Process II.” In other words, without Embiid we’re all stuck with a sub-15 win team for years on end. And who wants THAT? So…keep Embiid.
Give me a break.
The Process was a very specific approach to rebuilding a team that was centered on bottoming out in pursuit of a top three pick across multiple years. Look, I agree that there’s no guarantee you get franchise players in the top three picks. And that’s one of the reasons why that old Hinkie strategy was problematic. That kind of tanking isn’t the only way to fix a roster and take a team back to the playoffs. Surely we can agree on that. OKC currently has the second best record in the NBA. And they didn’t tank for years to get there. That franchise made the playoffs every year but one during their last great era from 2009 to 2020 (and these appearances weren’t all just second round flameouts). Then the last three seasons they have retooled and missed the playoffs. Now they’re back again as a favorite. They built around young players and the draft. Sixers fans need to stop it with the copout that Trading Embiid this offseason means an immediate return to 5+ years of “The Process.”
Embiid has a significant value right now. We already know what that value is to us if he remains on the team. And it’s not good enough to win a title with Maxey and some supporting guys. It’s not good enough to attract top free agents to sign and play here. And he’s such a specific kind of player that when he gets injured (which he does every season) the team isn’t constructed to win without him.
So the obvious conclusion should be to investigate what his current value is to the Sixers as a trade asset. In your essay you assume that the value would be as almost a straight-up, one-for-one swap for some other superstar. But the last 2-3 comparable players to get traded in the NBA were Durant, Irving and Gobert. And those three all returned both first round picks and young, talented players. So to PROPERLY evaluate the case for trading Embiid, you absolutely have to consider what THAT kind of return would mean to the Sixers franchise.
This offseason, one where we enter it with only Embiid under contract for 2024-25, getting several young, talented players and several first round picks would absolutely be important to the franchise. The alternative to that is what? Signing a half a roster full of guys on one-year cheap deals…a half-roster worth of Mo Bambas and Kenyon Martins?
You also don’t explain how, should the team KEEP Embiid, the Sixers prevent a “Process II” from immediately being triggered by the end of the productive part of JoJo’s career. And that end could be in two seasons…in three seasons…but it’s more near than it has ever been. This also could be triggered by Embiid just deciding to demand a trade. And the instant he does that, his value drops. The opportunity cost for not trading Embiid NOW is that when he’s all used up he will not be able to return any value to help with the eventual re-tooling. And we KNOW how this goes because we’ve already watched what happens when the Sixers trade a Charles Barkley or an Allen Iverson too late to get any real value. Shouldn’t we have learned from these mistakes when it comes to thanking your superstar player for some great years in Philly and sending him out of town at a high water mark on his own trade value?
In the end, I have no doubt you and Mike and the others here on your Rights to Ricky team will come around and be ready declare the Sixers should trade Embiid – or even be ok when he eventually asks for a trade. It will surely be for essentially all the same reasons I have explained here and before. You’re holding such an obvious losing hand on this position of “keep building around Embiid.” This season has been a disaster for your side of the argument. And yet, you still hold firm to it – for now. Tick tock…