76ers star Joel Embiid exploded on Wednesday night, scoring 50 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in just 27 minutes in a 123–110 win against the Magic. During a Thursday radio interview, team president Daryl Morey acknowledged that Embiid’s recent play has shifted the paradigm a bit in terms of how the team views a potential Ben Simmons trade.
During his appearance on 97.5 The Fanatic with Mike Missanelli, Morey stressed that any trade involving Simmons, Tobias Harris or other Sixers players has to drastically improve the team’s current title odds, especially if it threatens to hamstring the franchise in the future. Trading Simmons, even if playing for Philadelphia remains out of the question for him, in order for a slight improvement isn’t good enough for Morey.
“It really is important that the player we add to Joel, if we really want to take our odds from wherever we’re at right now, to something materially higher, it has to come back in an impact player,” Morey said. “If you trade one of these great players for multiple, it does not move your championship odds enough to make a difference. It might take us from where we’re at now to a little bit better, but it’s very slightly better, and we want to—for Joel—we have to make sure we get this right and we move ourselves to a higher tier of ability to win a championship...
