How This Trade Impacts Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers have one of the best players in the NBA in Joel Embiid. They want to maximize his prime and this is a deal that would help do that.
Acquiring Damian Lillard to be his running mate would be an all-in move by Daryl Morey. They would be sacrificing a lot of depth by trading away Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle and Tobias Harris, but Lillard is the type of player that is worth a haul like that for what he brings to the table.
Philadelphia would also still have Ben Simmons on the roster. If he returned to the court, the 76ers would have one of the most vaunted Big 3’s in the NBA with Lillard,
Simmons and Embiid. If the organization still couldn’t convince him to return to play with them, they would be able to recoup a lot of the depth they lost in the Lillard trade in the return package for Simmons.
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Landing Lillard should make finding a deal for Simmons much easier. Deals with teams that do not have a player on the 20-30 person list the 76ers have would become more likely as they would have already added the player they are seeking from that list in Lillard.
Pulling off those two moves would put Daryl Morey in the running for Executive of the Year, pushing the 76ers into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. Having Lillard and Embiid is enough to compete, but adding multiple pieces in a separate Simmons trade could put them over the top.
