3 Reasons Wizards Must Consider Proposed Joel Embiid Trade

What's intriguing about Bleacher Report's trade idea is that in this hypothetical, the Wizards do not give up any of their young players. WIth Alex Sarr, AJ Johnson, Bilal Coulibaly, Jordan Poole, Bub Carrington, and Kyshawn George, you'd expect Washington to send a combination of two of these players. plus some salaries to match in order to acquire a player like Embiid.

Under the proposed B/R trade, though, the Wizards would only send a 2027 and 2029 first-round pick (with protections on that last one), as well as Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart as salary filler in the trade. That, frankly, feels like a steal, especially given Middleton and Smart's ages.

Adding an MVP-caliber player to a young core should be a no-brainer, and that's doubly true if you don't disrupt that young core by trading one of them.

2. It's Joel Embiid

Yes, there are concerns about Embiid's long-term health. His knee issues have been so severe that they've forced him to miss significant time this season. We may never see a truly healthy Embiid shine in the NBA again. That's just the unfortunate reality of Embiid's situation.

That being said... He's still Joel Embiid. He's just one year removed from being in the MVP race. Even this year, as he's battled injuries, he still averaged 23.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Sure, they're not MVP-level numbers, but it's still better than what any player on the Wizards can provide right now.

Embiid might not bring the Wizards to the promised land, but he can sure help them win some games. And that brings us to my final point, which is...

3. Win-now move to help the players develop

It sounds a bit bizarre, yes. How would trading for a player who is past his prime but can still be productive help the Wizards' young players develop?

Well, it has something to do with winning games. One of the common struggles for rebuilding teams is developing a culture of winning. When your players are so used to losses, the culture starts to shift. You start to see close losses as wins, and that impacts how players play on the court. Sooner or later, your young guys have to start seeing wins on the board for them to take that next step.

Embiid would complement the Wizards' young core nicely. He'd move Sarr off the physically demanding 5 spot to play power forward, covering his weaknesses under the rim. An Embiid-Sarr frontcourt would be one of the toughest paints to penetrate. It would also allow their defenders, Coulibaly and George, to be more comfortable on defense, as they don't have to worry too much about their interior defense.

On offense, Embiid could still work the pick-and-pop for Carrington, and he could still clean up under the rim. This all, of course, relies on him being healthy: the Wizards would not do this is they think Embiid won't be healthy enough anyway.

That being said, with what they would supposedly give away in this trade, the Wizards should do this trade nine times out of ten.