Prior to the NBA trade deadline, Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George was mentioned as a possible trade target. This was mainly because his level of play hadn’t aligned with his $211 million contract.
Dan Favale of Bleacher Report suggests that signing George may not be the organization’s biggest regret in recent memory. Instead, he believes their regret was signing center Joel Embiid to his contract extension.
“Choosing the Embiid extension over the Paul George signing erodes my soul a little bit. The former is (supposed to be) in his prime and not yet two years removed from winning MVP. And yet, his overall deal may prove more crippling. After factoring in his three-year, $192.9 million extension, the Philadelphia 76ers now owe him over $248 million through 2028-29, his age-34 season,” Favale wrote.
Embiid’s contract extension felt a bit premature even if he was still playing at an MVP level. He wasn’t scheduled to hit free agency until after the 2026 season. He only played 19 games this season for the 76ers and in those games it is clear he hasn’t recovered from his lingering injuries.
Although when healthy, Embiid is one of the most dominant players in the league. The issue and key words are “when healthy.” There were rumblings that he never fully healed from his surgery on his torn meniscus and it has affected his health this season. His contract proves to be one of the worst in the league today.
Hopefully, he can return to his MVP-caliber level once again. He also only played 39 games last season, and it has become an ongoing issue to keep him on the floor. Time will tell if he can fully recover and bring playoff basketball back to the city of Philadelphia.
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