The Knicks and Rockets could be interested in Joel Embiid?

If you're, if you're Darryl and you know that the Clippers are the, practically the only team that could be a realistic trade partner, do you bite the bullet and just take 50 cents on the dollar? Or do you just try and stick it out knowing that you have a guy in Joel and B because that's another part of the equation because you know, Joel's not going to be, he's not the happiest camper if James, this whole, James, Joel is not pleased with this whole situation, frankly speaking. Right. No, and I'm glad you brought that up. I mean, I, I hit on that before vacation, um, and honestly learned a bit. This is one of my favorite parts of the job is when you, you know, you, you report on something and you feel like you, you hit it close to the mark, but then on the back end, once people see that you put certain, you know, things out there a certain way, then they'll kind of educate you even more. That did happen on the Joel and B story. So he says publicly, um, and I forget where he was. He was, he was in a, uh, conference. He was in a conference and he, and he alludes to the idea that, you know, that he, that he wants to win a championship, whether it's in Philly or somewhere else. Um, you talked earlier about James being calculated. These players are smart and they know how to handle their voice. And the idea was that, all right, Joel had made a choice to put that thought out into the, uh, the ecosystem about the idea that maybe you wouldn't be in Philly. So the Sixers stance and their response at that time was listen, Joel has talked for years about wanting to stay here for his whole career to want to go the way of Kobe and Steph Curry and guys like that. The honest at this point, um, and be with one franchise dark. Now that's all well and good. That's all very true. That has been Joel's mindset. Um, but it was, you know, the part that I did learn about was like, no, it's last couple of years, there's also been pretty clear message that like, if you guys keep effing around for lack of a better way of putting it and, and don't give me the right kind of group, you know, that makes me feel like a title contender, then, you know, then who knows what happens? Maybe he does ask out that pressure is there. Um, the Sixers know it's there. And you know, Joel this summer had, it seemed tried to, I mean, he and James are fine, but he had tried to connect with James at some off season events and, and essentially convince him to stay, convince him to be good. Uh, I think you're hitting on something really important, which is man, once Joel Embiid saw what James Harden had to say in China, what, what was his reaction? Because I don't know exactly who Joel, if he's got a list of players that he would love to play with, or if he's looking at Darrell, just saying, give me whatever the Clippers are willing to give you and let me, let me work, let me cook. Um, but yeah, the Joel factory is huge here. And, and to add to that Joel thing I've heard, you know, obviously the, the New York ankle is there as well, but I know the team is Houston as well. Like just because of the bond between, you know, Joel and Aimee and just that situation where they're, if added older, this is where a super producer, Andrew Schleck should splice in some, uh, there's an oldie, but goodie. A lot of Morris says, isn't that ironic? We need some ironic music right now. So, so I think, you know, maybe in the next year or so, I think, cause obviously if Joel stays this season and plays it out, you know, that's the one thing, but moving forward from that, I do think New York and Houston are the two teams to watch if, if it ever came to a situation where Joel said, you know, I want to leave too, because this whole union of James and Joel, it hasn't been perfect. Right. So you go back to how James got there in the first place and having to essentially pigeonhole his game to just give Joel the ball. That was Philly's game plan for a lot of nights, right? Because he was such a dominant, dominant big man and everything was going his way. Winning the MVP, you know, the whole stuff with him and Doc. I remember, I remember a story you put out going back to the video with James and Doc speaking, you know, before the season and how important that was because you know that the, the way that Doc has been able to kind of role play as a runway at times and a whole, whole interesting dynamic with that. So anybody who doesn't remember that, it still blows me away, Kelly, that that happened, you know, and I've even, I've tried since then to get clarity on the question of, you know, whether or not James knew he was being recorded. So, you know, NBA TV comes into Sixers camp and had this all access video of Doc talking to James and really, and I'm paraphrasing, just telling him like, you know, listen for us to be at our best, we got to feed the big fella. And then James pushed back a little bit, not in any kind of acrimonious way, but pushed back and said, you know, I just know that like, if, if, if you let me cook, then I'm going to bring the defense and it's going to make life easier for him. So they were having, it was the kind of dialogue that it was so interesting to watch because it happens on every team, but we just typically don't get to see it. But to your point, my first thought was like, oh boy, like, you know, Doc is, is pretty calculated in his own right with his voice and his profile and the media is so that might've helped the optics for Doc because it really looked like he was leading their group. But did James know that he was being recorded? Now, the answer I've gotten was most likely, yes. Like James is, is a bright dude knows that it was, you know, an all access practice, but you go from that to this. And I think what you're highlighting is the fact that literally for years, you know, it's a, it's a Kobe Shaq light type of dynamic that they have been trying to navigate. And it's obviously, you know, reached this point.