Joel Embiid’s name doesn’t usually come up when people are talking about the Clippers cleaning up their future. But after the punishment tied to the cap-circumvention scandal, that’s exactly the kind of swing LA may have to consider.
The logic is simple enough: the Clippers already lost five first-round picks, and if Philadelphia ever decides Embiid’s contract is too heavy to keep on its books, Los Angeles could be one of the few teams positioned to absorb it. Yossi Gozlan and Sam Quinn floated that idea on the “Third Apron Podcast,” with Quinn pointing straight at Embiid as the kind of player a team might be willing to move if the contract no longer fits.
"Are you willing and able to take damaged goods? Somebody who's injured, somebody who's older, somebody who has a contract that doesn't really fit into the structure of whatever their team is building. Joel Embiid is a really obvious one."
For now, the Sixers are not treating Embiid like someone they’re ready to move. They entered the offseason needing to figure out whether to trade him or Paul George, and they already sent George to the Celtics for Jaylen Brown. That still leaves Embiid in Philadelphia, where he remains on the most talented roster he’s had since the Sixers drafted him in 2014.
That part matters. A stronger supporting cast should ease some of the regular-season burden on Embiid, but the pressure doesn’t disappear.
It just shifts. If Philadelphia reaches the point where it believes moving him gives it a better shot at a title, the door opens for a team like the Clippers.
And the Clippers have reasons to pay attention.
They already have two unprotected first-round picks and two pick swaps from Toronto in the Kawhi Leonard trade, and those assets have helped point the franchise in a better direction. Even so, the road ahead is still ugly.
The next few years are expected to be rough, and the NBA’s new anti-tanking rules won’t hand out much help to teams that finish at the bottom. LA may not have much choice but to lean into that reality because of the corner it painted itself into.
Then there’s the contract. Embiid is due to make a little less than $58 million this season, $62.6 million in 2027-28, and he has a $62.3 million player option in 2028-29 that can already be treated as a given. If Philadelphia decides to move him before the February deadline or even next summer, that deal will be a tough sell for most teams.
It wouldn’t be for the Clippers, at least not in the same way.
One path would be for LA to try to get back the 2028 first-round pick Philadelphia sent in the 2023 James Harden trade. That pick looks far more valuable now than it did then because of the Kawhi scandal.
The Sixers would have every reason to want to keep it, but taking Embiid’s contract off their hands could be enough to make them consider it. A straight-up deal wouldn’t be that easy, and more would be needed to get it done, but it would be a starting point.
That’s the bigger picture here: Embiid could become part of the kind of trade that helps the Clippers reset their future. It all depends on Philadelphia deciding the former No. 1 pick and NBA MVP is no longer the right piece for what comes next. Given his injury history and how hard it’s been for him to stay on the floor, LA would have to be ready if that moment ever arrives.
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