Just like with the interest in Harden, these leaks are coming 100% from the player who hopes to use this for their own benefit. I kind of doubt the Rockets would have any interest in an injury plagued 29 year old big man given what they'd have to trade to get him.
No thanks! I am excited about our rebuild. I want to see what Ime can do with the youngsters before we consider something like this.
The big hang-up is I bet he doesn't want to play here. Maybe that will change though if our results are surprisingly good and he gets traded at the deadline or next off-season. The other issue is matching the salaries. We basically can't trade for him until after December 15th because that's when we can include contracts like Uncle Jeff and/or Landale. The obvious trade would be built around Sengun + KPJ + draft picks. There's a chance Sengun is looking so good that we think twice about that, and I do think Sengun is a very valuable player for us, but to acquire the reigning MVP I'd think most would agree that's worth it except maybe the most hardcore Sengun fans who think he is literally on a future MVP trajectory...? The other possibility would be to do a trade built around sending Jabari and try to do some wacky two bigs lineups. I think that would make less sense though--too much overlap between Embiid's and Sengun's skills offensively.
Right now I’d focus in the current core. When our youngsters are ready to compete, Sengun may be better than Embiid
Joel Embiid isn't going to want to go to Houston and the Rockets would be foolish to trade their young players for a soon to be 30 year old big man. Philadelphia doesn't want to trade Embiid either.
It would be a win-now play. The question is, is a team like this an immediate contender, or no? Fred VanVleet/Amen Thompson Jalen Green/Cam Whitmore Dillon Brooks/Tari Eason Jabari Smith Jr/Tari Eason Joel Embiid/Jock Landale
Though it has decreased, he is consistently one of the highest fouled-per-usage (read: ref assisted) players in the league. Those can be useful to have indeed - but those are the guys who struggle in the playoffs. (See: Harden + Embiid playoff series vs Celtics, 2023). I would take him under several circumstances, just not at a franchise-defining king's ransom.