The past week has been a tough one for the Knicks organization and fanbase. Two ugly wins against terrible teams bookended a pair of blowout losses that completely doused the championship expectations for this team in 2024-25. The utter domination that New York experienced at the hands of Cleveland and Boston took the air out of everyone involved, despite the season being far from over. However, after Jalen Brunson saved the day against the undermanned 76ers, news came out that should make Knicks fans happy.
Joel Embiid News a Source of Optimism For Knicks Fans
It has long been rumored that the Knicks had been in on Joel Embiid as a possible trade target since the 2023 season. Embiid won league MVP in 2022-23 but flamed out spectacularly by blowing a 3-2 lead to the Celtics in the second round. After that devastating loss, perhaps NY believed that the superstar center could be on the trade block. Although it seemed unlikely that Philly would move off Embiid after such a dominant campaign, it was reported that Leon Rose was willing to send a king’s ransom to acquire him.
Well, that news was not only confirmed, it appears that the Knicks dodged an even bigger bullet than we thought. NBA insider Jake Fischer says that NY was willing to trade “every one of their draft picks” to bring in Embiid. Thankfully for New York, this deal never materialized and they switched gears to Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.
The New York Knicks were rumored to be willing to trade every single one of their draft picks for Joel Embiid before pivoting to Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, per @JakeLFischer
“Once upon a time, Philly presumably could have extracted every draft pick that New York… pic.twitter.com/1QQS0rCsbW
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 27, 2025
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Failed Trade Was a Sliding Doors Moment in NBA History
If New York had been able to pull the trigger on such a transformative deal, the fates of these two rivals would be completely different right now. Philadelphia is currently stuck in an unrecoverable situation, paying max money to Embiid and 34-year-old Paul George. They’re 20-38, sitting outside the play-in tournament with a worse record than the tanking Brooklyn Nets.
Embiid missed 43 games in 2023-24 and has only appeared in 19 contests this season. He’s said he needs off-season knee surgery to hope he ever regains his form again. He’s also now on the wrong side of 30. The downfall of Embiid’s career is very sad, but also somewhat common for seven-footers like him. There’s simply no way out of this mess for the Sixers.
On the Knicks side of things, they used their assets to instead acquire Bridges and Towns. While an imperfect team, New York is a title contender, tied for the fourth-best record in the league. They have an elite seven-man rotation all under 30 years of age and should get several cracks at a championship. None of this would be possible if NY had gone all-in on Embiid. Leon Rose has done a masterful job dragging this franchise out of a two-decade gutter, but undoubtedly got very lucky here.
NBA history was almost altered by these two bitter rivals that are separated by 90 minutes down the NJ turnpike. Sixers fans shouldn’t feel bad about this, as few franchises would’ve actually traded Embiid after an MVP season. Unless you are the Dallas Mavericks, that is. Knicks fans should thank their lucky stars that their resurgence was able to continue.
Photo credit: © Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
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