Shocker: Joel Embiid was pissed about the Jared McCain trade
Tony Jones of The Athletic dropped a report Monday saying Joel Embiid was unhappy with the Sixers’ decision to trade Jared McCain at the deadline and that other players in the locker room felt the same way. This is being treated like breaking news across NBA media right now.
It’s not. We knew this. Everyone knew this. We’ve written about it a million times on this site. Embiid publicly said before the deadline that the organization shouldn’t sell just to duck the tax. Daryl Morey and Josh Harris responded by doing exactly that, shipping McCain to Oklahoma City for the 22nd pick and three second-round picks. Joel Embiid was pissed. The locker room was pissed. The fanbase was pissed. The only people who weren’t pissed were the people who made the decision.
Joel Embiid note from The Athletic:
“As the season progressed, it became clear the star center didn’t see eye-to-eye with the front office and the coaching staff. In the days before the February trade deadline, he implored the front office to do something other than what he termed ‘ducking the (luxury) tax.’ As such, he — along with others in the locker room — were not happy with the decision to trade second-year guard Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder, particularly without bringing in a player to replace McCain. In interviews over the next few games, Embiid noticeably had to hold himself back from verbally criticizing the front office.”
None of this is new information. Tony Jones put it in The Athletic with some quotes and sources and now it’s a national story. But the content of the report is everything that was painfully obvious to anyone paying attention in February. The Sixers traded their most promising young guard without getting a replacement player back, gutted their already thin bench, and then watched the entire thing collapse in the second round exactly the way everyone predicted it would.
The Jared McCain Decision Looks Worse Every Day
McCain was the 16th overall pick in 2024. He averaged 15.3 points per game as a rookie in Philadelphia. He struggled with injuries over the next couple of seasons but he was still only 22 years old with legitimate upside. The Sixers pulled the plug on him for a late first-round pick and salary dump fodder.
Since arriving in Oklahoma City, McCain has averaged 10.4 points per game in a limited role because the Thunder have absurd depth and don’t need him to carry a heavy workload. He’s contributing on a team that has options.
The Sixers traded him because they decided they had a “glut” of guards. Daryl Morey’s words. A “glut” of guards. Then the playoffs arrived and Quentin Grimes was the only guard off the bench. Maxey played 47 minutes in Game 2 against the Knicks and Edgecombe was logging heavy minutes every night because there was nobody behind them.
Jared McCain knocking down threes in the playoffs. Go figure.
A glut of guards. The Sixers had Grimes and nobody else. Morey sold the fanbase a lie about roster construction, traded a 22-year-old with legitimate talent for future assets, and then watched his team get swept in the second round because the bench couldn’t function.
Joel Embiid Pissed Is Bigger Than Jared McCain. Obviously.
This isn’t even about Jared McCain specifically. McCain is just the latest example of an organization that treats the Sixers like a spreadsheet instead of a basketball team. Morey operates like every decision is a business transaction. Every player is an asset to be evaluated, flipped, or sold high on. Every trade deadline is an opportunity to duck the luxury tax and accumulate future picks instead of investing in the current roster.
Joel Embiid has been saying it. The locker room has been feeling it. The fans have been screaming about it. This organization does not operate like a franchise trying to win a championship. It operates like a hedge fund trying to optimize long-term value while the window for its best player closes in real time.
The cherry on top was Morey coming out publicly after the trade and telling Sixers fans he “sold high” on McCain because of the guard depth. Sold high. Like he was talking about a stock portfolio. The Sixers’ franchise player was begging the front office to add pieces and the GM responded by subtracting them and then bragging about getting good value.
That kind of disconnect between the front office and the locker room is rat poison. It’s the kind of thing that erodes trust between players and management over years and eventually becomes irreparable.
Daryl Morey Should Be Fired
He’s not the only one either. Obviously, it would be great if Josh Harris sold the team but I highly doubt that will happen so if this organization had any sense of pride or a general backbone, Morey has to be gone before the end of the week.
The McCain trade. The refusal to spend at the deadline. The 69-95 record across two regular seasons. The paper-thin bench that has been exposed in every postseason since Morey arrived.
The star-chasing philosophy that has produced nothing but first and second-round exits. The public comments about “selling high” and “guard gluts” that insult the intelligence of every fan who watches this team.
The evidence is overwhelming. Morey’s approach has not worked. The roster construction has failed. The depth problem has been the same problem for years and he has never addressed it because he refuses to deviate from his star-chasing philosophy.
It’s Joel Embiid. Blame the front office.
He got his three max players and didn’t bother building anything around them. When the predictable consequences of that approach showed up in the playoffs, he blamed the results on health and bad luck instead of acknowledging that the roster was fundamentally flawed from the start.
Joel Embiid’s grievances with the organization are piling up because the organization keeps giving him reasons to be grieved. He asked them not to sell. They sold. He asked for depth. They traded it away. He came back from surgery to lead a historic comeback and the team got swept in the next round because there was nobody on the bench.
The relationship between Joel Embiid and the Sixers front office is deteriorating and Morey is the reason. Until he’s gone or fundamentally changes how he operates, nothing is going to get better.
The same movie is going to play every year with the same trade deadline sell-offs and the same depth problems. That will result in the same early playoff exits and the same Athletic reports about player frustration that everyone already knew about months earlier.
Same Problems, Same Result: Sixers swept by the Knicks and nothing changes until the top does >>
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