2) Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves already had a franchise-altering deal ahead of the 2024-25 season when they traded Karl Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks, receiving Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Diop, and a first-round pick. As they continue to build a contending team around star Anthony Edwards, it's not unlikely that the Wolves pivot once more this upcoming offseason.
The major complication in any Embiid deal for the Wolves is their lack of future draft capital. Utah owns the Wolves' first-round selections in 2025 and 2027, and the team has various pre-committed swaps in 2026, 2029, and 2030. This leaves Minnesota's 2028 first, which is only available for swap due to the Stepien Rule, and their 2031 first-round selection.
Outside of draft compensation, Minnesota would build the deal around an expensive, aging Rudy Gobert to offer—who is practically a must to be included, or the highly controversial—from an on-court perspective—Julius Randle.
Neither of these options sounds particularly enticing for Philadelphia, but Randles would provide the team with a competitive true power forward, and in either case, the Sixers would be well within their rights to ask for everything but the kitchen sink from Minnesota.
Neither of these options sounds particularly enticing for Philadelphia, but Randles would provide the team with a competitive true power forward, and in either case, the Sixers would be well within their rights to ask for everything but the kitchen sink from Minnesota.
1) Houston Rockets
Finally, the Houston Rockets, continually in search for a star for their young and deep squad, feel like the perfect landing spot for Joel Embiid to obtain a change of scenery, while maintaining his dominate role.
The Rockets have a young rising center in Alperen Şengün, but there is believed to be a cap to his development that will separate him from a player of Joel Embiid's caliber.
Houston is effectively the island of misfit young NBA talent. From the impressive yet inconsistent Jalen Green, to the disappoint but constantly improving Jabari Smith, and many more, the Rockets have a bevy of young players who could grow into borderline stars, just not definitive stars.
Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, who also has experience coaching Embiid, is very aware of the skill the former MVP possesses and to this day holds a great deal of respect for him.
“He’s a grinder, and he puts in a ton of work,” Udoka said before the Rocket's matchup against Philadelphia earlier this season. “When you have injuries, I think people often look at that instead of the work you put in just to be able to play.”
Another benefit of Houston is that their rare combination of salary to match and assets, both young players and draft assets, make them the ideal destination to pair multiple stars together. I refer back now to the Shams report linking the Rockets to Joel Embiid's good friend, Jimmy Butler.
Time will tell what the future holds for Embiid, but there should certainly be no shortage of teams looking to convince him to make a move away from his less than comfortable situation in Philadelphia.