Embiid Trade

(2/23/22)

$traight Cash Homie trades Joel Embiid (C, PHI)

to

Minnesota Moose Knuckles for Bradley Beal, 4th Round MLB (this year) and a 1st Rd NBA Draft Selection (next year; whichever is HIGHER between Moose Knuckles and BamO’s 1st Round NBA Picks)

$traight Cash Homie trade grade: B
Minnesota Moose Knuckles trade grade: C+

Trade Summary:
Oh, the pains of purgatory! Despite only scoring 2 points in the NFL leg of the League of Leagues, the MN Moose Knuckles are going for it! Swapping injured Bradley Beal out for Joel Embiid, the 3rd highest scoring player in the League of Leagues on a points-per-game basis, the MN Moose Knuckles are LEGIT title contenders.

That’s the biggest takeaway from this deal: it’s a legitimate shake-up in the League of Leagues basketball Power Rankings, and Wait ‘Til Next Year has to feel a little bit insecure about drawing these new Knuckles in the first round of the playoffs.

But we have to get there first. MN Moose Knuckles are playing Las Cabras this week in a really tightly contested matchup. They are only up by an average of 33-or-so points, and Embiid is obviously going to help with that, especially considering the fact that he plays the Timberwolves and will eat ‘role player’ alive.

But even if the Moose Knuckles miss the playoffs or don’t go on a deep NBA run, Joel Embiid becomes the best asset on the Moose Knuckles entire roster. The long-term injury concerns are scary, but this is an MVP-caliber player who can lead the Moose Knuckles to glory for the next few seasons.

On $traight Cash Homies’ side, this is a REALLY solid return for a player with those aforementioned injury risks. Not that Brad Beal doesn’t have injury risks of his own, but Beal is still a 35ppg+ scorer on a good year. He’s only 29 with the type of game that should age really well as time goes on. This was a perfect trade target for $traight Cash Homies, who was going to lose NBA no matter what he did. He might as well torch his team this year and just hope that Beal and Zion become a decent 1-2 punch next season.

But more than that: $traight Cash Homies got a first Round NBA pick that could be a decent asset. That pick alone will ensure that his team doesn’t suck as bad next year, and it could even turn into an excellent rookie depending on how the Strauss Draft plays out. He also gets an AWESOME ASSET in an MLB 4th round pick in this incoming draft. Players like Christian Yelich will be going in the 4th, and that pick gives Jack SO MUCH flexibility in the auction.

With extra $$’s, he now has the opportunity to draft the League of League’s best single asset, Shohei Ohtani, and still get enough players in the keepable range.

The lack of that draft pick is going to hurt the MN Moose Knuckles dearly. He’ll do his darnedest to trade what now looks like a garden of riches in excess NBA keepers. Terry Rozier, RJ Barrett and Richaun Holmes are all keepable assets that could even get scooped by $traight Cash Homie with that NBA first round pick! But there’s no guarantee Hall gets a deal of value, particularly for MLB assets.

But all in all, this is an awesome trade – a fair trade – that benefits two teams that are in semi-different trajectories right now. All that’s left to see is whether the MN Moose Knuckles can redeem themselves and make an NBA run and whether $traight Cash Homies can put together a baseball roster that keeps him from tanking to last place.

Lots of season left. Lots more League of Leagues.