Joel Embiid Says Celtics Won't Be Dynasty: 'The Whole East Was Hurt This Year'
Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers challenges for the ball with Derrick White #9 and Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics during the fourth quarter at the Wells Fargo Center on November 15, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Seven-time All-Star Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid is pessimistic that his club's Atlantic Division rivals, the Boston Celtics, are at the cusp of becoming a dynastic threat in the league at large.
Embiid tagged along with his All-Star L.A. Clippers pal Paul George (who could decline his $48.8 million player option with the Clippers for 2024-25 and become an unrestricted free agent this summer — he has been linked to Embiid's Sixers, who could have maximum salary cap space) to appear on ABC's pregame broadcast for Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Host Malika Andrews asked the attendant panel, which also comprised Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilson, and former 2008 Celtics champion Kendrick Perkins if this current iteration of Boston was now poised to win multiple championships.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Embiid believes Boston is more vulnerable than it has looked in these playoffs thus far, as he relayed on the broadcast.
"I don't think so," Embiid said regarding whether or not the Celtics could win several titles. "Not with the new CBA, and then you've also got to understand, the whole East was hurt, myself included."
At the time, Boston was up 3-0 on the Dallas Mavericks. The team then fell in a near-historic 122-84 defeat in Game 4 This represented a horrific showing in a potential closeout game, perhaps, but no team in NBA history has ever been able to claw its way back from a 0-3 deficit, and it seems unlikely that this shallow and inconsistent Dallas club, beyond All-Stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, will be the first to do that against a formidable Celtics defense, and a sharpshooting Celtics offense. Boston is on the cusp of winning its first championship with its current core after many toiling through many deep also-ran playoff runs.
Per Mike McDaniel of Sports Illustrated, Celtics team president Brad Stevens and team ownership seem ready to pay whatever they must to keep their team together long-term. All-NBA power forward Jayson Tatum will be offered a record-breaking five-season, $315 million contract extension to stay with the team that traded for the right to draft him No. 3 overall in 2017 out of Duke.
McDaniel notes that the Celtics also plan to sign All-Defensive Team guard Derrick White to an extension to keep him locked in long-term, following a breakout season in 2203-24. All-Star wing Jaylen Brown already inked a five-year, $303.7 million extension to stay with Boston last summer, per Marc J. Spears of ESPN.
The Celtics also extended the two starters they added via trade in the offseason, All-Defensive guard Jrue Holiday and center Kristaps Porzingis. Holiday inked a four-year, $135 million extension this spring, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Woj also reported that Porzingis agreed to a two-season, $60 million extension over the summer, before he even played a game for his new team.
Embiid's Sixers have yet to emerge out of even the second round of the playoffs. Embiid's note about being injured this season does have merit, as he was playing through a left knee meniscus ailment throughout his No. 7-seeded Philadelphia squad's first-round series against the No. 2-seeded New York Knicks. However, fitness questions have plagued Embiid for years, as he is virtually never healthy come playoff time. The 7-foot 2023 MVP, now 30, needs to look inward a bit when it comes to surviving the East.
He does have a salient point about the conference. In each of the Celtics' three Eastern Conference playoff series, the team faced teams missing some of their best players. All-NBA swingman Jimmy Butler and starting point guard Terry Rozier were sidelined for the entirety of the Miami Heat's first-round series against Boston, All-NBA guard Donovan Mitchell missed two games, and starting center Jarrett Allen missed the Cleveland Cavaliers' whole second-round series against the Celtics, and All-NBA point guard Tyrese Haliburton was shelved for the last two contests of his Indiana Pacers' Eastern Conference Finals run against Boston.
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