“He’s Going Nowhere” - ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill on Joel Embiid’s 76ers Future

Joel Embiid is going nowhere. ESPN's Vincent Goodwill made that clear, and walked Rich through the contract math that locks the 76ers in.

The setup came from Embiid's postgame after the Knicks' sweep.

"I'm excited about next season," Embiid said. "VJ's going, I know, and I'm going to talk to him. He's going to be better. And he was amazing for his first year. Tyrese is going to be better. And he's taking a step every single year. PG that we saw the last couple weeks, he's still got it. And then everybody else, I don't know who's going to be here. I don't even know if I'm going to be here, but whatever happens happens."

Rich asked Goodwill to translate.

The first thing Goodwill brought to the segment was breaking news.

"I just got a couple of texts from league officials who said no further action on Victor Wembanyama, no suspension, no fine," Goodwill said. "That is official. So he'll be available for game five."

Then the Embiid piece.

"Let me assure you, he has a three-year extension that is kicking in next year where he will be making, I think, an average of $58 million," Goodwill said. "He's going nowhere. He doesn't have anything to worry about on that front."

The personal piece, in Goodwill's framing, mattered too.

"The fact that he was able to end the series on his feet rather than being the next game of Operation," Goodwill said.

He doubled down on the metaphor.

"Maybe, Rich, I'm old enough where I remember the game of Operation," Goodwill said. "That's what Joel Embiid looked like for the better part of his career."

The bigger Sixers question Goodwill kept circling back to was the front office.

"Is Daryl Morey still going to be the guy heading up that operation?" Goodwill said. "He gave Paul George a really big contract when I'm not sure he warranted that at this stage of his career. He gave Joel Embiid this extension when Embiid was, yes, coming off of an MVP, but also has been a health issue. Now you have two long-term contracts that you can't get off of, and I'm not sure if there's any hope."

The change Goodwill expects to come is at the front-office level.

"I wonder if that organization, which has Bob Myers as an advisor to the Harris Group, is going to make significant changes in the offseason, or will at least entertain it," Goodwill said. "Because there's not a lot of hope in Philadelphia."

The retrospective on the Celtics-Sixers comeback that ended Embiid's playoff run got the sharp Goodwill treatment.

"There's a lot of ifs and maybes, and those ifs and maybes only amounted to a game seven win and an impressive comeback over the Boston Celtics," Goodwill said. "But we look at that Celtics team now, and they say, that's a team full of who?"

The Eastern Conference is opening, in Rich's read, which is half of why the Sixers' inability to break through gets so loud.

"The Eastern Conference appears to be cracking open for the next to make a move here," Rich said. "Obviously, the Pistons would be a very difficult team for them to handle, since they were handled by Detroit this year. Cleveland, who knows what they would look like in the next round."