The Philadelphia 76ers are having a tumultuous 2019-20 campaign. While they currently own the best home record this season (25-2), they make up for it by being terrible on the road – so much so that their record outside Philly (9-18) is tied with the league’s whipping boys, the New York Knicks.

Trade rumors for Ben Simmons have been circulating for a while, but this week, the heat has shifted to the team’s other star: Joel Embiid, frustration over the up-and-down season led to him shushing the Philly crowd this past Monday.

Rumors swirled after ESPN’s Brian Windshorst said on The Hoop Collective podcast that team executives believe they can pull-off a trade for Embiid this offseason.

Well, we have months to speculate if that’s really true or if the Sixers will indeed ship their All-Star big man, so we might as well envision the intriguing teams he may be dealt to.

Golden State Warriors

Yes. You read that right. Don’t be shocked if GM Bob Myers and the Dubs front office are able to work their magic again because they are well-equipped to do so. The Warriors will likely have a high draft pick on June and also own an extra first round pick for 2021 from the D’Angelo Russell-Andrew Wiggins trade, which is only top-three protected. Wiggins, despite having an enormous contract, is suddenly proving to be a solid scorer again, so expect him to be an attractive trade chip.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Can’t talk about assets and not include the Thunder. They have a smorgasbord of picks from all of the wheeling-and-dealing they did this past off-season. The supposed re-build resulted in them owning a pair of first rounders from 2020 up to 2023, some of which are unprotected. You can mix and match that with Danilo Gallinari, Steven Adams, and some of their other young pieces from the second unit, and Philly could be jumping at that chance.

Boston Celtics

GM Danny Ainge has always held his first round picks dearly, which is why Boston is always in play whenever a star is poised to be traded. The Celtics are also in need of a big man to further solidify the team’s run for a championship, so we’ll be hearing the Cs as soon as the trade possibility becomes official.

The Celtics have six first rounders over the next two drafts. If their two extra picks this year aren’t conveyed, it will be unprotected in 2021.

Miami Heat

The Heat’s draft picks are nowhere near the level of the other teams we mentioned, but they have a ton of other things going for them – Miami is a big market, the city is heaven for players, the team has very attractive young pieces, they have the Godfather A.K.A Pat Riley, who can sell fuel to a burning man, and most importantly, Jimmy Butler is quite possibly Embiid’s favorite teammate.

Butler and Embiid had fun playing together for a half-a-season in 2018-19, and it seems that the former is openly recruiting his buddy in South Beach.

Of course, the Sixers will not let go of their prized superstar because he’s a frustrated and outspoken dude. He is “The Process” for a reason and we can’t expect the team to return to re-build mode this quickly. One thing’s for sure, though, the 2020 off-season just got loaded with its first major story line.