76ers have the pieces to trade for Kevin Durant, but it’s a slippery slope

Philadelphia 76ers fans enter the offseason with renewed optimism... I think? Nobody really feels good about this team, but we are no longer trudging through a months-long losing spell and waiting with perverse anticipation for each Sixers medical update, so there is a weight lifted from the collective Philly sports fandom.

Joel Embiid is supposedly on track to be 100 percent healthy by next season. So are Paul George and Tyrese Maxey. In theory, this team is still built to contend in the wide-open Eastern Conference. All that stands between Philadelphia and the NBA Finals (aside from Embiid's weak knee cartilage) is Boston and Cleveland. Each season is unique. Players get hurt, they age in unexpected ways, they take steps back. The path is there.

With that said, how should Philadelphia approach this offseason? It's a question on everyone's mind — especially Daryl Morey's. The Sixers have a little bit better than 50 percent odds to keep their high lottery pick. Meanwhile, the rest of their cap sheet is full, with Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre and Guerschon Yabusele all slated to hit free agency. Grimes is restricted, so Philly can go above the cap to retain him. Oubre and Yabu will get a bit trickier.

The common thought process has been that Philly will more or less run it back, perhaps with a younger supporting cast, and hope that health prevails. But, there is an alternate timeline in which Morey engineers an ambitious trade in a desperate ploy to push Philly over the top.

PHLY's Kyle Neubeck pitched such a trade on their live show: Paul George for Kevin Durant.

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76ers can tempt Suns in Kevin Durant trade sweepstakes, but is it the right move?

Paul George, a potential top-five pick, and "maybe" Jared McCain for Kevin Durant. That is Neubeck's proposal.

He effectively rejects his own trade concept, noting that Philadelphia shouldn't necessarily push chips in for a past-prime star, but it is Kevin Durant. The Phoenix Suns are expected to work with the 15-time All-Star to find a suitable trade destination this offseason. Philly, close to his hometown of DC, would at least give Durant a path to competing for a championship next to two All-Stars in Embiid and Maxey.

Let's say Durant gives the thumbs up and the Suns agree to Neubeck's rough outline. Including both a lottery pick and McCain is a lot, but Philadelphia is both getting Durant and getting off of Paul George, a negative-value contract with three years of albatross status left. If Phoenix sells itself on competing with Devin Booker and Paul George while building a young core around McCain and, like, Derik Queen, there's something here.

On the surface, it's acceptable value. Durant, ranked 14th on FanSided's NBA99, remains one of the very best wings in the NBA. He's 36 years old, but the production hasn't fallen off in the slightest. He put up 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game this season on .527/.430/.839 splits, undeniably impacting winning for an otherwise futile Suns team.

He is much better than George, assuming a move to Philadelphia does not inflict him with the standard Sixers curse. The Sixers immediately look more dynamic with a healthy Embiid and more competent when Embiid is inevitably forced to miss time. Durant can still carry a team to victories on his own when called upon.

That said, Philly needs to proceed with caution. Durant is 36 and he's entering the final year of his contract, so there are no long-term guarantees. He also perpetuates the constant cycle of overhaul that Philadelphia has endured under Morey's leadership. Embiid and Maxey have almost never had the same star teammate for multiple years in a row. We never saw much of the Embiid-PG-Maxey trio on the floor together this season, but they've built a year's worth of chemistry in the locker room and in practice. Turning around and shipping George across country after a single, snakebitten season, if not premature, could prove antithetical to fixing the Sixers' core issues.

Beyond chemistry, this Sixers team desperately needs physicality and forcefulness in the frontcourt. Durant won't get to the rim much on offense. He's a fine positional rebounder, but he's not bringing the edge or the supplementary muscle Philadelphia needs next to Embiid. He is, in many ways, a more optimal version of the Paul George archetype, but that does not meaningfully address other marginal issues with the roster.

Pushing long-term chips in on a roster plagued with injuries and woefully uncertain of its future is a costly (and potentially catastrophic) gamble. Durant makes the Sixers better, but if Embiid's knees can't hold up, and if this roster continues to crumble into dust, swapping two potential long-term cornerstones in McCain and a top-five pick for Durant's twilight years could prove to be Morey's worst miscalculation yet.

So, he needs to tread carefully if this proposition crosses his desk in the coming months.