Joel Embiid Injury: Sixers Could Draft Him At #3

The concern surrounding the foot and ankle of Joel Embiid seems to have dissipated a bit. In the moments after the initial report, the idea of Embiid slipping all the way to #10 was plausible. Now, though nothing has changed, he may still go #1 to Cleveland. So bear in mind the fickle nature of public opinion as we dive into this newest Joel Embiid rumor.

Source says Sixers are very much interested in grabbing Embiid at No. 3 should he fall to them.

— Bob Cooney (@BobCooney76) June 22, 2014

Motive, motive, motive, motive, motive.

Sure, this may be true. There's a world in which this is actually the case.

But who the hell would be honest with Bob Cooney about this? Bob's a good dude, been around forever, I'd be much more willing to believe someone in the Sixers organization politely asked him to leak this so Cleveland would drop their asking price on a potential trade. Or in hopes that someone else would trade up to take Embiid with one of the top two picks. Maybe the Sixers don't want Embiid at all, maybe they don't want Andrew Wiggins at all, maybe I'm amazed by the way you love me all the time. Nobody knows.

For the sake of this exercise, let's assume this is true, that they do like him at #3, over somebody like Dante Exum. I'm still really reluctant to use our top pick on a potentially chronically injured center with non-perfect fit (although I do believe in it) with our other injured center drafted with our first pick last season. I've become enamored with a Nerlens Noel-Joel Embiid frontcourt, but it's far from perfect, and their collective injury concerns would age me 15 years if they take him at #3.

The draft is on Thursday. Pop on your Ellie Goulding and just soak it in.