After months of nothing happening on the trade front, the Eastern Conference has seen some seismic shifts over the past week.
First, the Milwaukee Bucks traded Jrue Holiday, Grayson Allen, and picks and pick swaps to Portland for Damian Lillard, pairing the All-NBA guard with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Then on Sunday, Holiday was traded back East to the Boston Celtics for Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, and two first round picks, giving the Celtics a point guard upgrade and bringing in a high-level defender to deal with Dame and the Bucks.
With those moves, the Bucks and Celtics have cemented their status as the heavy favorites in the East, creating a clear separation from the rest of the conference. Teams like Philadelphia and Miami now face an uphill battle in challenging for the East crown, with the Heat failing to land Lillard (or Holiday) as hoped, while the Sixers are dealing with their own trade request from James Harden that leaves them without a clear direction as camp gets set to begin.
With all of that going on, Joel Embiid couldn’t help but fire off a tweet after Holiday’s trade to Boston laughing off how this offseason’s gone for him, as he’s seen his two top competitors get better while his co-star asked out.
This off-season was fun lmao
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) October 1, 2023
Few NBA players are funnier on social media than Embiid, who isn’t afraid to chuckle at himself and the circumstances he finds himself in here. He knows the reality of the situation and is taking it in stride in the only way he can, with a laugh and then will try to get to work the next week to figure out how to close that gap with the teams up top.
