Would Sixers' Joel Embiid sacrifice some salary for the sake of The Process? | Mike Sielski

From a Manhattan hotel ballroom to the sweet spot he always seems to find on social media, Joel Embiid has managed to balance a genuine joy of provocation with the kinds of boasts that his so-far-brittle body will someday have to back up.

In interviews and on his Twitter account, his exhortations to Trust The Process have been so frequent as to become cliché; his latest came in celebration of J.J. Redick's decision to sign with the 76ers. Days before, he had tweeted a photo of himself and Redick seated next to each other as they watched a soccer match, an indication that perhaps he had helped persuade Redick to place his trust in The Process, too (as if $23 million for one season weren't reason enough). A Twitter-to-talk-radio battle of words with LaVar Ball — the father of Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball and a man who has converted calculated antagonism into scenes of virtuoso performance art — culminated Tuesday, when Embiid took to Instagram to fire off a four-letter command, to no one in particular, to engage Mr. Ball in a rather intimate and carnal act. The NBA, the entire Philadelphia region, his opponents and teammates and prospective teammates: Everyone seems to hang on what Embiid will say next and to whom he will say it.

Still, the Embiid assertion that promises to have the longest shelf life, and the most profound implications for his and the Sixers' future, was the one he made on May 16, just after the NBA draft lottery had ended. The bounces of ping-pong balls had bestowed to the Sixers the No. 3 pick—which they subsequently traded to move up to No. 1 and select Markelle Fultz — and Embiid didn't hesitate to challenge the player and the franchise at the apex of the Eastern Conference.

"When we start getting good, that's when Cleveland and LeBron will start going down," he said. "So I think we're at the right time, and when it's all said and done and we actually mature and are ready to compete for a championship, we'll be great. … When I say we are going to be ready to win when the Cavs are going down, that doesn't mean, like, five years. Next year I think we are going to be ready to win."

Maybe they will be. The East is jayvee hoops compared to the West, and with the additions of Fultz, Ben Simmons, Redick, and Amir Johnson, with the presumed improvement of Embiid and Dario Saric, with good health all around, the Sixers' winning 40-45 games next season isn't so far-fetched a notion. But Embiid wasn't talking about settling for the seventh or eighth seed in the league's inferior conference. He was setting his sights on supplanting the Cavaliers and staying atop the East for a good long while, and if he's serious about meeting that standard, then it will likely have to come with a sacrifice: his salary.

This is nothing more than the reality of the NBA today. The construction of the "super teams" that have dominated this era has been born of the league's biggest stars' taking less money for the sake of remaining together and retaining or adding talent throughout their rosters. There were the Big Three in Miami. There was the core of the San Antonio Spurs. There was Stephen Curry's four-year, $44-million bargain contract that allowed the Golden State Warriors to sign Kevin Durant. There is Durant's new two-year, $53 million deal, a contract that is the most significant development, one could argue, of a crazy offseason. By accepting a base salary for $25 million next season —  $9.5 million less than the maximum he could have earned — Durant afforded the Warriors enough salary-cap space to re-sign two essential role players, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston.

Already, Embiid is eligible this summer for a five-year, $150 million extension, and he will become a restricted free agent after next season. It's of course on the Sixers to gauge the right timing for an extension, to weigh the risk of signing Embiid to any long-term deal then watching helplessly if he suffers another significant injury. And for Embiid's part, it would be understandable if, given his history and the uncertainty it inspires, he demanded a max contract. Why leave money on the table only to have your career shortened by circumstance?

But Embiid's public swagger over the team the Sixers might yet be renders another, more optimistic scenario just as relevant and interesting — and puts much of the responsibility for the franchise's fortunes on him. Assume the best-case scenario for the Sixers next season. Healthy for 82 games, Embiid begins to reach his obvious and remarkable potential as the team's centerpiece. Simmons and Fultz demonstrate why they were No. 1 picks. The Sixers take an undeniable step forward, however one chooses to define the term. When the time comes, when owner Josh Harris and general manager Bryan Colangelo sit across that negotiating table from him and his representatives, will Embiid take less money so that Simmons and Fultz can stay as long as he does, so that Colangelo can make necessary improvements and changes, so that the Sixers can achieve the greatness that Embiid believes to be inevitable for them?

A Sixers spokesman said Thursday that Embiid was unavailable for comment on this matter, but these questions aren't going away, and the better the Sixers are next season, the more important the answers become. Those tweets and posts and videos are mostly fun and harmless and show what a free spirit Embiid can be, but fulfilling the promise of The Process will probably come with a tangible cost. So here's the challenge to Joel Embiid: Are you willing to pay it?