Without any roster movement whatsoever, a whole lot has happened in the Sixers universe over the last week.

So, in this week's 5 Sixers thoughts, let's catch up on recent conversation surrounding the Sixers' two highest-paid players. After that, I have notes on the ongoing restricted free agency of their final unsigned player and a trade idea:

ESPN's expansive profile on Joel Embiid

On Wednesday morning, Dotun Akintoye of ESPN published a remarkable profile of Joel Embiid. The piece has rightfully drawn enormous amounts of praise in the days since. It is a long read, but it is well worth your time.

The story is both captivating and jarring, an in-depth examination of Embiid's past, present and future on and off the basketball court. Some have seen that Embiid participated in the story and assumed this is a PR play by him; I can tell you that is certainly not the case. Akintoye weaves in an impressive number of perspectives that do not belong to Embiid, many of which point out the former NBA MVP's flaws. Some have called it a fluff piece. It is not.

I do not want to give much of Akintoye's reporting away, because it is months and months of hard work that deserves its own audience. But what I will say is this: professional athletes that reach the heights Embiid has are almost always extremely layered people, and Embiid is an especially complex figure when accounting for his unusual backstory, checkered recent history and desire to keep his cards close to the vest.

Akintoye's story represents the best work anyone has done getting Embiid to open up and peeling all of those aforementioned layers. It should be essential reading for anyone following the Sixers:

What if Paul George is not ready for the start of the season?

The other big headliner last week: George suffering a left knee injury during a workout and undergoing an arthroscopic procedure performed by the same doctor the Sixers used for Embiid's left knee scope in April. The night it was announced, the Sixers said that George would be re-evaluated prior to the start of training camp, which is likely slated to begin in the final week of September.

The following morning, Shams Charania of ESPN warned that George and the Sixers would be utilizing significant caution when it comes to scheduling his return to the floor in hopes of enabling George to eventually return to action as the best possible version of himself. A scope in mid-July is not necessarily a strong bet to prevent someone from suiting up in October, but it certainly does not sound like the primary goal here is having George back on the court as quickly as possible.

In George's absence, the Sixers are even thinner at power forward. The nine-time All-Star has not been baked into many conversations about the team's lack of stability at that position, though if you asked me one week ago I would have guessed George was the player most likely to start at the four on opening night.

Regardless, George was certainly in line for a healthy dose of minutes there, and with one fewer player capable of handling any workload that spot, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse would be in a very tough spot trying to piece together 48 minutes of power forward production. Trendon Watford would be called upon to fill a significant role; Watford has flaws but his rare ball-handling and playmaking chops at his size make him an intriguing option:

Justin Edwards has just enough size and strength to play the four in spurts; playing such a role may be necessary without George even though it detracts from some of Edwards' most valuable skills.

Then there are two-way players Jabari Walker — a tough, strong wing who can crash the glass with the best of them and made a leap as a three-point shooter last season — and Dominick Barlow, a tweener big whose size and athleticism can be valuable around the rim. Neither of those players are perfect; if they were they would not be on two-way contracts. But the Sixers placed a lot of value in signing a pair of NBA-ready two-way players this summer. Perhaps it will come in handy.

Still no reported movement on Quentin Grimes

None of the four high-profile restricted free agents still on the market — Grimes, Jonathan Kuminga, Josh Giddey and Cam Thomas — have come to terms with their incumbent teams. In fact, it does not sound as if, three-plus weeks into free agency, any of those players are even close to new deals. The teams holding their rights all have chances to squeeze their young players into extremely team-friendly contracts in a barren salary cap environment where there is just not money out there.

Any of these players could theoretically accept the qualifying offer, a one-year deal worth $8.7 million that comes with a no-trade clause and the right to be an unrestricted free agent next summer. But, as always, a player taking the qualifying offer is much more of a tantalizing theory than an advisable financial decision. As Bobby Marks of ESPN points out, it generally has not gone well:

I wrote more than two weeks ago about Grimes and the Sixers being in this common NBA holding pattern, and why a player who has been traded three times and made only $11 million in four professional seasons is extremely unlikely to take the qualifying offer. All of that logic still holds.

Why not just pay Grimes now?

Unless Grimes and his representation are completely ignoring the reality of the market, the Sixers could probably get a deal done with him pretty quickly if they decided to pay him something like $80 million over four years. That offer is massively superior to anything Grimes seems capable of commanding in this market and is a reasonable price point for a 25-year-old possessing excellent role player qualities and coming off a major on-ball scoring breakout. Getting a deal done now would satisfy Grimes and satisfy a fan base worried about losing him.

So, the answer to the question posed above: in the era of aprons and hard caps, every single dollar is meaningful. It may sound hard to believe, but with every extra $1 million the Sixers offer Grimes comes a much tighter squeeze moving forward. The Sixers are paying well over $50 million annually for Embiid and George and Tyrese Maxey is on a max contract as well. As the No. 3 overall pick in a league with a rookie scale that is rising rapidly, VJ Edgecombe is set to make about $50 million over the next four years.

After the Sixers lost Guerschon Yabusele because the makeup of their cap sheets does not provide much optionality in free agency, it is worth noting again: the Sixers should be trying to drive down the eventual cost of keeping Grimes as much as they possibly can, even if that means this drags on into August.

MORE: Answering Grimes questions

My favorite late-offseason trade idea

The overwhelmingly likely scenario is that the Sixers will sign Grimes to get their roster to 15 players and call it an offseason. Trades are harder to come up with later in the offseason, but there are some avenues for the Sixers to improve their roster before October.

There is one trade framework that I think could be mutually beneficial for the Sixers and Toronto Raptors. Toronto does not have a particularly good team, but with 14 guaranteed contracts and two non-guaranteed deals on their books, they are over $5 million above the luxury tax threshold. Even if they waived their non-guaranteed deals, they would be over the tax with a roster spot open. The most likely victim of the numbers game there could actually help the Sixers (or any other team in need of a young shooter).

Ochai Agbaji, a lottery pick in 2022, shot 32.6 percent from beyond the arc across his first two NBA campaigns with the Utah Jazz and Toronto. Last year, the 25-year-old broke out for the Raptors, averaging career-best numbers across the board and shooting 39.9 percent from three-point range on 4.0 attempts per game. He is also a very good athlete:

Agbaji is listed at 6-foot-5 but has a wingspan exceeding 6-foot-10 and weighs 215 pounds; he can credibly play small forward alongside various combinations of the Sixers' four high-profile guards. The Sixers do not need a player of Agbaji's exact mold, but the makeup of Toronto's cap sheet could force them to trade him for diminishing returns to avoid a tax bill.

These are the terms I landed on:

For extremely complicated salary cap reasons, Toronto would need to guarantee A.J. Lawson or Colin Castleton about $900 thousand before trading him to the third team. That team would take on that very slight financial obligation and get a second-round swap for their troubles. Toronto would waive and stretch Andre Drummond, keep Ricky Council IV, add a premium second-round pick, tack on a fake second-round pick and get under the tax line.

On the Sixers' end, even while giving up an excellent 2027 second-rounder this feels like an easy sell. Drummond's $5 million salary is not commensurate with his production from last season whatsoever; Council did nothing during 2024-25 to prove he can help the team win games. At the price of that premium second-round pick, one that will likely never convey and a distant second-round swap, going from those players to Agbaji feels like a no-brainer.

This trade would get the Sixers better and younger. It would also open up some roster flexibility, as the team would have an open spot. That could be saved into the season, making it easier to eventually convert a two-way player like Jabari Walker or Dominick Barlow if either plays well. Or the Sixers could go fill that final roster spot with a veteran's minimum contract or by using the taxpayer's mid-level exception if the Grimes situation has been resolved.

DARYL MOREY'S 30-MINUTE LAS VEGAS AVAILABILITY

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