Maximum value, maximum risk
Extensions for Wiggins, Embiid are big gambles for rebuilding teams
Every NBA contract, every professional sports contract for that matter, is a gamble of some sorts given the vicissitudes of the games.
Injuries, stalled development, character flaws and the chemistry of a living organism that is a team ensure that no one can be the least bit certain things will ultimately work out for the best.
And this week in Philadelphia and Minnesota, team ownership took giant leaps of faith that are necessary but fraught with the possibility of peril.
By bestowing maximum value contracts on both Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins — four years and an almost incomprehensible $148 million (U.S.) each — the 76ers and Timberwolves have gone full in on players still in their professional infancy.
Embiid has played a grand total of 31NBA games and Wiggins has yet to appear in a post-season game, yet the 23-year-old Embiid and 22-year-old Wiggins are seen as hugely important pieces of their teams. If they bomb, the repercussions will be incalculable.
But what choice did either franchise really have?
To deny promising youngsters the future and to see them leave and star somewhere else is a gamble neither team could afford to take; to leave them hanging when extensions were possible would be a slap in the face that could be taken personally and foster enough ill will to derail a team.
Be assured, though, these are major, major gambles, for very different reasons.
Embiid, the No. 3 pick in the 2014 draft, has shown to be a transcendent star but that’s been in 31 closely-managed limited-minutes NBA games, and he’s just now been cleared for full five-on-five play. There is no question about his talent but until he appears in even a half season, there have to be questions about his durability.
“In the time that he has been on the floor, we have seen him change completely the gym,” Philadelphia coach Brett Brown. “He does it with just his physical presence. He does it with a defensive mindset. And he does it with an offensive target that’s different than anything else we have.”
There is a large “but” that should follow that glowing recommendation, though. And until Embiid can be that game-changer completely, the contract is a monstrous gamble, even if the Sixers did build in a modicum of protection against future injury.
For Wiggins, the gamble isn’t on his durability — he’s played in all but one game in three seasons and increased his production in every offensive category year to year. He is good, there is no question, but there are questions about how far his development will go.
NBA insiders wonder if he’s got the drive to fully realize his potential, does he like the work and the process as much as the rewards, the adulation, the money.
He could very well but if questions persist league-wide, it will make the Timberwolves’ decision at least a bit of a gamble. And team owner Glen Taylor insisted on a face-to-face meeting with Wiggins before extending the offer, telling The Associated Press this summer he needed to know Wiggins understood the expectations.
“He seems like a very good person,” Taylor said then. “He seems to have the ability and so the only thing it would be is, for some reason, he didn’t work hard enough to obtain the skill sets. That’s what you’re asking him to commit to.”
Wiggins, at a news conference Wednesday to announce the deal, seems willing to use those doubts as fuel.
“It’s motivation to get better and show everybody what I can do, the other stuff I can do,” he said.
How these gambles with such riches pay off remains to be seen but, without doubt, the Sixers and Timberwolves went out on limbs because they had to.