A Closer Look At The Potential Suspects To Help Joel Embiid Find The Snitch In The Sixers Locker Room

David Dow. Getty Images.

By now, everyone's heard about the leaks from the Sixers team meeting after another embarrassing loss. While you never want to be having "player's only" meetings within the first month of the season, they are usually an inflection point. Sometimes the message hits home, everyone does a little bit of self-reflection, the stars hold themselves accountable and things start to turn around.

Other times, the exact opposite happens. Guess which lane we're dealing with here?

“When ESPN reported details on Tuesday morning, from inside the 76ers' team meeting following Monday night's blown lead in Miami, one league figure close to Philadelphia's All-Star center told me: ‘Joel is going to be furious.’ And that Embiid was going to try and find the Sixers’ supposed snitch.” 

Hey, if this is what Joel Embiid wants to focus on rather than ya know, the reason they had to have a players only meeting in the first place, who am I to stop him? In fact, I'll even do him one better. I'll help him smoke out the leak. The easiest way to do it of course is to just start leaking different injury news updates to different guys and see which one Shams actually reports, but if that's not an option I've gone ahead and broken down a case for each guy who I think could be the leak. Consider a nice gesture this holiday season for a team that needs something positive right now.

Tyrese Maxey

Look, I know this may seem far-fetched on the surface, but there are a few things you have to remember here. For starters, who came out looking INCREDIBLE in this entire story? Tyrese Maxey. His PR went through the roof once this story broke. He was the leader. He was the guy who "gets it", this Sixers were "his team" now, right? I can't help but remember who Maxey's agent is

Rich Paul and Klutch Sports you say? That's interesting! Everyone knows that back in the old days when we had a true NBA insider war, Woj was the team guy and Shams was the Klutch guy. That alone is enough to make Maxey a prime suspect. It also can't be overlooked that putting all the attention on Embiid will make people forget that Maxey is off to a pretty brutal start, averaging just 39/26% splits on the season as he tried to carry the team without Embiid/George. 

You're not hearing too much about that right now are you? Exactly.

Eric Gordon

OK, so why would a guy who just got to Philly take it upon himself to stir up this kind of drama? Aside from him not really having a connection to the city or the team, you also have to remember Gordon's past. You know who loves Eric Gordon? Daryl Morey. They go back all the way to Morey's Rockets days, and at 36 years old Morey threw him a bone and kept his NBA career alive.

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To me, this is Gordon's chance to pay Morey back. See, it's not Morey's fault! It's Embiid! He's ruining everything Morey tried to build! The easiest way to deflect blame from the boss is to control the narrative early and deflect as quickly as possible. I don't think it's crazy that a guy who is obviously close with Morey would step up in a moment like this and make sure his pal wasn't getting too much of the heat for their dogshit start

Paul George

This one is easy.

Welcome to the content game folks. As someone who has spent nearly 10 years in this world, you can't fool me. The Sixers season is a disaster, George has been hurt, and at the end of the day, the podcast needs content. To be successful in this field, you need to be willing to turn everything into content at all times. The good times, and especially the bad times. Pageviews on pageviews on pageviews. 

This is also your classic case of the suspect returning to the scene of the crime. To me given how George has basically been quiet quitting since he signed his deal, to put out a podcast so quickly just screams to me that he's the leak. Maybe he thought this would keep the heat off him or something? Not me.

Nick Nurse

Dating all the way back to Media Day, Nick Nurse has really sounded annoyed whenever the topic of Joel Embiid came up. The way he would snap back when he was asked about his health and the setbacks and all that shit, you do not get the vibe that he's all that thrilled with the franchise player.

My main reason for including him here is mostly around this tweet

I mean, I'm sure it's all a coincidence! Nurse is another guy that strikes me as being proactive in making sure HE isn't the one to take any of the blame for this 2-12 start, and the easiest way to do that is to put all the heat on Embiid. It's not going to work, but you can't help but notice the reporting that came out around Nurse's job

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Between the motive and the language used, Nurse has to be a prime suspect

Yabu

I know this may seem a little surprising because Yabu is nothing but awesome vibes and 3s, but we've seen something like this before. I'm not ruling out that Yabu is the latest sleeper cell, sent to Philly to once again destroy them from within. Sent by who you may be wondering?

Once a Celtic, always a Celtic. As I said, we've seen this before and it worked to perfection

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

And it's not like Yabu gives a fuck. He's arguably been one of their best players so none of this is on him. It's the perfect cover and even better execution. 

Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin

Call me crazy, but whenever shit like this pops up you can never ignore the Pat Riley/Heat angle. I'm sure two former Heat players still have friends in MIA, a team that the Sixers will probably be in contention with for the Play In if they turn things around. It's totally plausible to me that they were talking to their friends, say, Jimmy Butler, and immediately the story gets leaked. We all know Butler very clearly still holds a grudge over the Sixers picking Tobias Harris over him, so what a nice opportunity to strike back.

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Kyle Lowry is another Morey guy, so that tracks as well. 

Andre Drummond

Who benefits most on this roster if Embiid is out or sent out of town? How about his backup center in Andre Drummond. He only has this year and next year on his deal, and entering his mid 30s he's probably looking for another contract and one last pay day.

How do you get that? You force your way into minutes on the floor. Granted more Andre Drummond might actually do more harm than good in terms of his value once he puts out more tape, but you get the idea. In his mind maybe he thinks Embiid is blocking his last chance at cashing in on the open market.

So if I had to Power Rank the suspects after taking a look at each case, I'd probably go

1. Nick Nurse

2. Tyrese Maxey

3. Paul George

4. Eric Gordon

5. Yabu

Will we ever find out who the leak was? Maybe. We still don't know who leaked the Draymond punch video and it's been years already, but to me, this is a different kind of shitstorm. This feels like we're only at the beginning, and if Embiid is so determined to find out who it is, there's no way the team can keep it a secret forever.