![\"Joel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2197680473-e1784556871412.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. <\/p>\n
The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> found themselves in the headlines recently over an unusual trade on Sunday with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Atlanta Hawks that brought them the 2024 No. 1 overall pick<\/a> and small forward Zaccharie Risacher<\/a>\u00a0from the Hawks.<\/p>\n While most people spent the wake of the trade dunking on Risacher for being essentially a throwaway piece in a deal where the main factor was Thunder guard Lu Dort landing in Atlanta, The Ringer\u2019s Bill Simmons saw the trade as a possible opening to another blockbuster move \u2014 eventually landing Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> center and former NBA MVP Joel Embiid<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Mavericks used their Traded Player Exception in the Risacher trade, which allows them to bank the salary difference between what they gave out and what they brought in toward a salary in a future trade.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Mavs caught my attention today with the weird 3-way trade where Lu Dort<\/a> ends up in Atlanta,\u201d Simmons said on his podcast Sunday night<\/a>. \u201cThey get Risacher in Dallas, and they use some of their exception for it, which I thought was smart. I\u2019m not selling my Risacher stock yet. I thought he was on the wrong team. I still think there\u2019s something there. But it did make me think; I still feel like that\u2019s the Embiid team If it ever happens, it\u2019s Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n 76ers Made Blockbuster Offseason Trade<\/p>\n The 76ers made themselves championship contenders with a single move this summer by trading for Boston Celtics<\/a> small forward and former NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown<\/a>, although how Embiid and Brown co-exist remains to be seen.<\/p>\n For Embiid, who or what plays around him is mostly insignificant because of his contract \u2014 arguably the worst contract in the NBA.<\/p>\n The 76ers, spurred by former general manager Daryl Morey, signed Embiid to a 3-year, $187.87 million contract extension with the player option for the 2028-29 season before the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n Embiid\u2019s contract is scheduled to pay him approximately $57.9 million in 2026-27, $62.6 million in 2027-28, and $67.2 million in 2028-29.<\/p>\n Mavericks Now Have 2 Former No. 1 Picks on Roster<\/p>\n After trading for Risacher, the Mavericks now have 2 former No. 1 overall picks with 2025 top pick Cooper Flagg<\/a>, the 2026 NBA Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the Mavericks, they play the same position.<\/p>\n \u201cBREAKING: The\u00a0Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>\u00a0trading All-Defensive wing Lu Dort to the\u00a0Atlanta Hawks<\/a>\u00a0in a three-team deal that sends three second-round picks to OKC, former No. 1 pick\u00a0Zaccharie Risacher<\/a>\u00a0to the Dallas Mavericks and\u00a0Ryan Nembhard<\/a>\u00a0to Atlanta, sources tell ESPN,\u201d\u00a0ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania wrote<\/a>\u00a0on his official X account on Sunday. \u201cThe Hawks now are teaming up a 27-year-old elite defender in Dort with\u00a0Dyson Daniels<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/a>\u00a0on the wings \u2014 and will have $40+ million in cap space next summer. Atlanta pursued several wings this offseason before landing Dort.\u201d<\/p>\n Risacher, 6-foot-8 and 200 pounds, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024\u00a0NFL<\/a> draft and signed a 4-year, $57 million rookie contract. In 2 seasons, Risacher has averaged just 11.1 points and 3.7 rebounds and saw his scoring average dip into single digits in 2025-26 at 9.6 points per game.<\/p>\n \u201cThe No. 1 pick 2 years ago was just traded and it wasn\u2019t the headline of the tweet,\u201d\u00a0Elite Takes wrote<\/a>\u00a0on its official X account.<\/p>\n While the last 2\u00a0NBA<\/a>\u00a0Drafts in 2025 and 2026 have been chock-full of generational talents, the 2024 NBA Draft is likely going to be remembered as 1 of the worst in NBA history, and Risacher 1 of the worst No. 1 overall picks of all time.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst pick getting traded for that is nasty,\u201d\u00a0Kenny Beecham wrote<\/a>\u00a0on X on Sunday. \u201cWow.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTony Adame<\/a> covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. The Dallas Mavericks found themselves in the headlines recently over an unusual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-379727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}