With the arrival of longtime veteran Elton Brand to Philadelphia and the imminent return of former No. 3 pick Joel Embiid, the 76ers are in the works of trading one of their two starting big men.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Sixers have had consistent trade talks during this summer involving Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, eventually planning to move one of them, league sources said.

The Sixers do not believe the two players’ talents will  be complementary on the court.

Consequences of 76ers' draft strategy

This is the result of Philadelphia's strategy of stockpiling talent regardless of position. Between 2013 and 2015, the Sixers drafted Noel, Embiid and Okafor — all lengthy big men that play the center position.

Given the fact that there's only one paint on the basketball court, the team would have to momentarily force one of the three out of the paint to let the other operate – not to mention it would be impossible to playing them all at the same time.

Neither of the three can become a stretch four by the start of the season and every single one of them will be eager for minutes.

It's a nightmare situation for coach Brett Brown. The most unfortunate thing is that they most likely won't get much in return for their investment. In the NBA world, the team seeking the trade is historically the one losing assets in order to make the trade happen.

This situation is almost as comical as the guy in your fantasy league who didn't show up to the live draft and auto-picked three centers with the first three picks.

The 76ers will pay dearly for this management mistake as they now have frozen assets and are unable to reap the benefits from the talents they acquired.

Who will stay and who will go?

The reason Joel Embiid is not on the trading block is because he's yet to make his NBA debut. He's a risk to every franchise, no matter how well the Sixers try to market him.

If they did put him on the block, it would be a desperate situation – as desperate as a “give me your Cheetos, I'll give you my coffee table” type of situation.

Noel is an athletic, proven shot-blocker, who will hustle and nab steals à la Ben Wallace and can run the court brilliantly in the break. If he could learn to shoot under Brand, he could become something special.

Okafor is a skilled scorer, big and strong post-up player that could use refinement to become an elite presence on the block. He only averaged seven rebounds per game despite standing at 6-foot-11 and playing 30 minutes per game.

Depending on what team the 76ers trade with, they could re-enforce their lineup and potentially give their prized rookie Ben Simmons some tools to work with.