With the James Harden saga in full swing in the City of Brotherly Love, much speculation has arisen regarding the future of reigning MVP Joel Embiid with the Philadelphia 76ers. Harden's inevitable departure from a franchise he has eviscerated in recent weeks could mean that a full rebuild may be on the docket for the Sixers, which means that Embiid could soon demand a trade. And if he does, the sharks will inevitably be circling — with the New York Knicks the chief among them.

As of the moment, however, there is nothing concrete that links Embiid to a future trade request to the Big Apple. But where there's smoke, there's fire, and there certainly is smoke in a potential Knicks move given what's happening in the Sixers star's life off the court.

According to Marc Stein, Joel Embiid did invite a few key members of the Knicks contingent to his wedding in late July, which further clouds his Sixers future in considerable doubt.

“Both Knicks president Leon Rose and his top aide William Wesley were at Embiid's recent wedding and, while true that Rose and Wesley used to represent Embiid as player agents, it has been suggested that their attendance was ‘not nothing',” Stein wrote.

While it's a stretch to suggest that anything concrete is happening behind the scenes regarding a potential Joel Embiid move to the Knicks based off of this nugget of information, what it does, at the very least, is point out that the Sixers star has maintained an incredible relationship with Leon Rose, one of the chief decision makers for New York. In professional sports, there's nothing that greases the wheels on these kinds of potential transactions in a better manner than having pre-existing relationships, so, as Marc Stein wrote, this, indeed, was “not nothing”.

At the end of the day, the Knicks, despite standing out as a likely Embiid destination given how many assets they have, won't be the only team on the hunt for a trade with the Sixers. The Miami Heat and Houston Rockets have also been mentioned as teams that could throw their hats into the ring for a potential Embiid trade.