Joel Embiid is expected to play this week for the Philadelphia 76ers, unless there’s another setback, which is always a possibility with the 7-foot star.
This comes after a busy offseason for Embiid, which included winning Olympic gold, signing a contract extension, dealing with a knee injury, being the subject of two NBA investigations, getting into a public disagreement with a journalist, and even receiving a technical foul for waving a towel from the bench.
To make matters worse for the 76ers, the team has struggled without Embiid on the court. In fact, without him, they’ve been one of the worst teams in the NBA.
The 76ers can only hope that things will improve on Tuesday when Embiid, a two-time scoring champion, makes his long-awaited first start of the season against the New York Knicks. Both teams will be playing in the NBA Cup round-robin.
Embiid’s last game was in May when the 76ers were knocked out by the Knicks in Game 6 of the first round of the playoffs.
Embiid is returning after missing time for what the team called “left knee management” and serving a three-game suspension for shoving a member of the media. The 76ers have struggled, sitting at 2-7 and near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.
“We’re not where we want to be without the big fellow,” said first-year Sixers forward Paul George. “Someone as talented as him. He’s the piece. We should still be playing at a high level and competing, trying to win games. No doubt about it, you get somebody like that, it’ll make everybody’s job a little easier.”
The 76ers’ problems aren’t just because of Embiid’s absence.
George, who was expected to be a key offseason signing, has only played four games this season due to a knee injury, and his minutes have been limited. That restriction kept him out of overtime in a close win over Charlotte on Sunday.
Tyrese Maxey, an All-Star last season and the league’s most improved player, may miss another week to 10 days with a hamstring injury. Backup centers Andre Drummond and Guerschon Yabusele aren’t close to matching Embiid’s level of production.
“I think we’re still trying to figure this stuff out,” George said. “I’m still trying to get in shape, get my legs back under me. I’ll get these legs back under me. I think we show signs of just competing, playing hard. Just leave it on the floor.
I think that’s been the message. Regardless of what’s going on, just leave it on the floor, play hard, maximum effort. That’s something we can all bring.”
Since his rookie season, the 76ers have been built around Embiid’s size and talent. Without him in action this season, the team has faced a lot of challenges. Some of those struggles have been self-inflicted, others have been due to unclear situations, and some have just been a result of the frustration of seeing their star player sidelined so much.
Embiid himself has said that he won’t play in back-to-back games this season, meaning he will sit out Wednesday’s game against Cleveland.
Fans are familiar with this routine, and tickets for the game on Wednesday are already being listed for as low as $10 in the upper section and around $30 in the 100 level on secondary market sites like StubHub.
In Philadelphia, confidence that the 76ers will ever win a championship with Embiid has dropped, and so have the ticket prices.
The 2023 NBA MVP’s recent controversy came from an issue with a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist who mentioned Embiid’s late brother and his son—both named Arthur—in articles criticizing Embiid’s professionalism and his condition after playing in the Paris Olympics.
The NBA fined the 76ers $100,000 last month for making public statements that were inconsistent with Embiid’s health status, which violated league rules, including the player participation policy.
The 76ers have been clear since preseason about how they plan to use Embiid this year—managing his minutes and games to keep him healthy for the playoffs, something they’ve never been able to do with him in the past.
But at this point, if the 76ers miss the playoffs, what will they do?
The good news is that only Cleveland and Boston have winning records in the Eastern Conference so far. If Embiid can get on a hot streak, the 76ers could still get back into playoff contention.
For now, only Milwaukee and Toronto have worse records in the East than Philadelphia. Doc Rivers, the Bucks coach, might still be coaching the 76ers if Embiid had stayed healthy and led the team on deeper playoff runs during his three seasons with the franchise.
“Joel didn’t do anything wrong,” Rivers said on opening night. “It just happens. You do your best. There are guidelines that every team has. We have science behind us. Joel is a big human being.
He moves like a guard. There’s days in practices he’ll make a move and you’ll say to yourself, that’s not normal for a big guy. His body may say that, too. It’s tough because he’s such a great player.”
