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It was a continuing theme throughout the Philadelphia 76ers preseason and now presses on into the regular season: Joel Embiid's load management, injury history and availability, especially on back-to-backs. Everyone shared an opinion, and Paul Pierce, a man never known to mince words, delivered a sharp criticism of Embiid's plan while on his Ticket & The Truth podcast.
“Embiid played in the Olympics, so I’m trying to figure out how from the Olympics until now. How he’s not available for the start of the season. First, you come out and say you’re not playing back-to-backs, and you’re not even available for Game 1. So I just am trying to see like who are the advisors, who are the doctors, who are the physical therapists, who is in these guys ears. I’m just not feeling it.
“I feel like they’ve got a laid-back approach to the game now; it’s not urgency.”
Embiid played 39 games last season.
Kevin Garnett also put Embiid on blast.
“I just don’t understand why these kids are not ready, why these guys are not ready in the beginning of the year. At the start of the year. Some guys who didn’t even make the playoffs, still not ready.”
Last week, Garnett was even more deliberate in his words, unloading on Embiid while on his podcast.
“The league’s got to get this under control. This is all over the place, real s*** and nobody is saying nothing. Ain’t nobody holding anyone accountable,” Garnett said. “So, not only are they not going to practice, they’re going to sit out? Back-to-backs? So, guess what teams are going to do? Teams now can lock in on you.”
There is no firm timetable for Embiid's return.
76ers just want to get to playoffs with Embiid healthy
It's hard to blame the Sixers. They don't have a chance to win it all without their best player. For a 30-year-old, seven-foot-tall superstar who's a couple large pizzas away from 300 pounds, it makes sense. But the game is a business that has to measure its spirit of competitiveness and fairness while balancing the outsized sway and influence the league's best players have.
But why is Embiid out for the 76ers if he hasn't suffered an injury since the Olympics? The NBA is trying to get to the bottom of it via an investigation, per insider Shams Charania.
“This is a complicated situation for the league, for the Sixers, obviously, Joel Embiid,” Charania said on ESPN's NBA Today, “because it's not black and white — there is no specific injury…With Joel Embiid, it has been a lot of the new normal that we've been told in terms of the periodic time off that he is scheduled to take this upcoming season as well as making sure, in his perspective, that he is a hundred percent for the playoffs, [which] he has not been in his entire NBA career.”
The 76ers are on the road playing the Toronto Raptors without Embiid on Friday night.
