With the 2025-26 NBA season rapidly approaching, fans of the Philadelphia 76ers have one major question hanging over opening day: when will Joel Embiid make his regular season debut?

Still one of the very best players in the NBA when fully healthy, Embiid's biggest issue has always been availability over ability, with “The Process” missing most of last season on the way to a campaign that gave lowercase “p” process Sixers fans war flashbacks.

Well, in an appearance on ESPN's NBA Today, Brian Windhorst broke down what he's seen and heard about Embiid so far, and why fans should be excited by recent developments.

“Now, we knew that Joel was working out, we knew he was practicing, but with Joel, you really can't assume anything. And then, earlier this, I guess it was over the weekend, he just showed up at their scrimmage. Yeah, the blue, the blue-white scrimmage, and every team has a scrimmage that they open to the fans, and this is what they did, and here Joel was,” Windhorst noted.

“Now, this has been going on behind the scenes, but, you know, the Sixers have been very cautious not to get out ahead of everything, as you can imagine why. And Joel looked good in this scrimmage, but I think it's more important that he was playing more than I'm going to sit here and analyze how he looked.”

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So what does this mean for the future? Well, Windhorst commented on that too, using his deductive reasoning skills to project when 76ers fans could see “The Process” on the court for a regular season game again.

“So Friday is their last preseason game, it's at home. I assume he's going to try to go in that, and if there's no setbacks, I assume he might be out there for opening night,” Windhorst noted. “Now, the idea that he could come back before Paul George was not something I expected. But, and I think you've got to be careful not to make any assumptions with Joel, but I think the Sixers could have Joel Embiid, could have him at the beginning of the season next week.”

When will 76ers fans see their fearless leader again? Only time will tell, but if Windhorst is right, opening night should be bumping at the Xfinity Mobile Arena.