Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has established himself as one of the premier big men in the NBA. However, the one knock on the Sixers center thus far has been questions about his durability.
Embiid has gone through his whole career thus far without playing in back-to-back games. But according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, that could change on Monday night versus the Milwaukee Bucks:
“I just got told I was available,” Embiid said before Sunday’s game. “I think it’s depending on how I feel after the game. But I expect to feel great, because my body has been feeling really good.
“Hopefully, I will play [Monday].”
Embiid added that being unable to play in back-to-backs has been one of the most frustrating aspects of his young NBA journey.
“Obviously, I really want to play,” he said. “I feel like that’s the missing part of my NBA career.”
Embiid's career got off to a rocky start amidst the severe injuries he had sustained. Although his recovery may have cleverly coined him the nickname “The Process,” it has also forced the Sixers to be rather cautious with their franchise player moving forward.
As a result, he came into the 2017-18 NBA season on a minutes restriction. However, it soon became evident that Embiid was too crucial to the Sixers' success to keep him out of the game as long as they had originally planned to.
Fortunately, it seems the Sixers are now more confident that their star big man will be able to handle the workload on a daily basis. They are certainly going to need Embiid if they hope to start moving up the playoff seeding by the end of the year.
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