Joel Embiid didn’t take part in the Sixers’ shootaround today, and the team is now listing him as out “indefinitely” after he experienced some swelling and soreness in his injured knee (Twitter links via Sixers and Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com).
Coming out of the All-Star break, the Sixers had announced that Embiid would miss at least the first four games of the second half, but it now appears that his absence will extend beyond March 1. The young center is scheduled to undergo an MRI on his knee this afternoon, per Camerato.
For the Sixers, the news comes on the heels of Friday’s announcement that No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons won’t make his NBA debut until next season, having been ruled out for the remainder of 2016/17. While Philadelphia fans may be disappointed not to see the highly-touted duo of Embiid and Simmons on the court together this season, there’s no need for the team to rush either player back, since a playoff spot is almost certainly out of reach — the Sixers are 5.5 games back of the eighth-seeded Pistons, with four other non-playoff teams ahead of them.
The Sixers provided an update on Simmons today as well, announcing (via Twitter) that he underwent a minor procedure – a bone marrow injection, per Camerato (via Twitter) – to stimulate bone growth and accelerate healing. Simmons is expected to resume training by the end of the week.
this front office thinks my city is retarded. they know what they doing but there are not honest. this is the bs I hate. we been losing for so long and now they mad cause the team winning too much. talk about self sabotage. Let’s see what else the colangelo’s do to destroy this franchise.
I’m a Lakers fan so I’m somewhat biased, but not about the pick implications. The Sixers Front Office think “Oh, cool, the fans have seen enough. They can tell we have something good on our hands. We’ll just sit out Ben and Joel and REALLY ramp up our marketing once we get two big studs this summer. They’re used to losing, what’s the point now right?”
It’s like going to a restaurant, buying the most expensive but delicious thing on the menu, and getting two bites out of it. Then the management pulls your food away and says “come back next year”. They even punch you in the gut so you spit out the bite you haven’t swallowed yet. So gross.
Or maybe he is injured. It’s possible. I’m pretty sure the front office wants to win, because that’s every front offices goal.
They are shooting for draft position now, not worried about wins
Just judging the Sixers this year they have been winning the amount of games they have been winning due to the level of play Saric has been able to play at. Covington,McConnell, Stauskas, and Henderson have also made the Sixers competive. I really do not see where Simmons fits in with the Sixers, he could not even lead LSU anywhere and we expect him to be the difference maker? The Sixers are better off making Saric a stretch 4 or SF, trade Simmons and Okafor to move up in the draft and get two top 10 picks. Draft Monk and try to get Fultz.
Fultz,Monk, Covington,Saric,Embiid
Forget Embiid. At best, he is a part time player.
At best the best big in the game
Doubt he will ever be the best with his health concerns though. A lot of the time the best ability is availability. Can’t be the best while he sitting on the bench in street clothes.
Sixers now in complete “tanking” mode. It’s like the movie groundhog, just keeps going on & on & on ….
The big thing stinxers have to worry about is embiid is a rfa next year.. will they offer him a max deal to keep hm??
This team is a mess, ownership and management have been playing with the fans..
Team has mediocre talent.. embiid most likely will never play a full season.. who knows if Simmons even plays next year or how much of next year he plays…
The NBA forced the Colangelos on the 76ers and this is what us fans get for it. Absolutely horrible since they came aboard. All the NBAs fault.
Yup and the worst part is they pushed big colangelo on us at 1st but he only lasted a few months. Long enough for his son to be turned down from his more desirable nba team, the nets. By the way brian colangelo thinking the nets job at the time was in any way better at the time and when no team not even the nets would hire brian colangelo that should tell you everything you need to know. But jerry hires his son but the 6ers tell us they didn’t even ask jerry colangelo about hiring his son, they didn’t even ask him if he’d be good to hire. Thats what the 6ers told us. We were lied to from the beginning. I hope somehow colangelo gets fired before he can ruin the 6ers chances. Hinkie basically idiot proofed the 6ers and we somehow have one of the few idiots that might be able to screw this up! And the only reason i say colangelo isnt the only idiot is i think vladie divac and maybe 1 or 2 other nba GMs could screw it up too. But seriously i could have run the 6ers better the last 12 months. I know hinkie was here 11+ months ago but big colangelo vetoed a trade that would have gotten us a Boston pick or picks that got vetoed because he wanted his son to be able to make any trades, so little colangelo would get credit for the assets received in any trades. Well we see how well that turned out for little colangelo don’t we?
I don’t consider this tanking in the same way everyone else is. Embiid has proven what he can be in the NBA, Okafor just had a monster game and they are still likely going to try and trade him by the time the draft happens. This gives Okafor showcase minutes, and lets the two stars of next year rest. If the slightest thing happened to Dario, the same exact thing would be going on with him.
Saric should be the only untouchable on that roster. The dude can post up, shoot and is a very good rebounder
Saric has had a couple of good weeks, hope he can keep it up. Don’t know that he has shown enough to be “untouchable”.
What has Embiid proven at this point except that he can be a very good part time player. Based upon what I have seen, it appears that he may be prone to injury. I think the likelihood of him playing 35+ minutes a night on a regular basis is questionable. Okafor most likely will be gone by the end of next year, showcasing him will also display his defensive liabilities unless he improves. Rest till next year? As a season ticket holder I have already heard that line too many times.
the league should so an investigation and review the medical evidence relating to both Embiid’s and Simmons’s inability to play.
I like how there are other obvious tanks each year, and no one says anything b/c the Sixers publicly are tanking. It’s a joke. Lakers have been tanking so they don’t have to give up a lotto pick. Sixers at least need to get a top-5 pick in order to make all of this work. Once they get a guard in this upcoming draft they can just go for it, since the Kings and Lakers picks are both unprotected in 2018. If they can pull off some draft-day magic with a trade for a superstar (1-2% chance lol) then it’d be a great year to be a Sixers fan with Embiid, Saric, Simmons, X, Y as you’re starting line-up. I mean you’re 2nd line is Jah, Holmes, Covington, Henderson, Bayless.