PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers opened their season at home without Joel Embiid and Paul George in uniform, a disappointing start to a season full of promise. It was easy to understand why George wasn’t out there.
Geroge hyperextended his left knee during the preseason. He needs time to recover, that’s natural.
But why exactly is Embiid not playing?
“The plan is why he’s not playing,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “He did not re-injure himself, but the plan is we don’t feel he’s quite ready, strong enough, light enough, whatever it is. They’ve determined he’s not quite ready to go. Hasn’t been in any full-court scrimmages, etc. And that’s the plan.”
“The plan” has been shouted in exacerbation across Philadelphia this past week. The Sixers have a plan for Embiid to get on the floor and not get injured. They aren’t publicly explaining how it works, what determines his readiness, and why he hasn’t crossed the threshold to play more than two months since Embiid represented Team USA at the Paris Olympics.
The NBA is likely to launch a formal investigation into Embiid’s absence, two sources told The Athletic under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. ESPN was the first to report the potential investigation.
Per league policy, healthy players are required to be available to play. Embiid has been listed as out for this week, while George will be reevaluated later this week.
Embiid doesn’t have any recent injury to speak of. While he did undergo knee surgery last winter, Embiid played in the playoffs for the Sixers and then participated fully for Team USA at the Olympics.
A Team USA source said Embiid was never injured during the Olympics. He fell ill before Team USA’s Olympic opener and was held out of game two of that tournament, but it was not for an injury. This ramp-up period has become so protracted that the mystery behind the process has once again caused consternation from the outside.
Doc Rivers knows how this process goes. The Milwaukee Bucks coach was Nurse’s predecessor in Philadelphia. He had to answer the same questions Nurse is navigating now. The issue is there is no magical way to keep your superstars healthy.
“You don’t. You can’t. There’s no secret,” Rivers said. “I was here three years and Joel was never healthy in the playoffs. Joel didn’t do anything wrong.”
Embiid is a walking paradox, a dynamic scorer masquerading in a giant’s body. Rivers learned from experience that as much as Embiid has pushed the limits of the game to become one of the best players of his era, his body is paying the cost.
“Joel’s a big human being and he moves like a guard,” Rivers said. “There’s days in practice he’ll make a move and you’ll say to yourself, ‘Well, that’s not normal for a big guy.’ And so his body may say that too.”
That will only be amplified after seeing how much the Sixers struggled to create clean looks in their 124-109 loss to the Bucks on opening night. They took 98 shots — 18 more than Milwaukee — but shot 12 percentage points poorer. With George and Embiid absent, Tyrese Maxey went 10-for-31 in 39 minutes, as he and Kelly Oubre Jr. tried to carry the offense on their shoulders.
Maxey conceded that he played poorly overall, diving into how he felt that he played rushed offensively and struggled to find the proper balance to draw contact when he attacked the rim.
This prompted a question about what was described, simply, as “that feeling.”
“What feeling?” Maxey asked.
The feeling at the heart of the question is the knowledge that the 76ers have struggled without Embiid, unsurprisingly. It’s the recognition of their 16-27 record without him last season. The reminder that while they are one of the best teams in the league when their MVP is on the floor, they are the underdog when he is off it.
“We played one game. I’m not about to sit here and say that just because Joel was out, we played bad,” Maxey responded. “Yes, we did not win the game, which is the ultimate goal. But we’ve been without Joel all preseason, all training camp for the most part. He’s been ramping up, so we have to go out there and execute what we worked on.”
Because Embiid is currently only out for the next week, there currently is no fear lurking in the shadows that they have to find their identity without him. The 76ers will have to find a way to play consistently in his absence. He’s already scheduled to sit out nearly 20 games based on his load management plan.
Though they’ll be more prepared for his future absences when he is sitting out back-to-backs, it won’t change the fact that they are an entirely different team without him. Their offense takes a different shape and their defense can’t just funnel the ball into their rim protector and expect things to be taken care of.
Nurse talked about how he wanted to see his team be more physical, even encouraging them to push off when the defense grabs at them. They need to set the tone with their physicality when Embiid isn’t out there to do it for them.
“Us winning cannot solely be on Joel Embiid. It just can’t,” Maxey continued. “There’s no championship team out there that is solely — if Joel doesn’t play and if we lose every single game, then we can’t win like that. I feel like tonight, we gotta make shots and we gotta keep playing the right way and we’ll be better.
“I’ll definitely be better, so I’m not going to worry about that.”
(Top photo of Joel Embiid in plain clothes dribbling the ball during a timeout: Bill Streicher / Imagn Images)
