The Philadelphia 76ers will be without their star center for at least the next three games and losing him isn’t ideal near the end of the season.
The Philadelphia 76ers are on the home stretch of the season and only have seven games left until the beginning of the playoffs. That’s not a lot of time for a team to create a new core around the trade deadline to build chemistry. It doesn’t help that the team will be without their star center in Joel Embiid for a few of those final games, according to Keith Pompey of Philly.com.
Joel Embiid will also miss the next three games.
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) March 30, 2019
That means Embiid will miss the following matchups against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls, none of which have a winning record. He will be re-evaluated before the matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks, per Pompey.
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For the immediate game against the Timberwolves, rookie Jonah Bolden will be starting in Embiid’s place. It was already previously reported by Pompey that Embiid would miss the matchup against the T-Wolves with a sore left knee.
Obviously this isn’t good for building chemistry with new starter Tobias Harris. The duo has only started in 10 games together after Harris joined the Sixers. Considering Harris has played 21 games with Philly, it’s not good from a team chemistry standpoint for Embiid to miss more time.
This isn’t to say that Embiid should try to push himself just to get more reps with his new teammates. If he needs time to rest up in order to be healthy for the playoffs, then he should certainly take it. He’s too important to the team’s success to go into the postseason hurt or unable to play. Embiid missed an eight game stretch just a few weeks ago for the same left knee.
With Embiid out, head coach Brett Brown will have to rely on his committee of centers that includes: Bolden, Boban Marjanovic, Amir Johnson and Justin Patton. Brown has used point guard Ben Simmons and power forward Mike Scott at the center spot in the past as well, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the Sixers head coach would use them at the position again. Who Brown uses at the center position will most likely be determined by the matchup and flow of the game.
Embiid missing these games isn’t ideal from a team building standpoint, but obviously his long term health is the most important aspect for the Philadelphia 76ers. Based on matchups, the Sixers should be able to still be competitive even without Embiid.