The Philadelphia 76ers have been operating just fine in the way they have been managing the load of Joel Embiid this season. The coaching staff, as well as the medical team, have concocted a well-thought out plan to keep him as fresh as possible by holding him out of back-to-backs and limiting his minutes early on.
However, things remain as delicate as ever when it comes to his health. In fact, Embiid has reportedly faced another setback as he has encountered some swelling in his right knee, although the 76ers dodged a bullet. As reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania, the superstar was re-evaluated and it was revealed that there is no structural damage on his right knee. Right now, he is considered day-to-day.
Now, that is definitely a welcome development after such an abrupt injury scare, but in the grand scheme of things, this update is pretty telling of what the 76ers must embrace as their reality moving forward with respect to their former Most Valuable Player.
76ers receive a chilling reminder of Joel Embiid’s injury struggles
As many have already pointed out, the fact that his right knee has some swelling going on is only reflective of the fact that he has been compensating for his chronically injured left knee. There is definitely some overuse going on, and his body needs time to get acclimated to such an increased workload.
For now, Embiid is being pegged as day-to-day when it comes to his availability, but in Embiid terms, that could easily mean a longer duration of being held out of games. Timelines are almost immaterial when it comes to his health, and really, the 76ers are not incentivized to deploy him if he is not 100 percent capable of playing given how early they are into the season.
Setbacks like this are probably going to persist moving forward, making it incumbent upon the team to get serious about finding a sustainable winning design even when he is stuck on the sidelines. Obviously, the 76ers have the necessary talent to solidify that much-needed hard pivot, but the front office must also be as committed to advancing that cause.
The 76ers still managed to dodge a bullet there, but as sour as it may sound, they will have to double down on their already conservative approach with Joel Embiid. He is still an extremely vital piece to their puzzle, and without him, they are just much more susceptible to teams figuring them out.