The Philadelphia 76ers have been overly cautious with Joel Embiid this season, which is really the only way to manage him moving forward. Arguably being the most injury-prone, upper-echelon star in the NBA, the team does not really have a choice but to be very conservative with the superstar as the season progresses, lest they risk not having him when it matters the most.
Having said that, despite those extreme measures which the 76ers’ medical and coaching staff have both taken to keep him as fresh as possible, the injury bug remains difficult to get rid of completely. Heck, just recently, Embiid has been missing games due to a minor setback on his other knee, which probably came as a result of overcompensating for his chronically injured one.
In that regard, longtime NBA analyst Bill Simmons inferred that Embiid’s left knee, which is the one that had already been through a ton of injuries, might no longer be functional, which is something that has definitely shown real signs of being the truth.
BIll Simmons says Joel Embiid no longer has a working left knee
Simmons compared Embiid’s situation to Spurs legend Tim Duncan who, in the latter stages of his career, basically only had one functional knee. Of course, San Antonio remained wildly successful and even won a well-endeared championship in 2014, but Gregg Popovich and his crew employed a very strict and rest-oriented approach with him.
Also, Duncan famously shed a significant amount of weight during the early 2010s while also completely re-engineering his workout plans. That should be the blueprint for Embiid moving forward as he still packs a lot of weight in that seven-foot frame of his.
Likewise, the 76ers should take this as a cue to permanently shift Embiid’s role to a more secondary one, a la Duncan when he left the primary scoring duties to Tony Parker. Philly has Tyrese Maxey, an MVP-caliber player, and the team should take full advantage of Embiid’s uber-talented co-star.
Truth be told, while Simmons’ inference may be harsh, it is also one that is quite difficult to dispute. Embiid is the highest-maintenance star in the league, and the 76ers have to step it up even more when it comes to hatching a sustainable management plan for him moving forward. After all, Embiid is way too skilled to give up on, despite his glaring red flags in the health department.
Fortunately, the 76ers are now more equipped than ever to handle a considerable reduction of Embiid’s load. Between Tyrese Maxey and their talented core players, there is zero reason for the franchise to still rely heavily, to the point of peril, on the former MVP.