One of the recurring themes for the Philadelphia 76ers during their first two games is the shafted production of Joel Embiid. However, with the team exercising the highest degree of caution with him, especially in light of his almost eight-month long layoff from competitive basketball, the coaching staff has put him on a minutes restriction to ease him back into the action.
Embiid has played exactly 20 minutes in both of his appearances thus far against the Celtics and the Hornets. He mightily struggled against Boston, finishing with a meager stat line of four points and six rebounds on one of nine (1-9) shooting, but bounced back in their most recent outing against Charlotte, ending his night early with 20 points, draining seven of his 11 shots and three of his six attempts from beyond the arc.
Having said that, Embiid is not a fan of the minutes restriction. Shortly after their game against the Hornets, which was also their home-opener, he was asked about what he felt operating within a minutes restriction. And as you might expect, he doubled down on the struggles of finding his rhythm when his minute windows are so brief and few.
“The longer I sit, the shorter stints, you play 2-3 minutes and you gotta get out, that's literally nothing. I might as well just stay home and be with my family. Longer stints, you're able to let the game come to you.”
Joel Embiid is not a fan of the 76ers’ minutes restriction
To be fair, someone like Embiid, who has always been the kind to require some kind of a wind-up to get into his usual level of production, will really not benefit from being on a minutes restriction, at least output-wise.
However, this is not something the 76ers are at liberty to just discard for the sake of production. It is imperative given that Embiid has not participated in any competitive basketball game since late February last season. He is already a massive injury risk, and pushing him too hard right from the get go is just an invitation for danger or the injury bug to inflict him anew.
It would be interesting to see just how long the 76ers plan on keeping him tethered to such a minutes limitation. The team still needs Embiid playing at his usual level to have a real shot at contention, and that will be few and far between if he is stuck in this current setup.
This is not an ideal scenario for Joel Embiid right now, but the 76ers are trying to play it smart with their superstar. Hence, until he shows that he can finally handle a major load, he will have to adjust and try to remain effective despite seeing limited court time.