It's official: Joel Embiid will play in the Philadelphia Sixers' final preseason game against the Timberwolves on Friday night. Assuming all goes well, he'll be available for the Sixers' season-opener on Wednesday in Boston (don't get your hopes up about that yet). His return will answer a question that has been on everyone's mind, and the answer may not be what Sixers fans were hoping for.
The answer won't come in a preseason game, as it's Embiid's first game since undergoing knee surgery in February. He won't be pushing it up and down the court, throwing down dunks, and fighting for every single rebound. What makes his return during the preseason so beneficial is that he can get some live-game action in before the real fun begins.
Embiid won't pick up where he left off before he had knee surgery toward the end of the 2023-24 regular season. It will take time for him to return to his full strength, whatever that is these days.
What version of Joel Embiid will the Sixers get?
There is a real possibility, as hurtful as it is to think about, that Embiid won't look as explosive or dominant as he did during the 2022-23 season, when he won MVP. He played 66 games that season, averaging a league-high 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.7 blocks, and 1.0 steals per game, shooting 54.8% from the field.
For starters, he probably won't play in 66 games. Embiid has said he won't play in back-to-back games for the rest of his career, which is, unfortunately, the right approach to take. If he can manage to play 50 to 60 games, that would be more than enough.
Expecting him to return to his MVP form, even after a few weeks' worth of play, is a stretch. The silver lining is that even when Embiid isn't at his best, he's still one of the better players in the league, but, of course, the goal is for the 31-year-old to be as close to his best as possible. What that means for him is to be determined.
For now, it's enough knowing that Embiid will play tonight, which is worthy of a celebration in itself after it seemed like it would be a while before he made his season debut.
Don't put expectations on how you think he should look, though, as you might be disappointed. Or you could be pleasantly surprised. As much as fans are rooting for the latter outcome, they know better than any other fan base in the league that it can change at a moment's notice.