Just when the Philadelphia 76ers are starting to round into form despite a recent loss, the team has once again suffered a new setback, although by its very nature, to deem it as a novelty would be highly disingenous.
As you might have already known by now, the Philly-obssessed injury bug once again made contact with Joel Embiid. During their recent outing against the Indiana Pacers, the superstar center found himself on the receiving end of an inadvertent blow to the face, resulting in a sinus fracture for the big man that could keep him out for a while.
Injuries are stacking up on the big man just like Jenga pieces, and while obviously out of his control, reality is not always predicated on what can be foreseen or not. This begs the question — how much more can the 76ers take?
The 76ers should prepare to change course and accept the harsh reality about Joel Embiid
The constant public outrage whenever Embiid finds himself on the injury report is more whimsical than legitimate, but there is a big reason as to why it’s always a pent-up and cumulative thing. The 76ers have operated since the last decade around the prospect of Embiid suddenly becoming an Iron Man of some sorts — something that clearly has no shot of happening.
Embiid is on the wrong side of 30, and while he continues to look like an MVP-caliber player when healthy, his talent is far outracing his body. He has become wway too talented that his physical condition simply cannot keep up, and it’s not going to be better all of a sudden when his legs are not as fresh as they used to be.
No matter how many cushion Philly attempts to install to ease the load on their superstar, when nothing seems to change, the only real way to go is to change course. No offense to Embiid, but the 76ers are asking way too much out of him at this point in his career when in reality, he would be much better off playing in a reduced role, but we all know it’s not going to happen.
As preposterous as it sounds, the idea of doing a hard reset does not really sound so bad when you take into account the attendant opportunity cost associated with, well, moving on from the big man. Parity is at an all-time high in the NBA, and there are teams out there that would gladly assume the burden of shepherding Joel Embiid as part of their cause while giving the 76ers whatever assets they can throw.
Again, are we sure the Philadelphia 76ers should keep thrusting themselves into a suspensive fate with Joel Embiid? The answer for now is seemingly yes, but for how long will that be the case?