The Sixers and Joel Embiid’s Health

[eyeatoma]

Read on Twitter

[Nuntius]

I wanted to add, I also don't like how he held the Sixers hostage. Both parties probably could have gone about it differently, but once again the person who was put in the middle of all of that was Embiid.

He didn't really hold the Sixers hostage. He was legitimately not able to play and his post-Sixers career has proved it, imo.

Yes, I agree, but again, the extracurriculars about Joel is limiting me, and I feel like if I were on a bad team, I wouldn't have had pressure were unnecessary. There might be some truth to it, but all he needed to say is I'm not fit, and I'd like a trade. Instead there was a lot of finger pointing that happened.

I do not really remember Simmons pointing the finger at anyone. As far as I recall, he barely talked throughout all this. And even if he did say one or two quips, he definitely talked a lot less than the Philly media who were dragging him through the media for almost a full year. Heck, people were even saying that he was faking a surgery.

[Jabroni Lames]

Q: Nick, as a basketball coach, how do you manage Embiid now when considering the resting policy?


Nurse: I think that we are looking at it maybe a little different than people think we might be. We’re trying to get him to play more games. Our goal is that it’s going up for him, not not the other direction, and some people would say, ‘Oh, that’s playoffs. Is he going to be?’ We’re just trying to get it going the other direction. I think that’s just what our people believe here that he can play and again, knock on wood, cross our fingers, all that stuff. There’s always things that can come up with that stuff, but I don’t know. I believe in the guys playing as much as they can and let’s see what happens.

https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/lists/sixers-nick-nurse-opens-up-on-love-of-music-tobias-harris-managing-joel-embiid/

[AleksandarN]

Q: Nick, as a basketball coach, how do you manage Embiid now when considering the resting policy?


Nurse: I think that we are looking at it maybe a little different than people think we might be. We’re trying to get him to play more games. Our goal is that it’s going up for him, not not the other direction, and some people would say, ‘Oh, that’s playoffs. Is he going to be?’ We’re just trying to get it going the other direction. I think that’s just what our people believe here that he can play and again, knock on wood, cross our fingers, all that stuff. There’s always things that can come up with that stuff, but I don’t know. I believe in the guys playing as much as they can and let’s see what happens.

https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/lists/sixers-nick-nurse-opens-up-on-love-of-music-tobias-harris-managing-joel-embiid/

It’s crazy who would have known Nurse would run his stars to the ground.

[winforlose]

The NBA is kinda in a lose, lose sometimes. They need to support a 82 game season while simultaneously having an amazing playoff with healthy stars battling each other for glory (and driving ratings.) If they let Philly load manage Embiid too much, it hurts tv ratings, tickets sales, and drives the narrative that the regular season doesn’t matter. Already teams talk about how Playoff seeding isn’t that important, all that matters is making the playoffs and simply relying on your stars to get you a championship.

On the other hand, the league can force teams to not load manage, to prove the regular season is important, but that wears down their stars. Add in minimums for All NBA, MVP, and other honors, and now injured players want to play for their own career instead of resting to get healthy for the team. Maybe Embiid is hurt to the exact same degree he would have been had Kuminga landed on a healthy knee, maybe it is worse. In either case, those fans paid to see Embiid, and if he doesn’t suit up, they don’t get what they paid for. This is the ultimate catch 22.

Now Philly fans can point to this injury and say Embiid should not have been playing, our season is in jeopardy because of it, ect… But, the nature of the injury was such that it could have happened in competitive minutes of any game. Someone falls on your knee and hyper extends it, what can anyone do about that? Maybe he shouldn’t have played, maybe he was more likely to be hurt because he wasn’t 100%, but if he doesn’t what does that say about the 82 game season?

[eyeatoma]

The NBA is kinda in a lose, lose sometimes. They need to support a 82 game season while simultaneously having an amazing playoff with healthy stars battling each other for glory (and driving ratings.) If they let Philly load manage Embiid too much, it hurts tv ratings, tickets sales, and drives the narrative that the regular season doesn’t matter. Already teams talk about how Playoff seeding isn’t that important, all that matters is making the playoffs and simply relying on your stars to get you a championship.

On the other hand, the league can force teams to not load manage, to prove the regular season is important, but that wears down their stars. Add in minimums for All NBA, MVP, and other honors, and now injured players want to play for their own career instead of resting to get healthy for the team. Maybe Embiid is hurt to the exact same degree he would have been had Kuminga landed on a healthy knee, maybe it is worse. In either case, those fans paid to see Embiid, and if he doesn’t suit up, they don’t get what they paid for. This is the ultimate catch 22.

Now Philly fans can point to this injury and say Embiid should not have been playing, our season is in jeopardy because of it, ect… But, the nature of the injury was such that it could have happened in competitive minutes of any game. Someone falls on your knee and hyper extends it, what can anyone do about that? Maybe he shouldn’t have played, maybe he was more likely to be hurt because he wasn’t 100%, but if he doesn’t what does that say about the 82 game season?

That times have changed, the schedule is tighter, and at the end it's all about the benjamins. When you water down your product by having an artificial games limit because most players have difficulty handling the schedule, many of the 3rd rate stars are the ones that will come out top. It's not a good end result for the NBA, and it's the fans and product that suffers.

They need to bring it down to 65 or 70 games, cut out all back to backs, and stop tying contracts to arbitrary league minimums. Right now Haliburton who is essentially is a lock for first team all-nba is in the position on needing to be on a minutes limit on a bad hamstring so he can meet the games minimum. If he doesn't hit it, he'll be out $50 million because of his extension and the bonus for making all-nba and becoming an allstar.

[winforlose]

The NBA is kinda in a lose, lose sometimes. They need to support a 82 game season while simultaneously having an amazing playoff with healthy stars battling each other for glory (and driving ratings.) If they let Philly load manage Embiid too much, it hurts tv ratings, tickets sales, and drives the narrative that the regular season doesn’t matter. Already teams talk about how Playoff seeding isn’t that important, all that matters is making the playoffs and simply relying on your stars to get you a championship.

On the other hand, the league can force teams to not load manage, to prove the regular season is important, but that wears down their stars. Add in minimums for All NBA, MVP, and other honors, and now injured players want to play for their own career instead of resting to get healthy for the team. Maybe Embiid is hurt to the exact same degree he would have been had Kuminga landed on a healthy knee, maybe it is worse. In either case, those fans paid to see Embiid, and if he doesn’t suit up, they don’t get what they paid for. This is the ultimate catch 22.

Now Philly fans can point to this injury and say Embiid should not have been playing, our season is in jeopardy because of it, ect… But, the nature of the injury was such that it could have happened in competitive minutes of any game. Someone falls on your knee and hyper extends it, what can anyone do about that? Maybe he shouldn’t have played, maybe he was more likely to be hurt because he wasn’t 100%, but if he doesn’t what does that say about the 82 game season?

That times have changed, the schedule is tighter, and at the end it's all about the benjamins. When you water down your product by having an artificial games limit because most players have difficulty handling the schedule, many of the 3rd rate stars are the ones that will come out top. It's not a good end result for the NBA.

They need to bring it down to 65 or 70 games, cut out all back to backs, and stop tying contracts to arbitrary league minimums. Right now Haliburton who is essentially one is a lock for first team all-nba is in the position on needing to be on a minutes limit on a bad hamstring so he can meet the games minimum. If he doesn't hit it, he'll be out $50 million because of his extension and the bonus for making all-nba and becoming an allstar.

The Hali point is spot on. Ant had a similar issue of playing through a hip pointer to not lose too many games. SGA would probably do the same if it meant getting MVP, ect… But, cutting the number of games means decreasing TV revenue, and that means lower salary caps, smaller maxes, smaller vet minimums, ect… I wonder if this is all the league bullying young athletes who they have power over, or if the players are also on board because they want to maximize their own profit potential and career earnings.

[eyeatoma]

The NBA is kinda in a lose, lose sometimes. They need to support a 82 game season while simultaneously having an amazing playoff with healthy stars battling each other for glory (and driving ratings.) If they let Philly load manage Embiid too much, it hurts tv ratings, tickets sales, and drives the narrative that the regular season doesn’t matter. Already teams talk about how Playoff seeding isn’t that important, all that matters is making the playoffs and simply relying on your stars to get you a championship.

On the other hand, the league can force teams to not load manage, to prove the regular season is important, but that wears down their stars. Add in minimums for All NBA, MVP, and other honors, and now injured players want to play for their own career instead of resting to get healthy for the team. Maybe Embiid is hurt to the exact same degree he would have been had Kuminga landed on a healthy knee, maybe it is worse. In either case, those fans paid to see Embiid, and if he doesn’t suit up, they don’t get what they paid for. This is the ultimate catch 22.

Now Philly fans can point to this injury and say Embiid should not have been playing, our season is in jeopardy because of it, ect… But, the nature of the injury was such that it could have happened in competitive minutes of any game. Someone falls on your knee and hyper extends it, what can anyone do about that? Maybe he shouldn’t have played, maybe he was more likely to be hurt because he wasn’t 100%, but if he doesn’t what does that say about the 82 game season?

That times have changed, the schedule is tighter, and at the end it's all about the benjamins. When you water down your product by having an artificial games limit because most players have difficulty handling the schedule, many of the 3rd rate stars are the ones that will come out top. It's not a good end result for the NBA.

They need to bring it down to 65 or 70 games, cut out all back to backs, and stop tying contracts to arbitrary league minimums. Right now Haliburton who is essentially one is a lock for first team all-nba is in the position on needing to be on a minutes limit on a bad hamstring so he can meet the games minimum. If he doesn't hit it, he'll be out $50 million because of his extension and the bonus for making all-nba and becoming an allstar.

The Hali point is spot on. Ant had a similar issue of playing through a hip pointer to not lose too many games. SGA would probably do the same if it meant getting MVP, ect… But, cutting the number of games means decreasing TV revenue, and that means lower salary caps, smaller maxes, smaller vet minimums, ect… I wonder if this is all the league bullying young athletes who they have power over, or if the players are also on board because they want to maximize their own profit potential and career earnings.

Players definitely want their money. IMO if that's the case they need to extend the season (including post season) to August. Baseball is on, but that is a grind as well, as long as it competes with the NFL they they can all make their money. That way, you can still limit the back to backs and condensed schedule, while hitting the number of games, and hopefully giving players more rest.

[Crunch 99]

I hope NBA fans feel some shame for the ducking allegations through out the season.

Eh. Multiple things can be true at the same time:

Embiid stays in games to pad his stats for his regular season MVP and scoring title chase; Embiid reguarly ducks playing in Denver and Embiid is prone to having knee problems.

[Jabroni Lames]

The NBA is kinda in a lose, lose sometimes. They need to support a 82 game season while simultaneously having an amazing playoff with healthy stars battling each other for glory (and driving ratings.) If they let Philly load manage Embiid too much, it hurts tv ratings, tickets sales, and drives the narrative that the regular season doesn’t matter. Already teams talk about how Playoff seeding isn’t that important, all that matters is making the playoffs and simply relying on your stars to get you a championship.

On the other hand, the league can force teams to not load manage, to prove the regular season is important, but that wears down their stars. Add in minimums for All NBA, MVP, and other honors, and now injured players want to play for their own career instead of resting to get healthy for the team. Maybe Embiid is hurt to the exact same degree he would have been had Kuminga landed on a healthy knee, maybe it is worse. In either case, those fans paid to see Embiid, and if he doesn’t suit up, they don’t get what they paid for. This is the ultimate catch 22.

Now Philly fans can point to this injury and say Embiid should not have been playing, our season is in jeopardy because of it, ect… But, the nature of the injury was such that it could have happened in competitive minutes of any game. Someone falls on your knee and hyper extends it, what can anyone do about that? Maybe he shouldn’t have played, maybe he was more likely to be hurt because he wasn’t 100%, but if he doesn’t what does that say about the 82 game season?

That times have changed, the schedule is tighter, and at the end it's all about the benjamins. When you water down your product by having an artificial games limit because most players have difficulty handling the schedule, many of the 3rd rate stars are the ones that will come out top. It's not a good end result for the NBA, and it's the fans and product that suffers.

They need to bring it down to 65 or 70 games, cut out all back to backs, and stop tying contracts to arbitrary league minimums. Right now Haliburton who is essentially is a lock for first team all-nba is in the position on needing to be on a minutes limit on a bad hamstring so he can meet the games minimum. If he doesn't hit it, he'll be out $50 million because of his extension and the bonus for making all-nba and becoming an allstar.

Linking player salaries and incentives to individual awards (All-Star & All-NBA) is the root cause of this evil. The minimum games criteria just compounds the problem. Not sure what the right balance is.

[winforlose]

That times have changed, the schedule is tighter, and at the end it's all about the benjamins. When you water down your product by having an artificial games limit because most players have difficulty handling the schedule, many of the 3rd rate stars are the ones that will come out top. It's not a good end result for the NBA.

They need to bring it down to 65 or 70 games, cut out all back to backs, and stop tying contracts to arbitrary league minimums. Right now Haliburton who is essentially one is a lock for first team all-nba is in the position on needing to be on a minutes limit on a bad hamstring so he can meet the games minimum. If he doesn't hit it, he'll be out $50 million because of his extension and the bonus for making all-nba and becoming an allstar.

The Hali point is spot on. Ant had a similar issue of playing through a hip pointer to not lose too many games. SGA would probably do the same if it meant getting MVP, ect… But, cutting the number of games means decreasing TV revenue, and that means lower salary caps, smaller maxes, smaller vet minimums, ect… I wonder if this is all the league bullying young athletes who they have power over, or if the players are also on board because they want to maximize their own profit potential and career earnings.

Players definitely want their money. IMO if that's the case they need to extend the season (including post season) to August. Baseball is on, but that is a grind as well, as long as it competes with the NFL they they can all make their money. That way, you can still limit the back to backs and condensed schedule, while hitting the number of games, and hopefully giving players more rest.

But then you lose recovery time from the off season, (some of which is when guys have surgery,) and now you have a new set of problems. Maybe the answer is dump the playoffs, and make the 82 games more impactful with a championship determined by those 82 games? I don’t know if the revenue system could be adapted, or if this is even profitable, I am just spitballing. Either way, I don’t see a lot of easy answers.

[maxpower8888]

People love to knock Embiid for taking games off but maybe now people will see there was clearly a reason for it, he was never 100% healthy even going into this season.

[Crunch 99]

Embiid says priority is being healthy for playoffs.
Actions say otherwise unfortunately.

A possible silver lining from this latest injury (I hope he isn't out long) is that this one may put Embiid so close to the 17 missed games limit that Embiid gives up chasing the MVP and scoring title, and instead, turns all of his focus towards getting himself and the 76ers ready for the playoffs.

[eyeatoma]

The Hali point is spot on. Ant had a similar issue of playing through a hip pointer to not lose too many games. SGA would probably do the same if it meant getting MVP, ect… But, cutting the number of games means decreasing TV revenue, and that means lower salary caps, smaller maxes, smaller vet minimums, ect… I wonder if this is all the league bullying young athletes who they have power over, or if the players are also on board because they want to maximize their own profit potential and career earnings.

Players definitely want their money. IMO if that's the case they need to extend the season (including post season) to August. Baseball is on, but that is a grind as well, as long as it competes with the NFL they they can all make their money. That way, you can still limit the back to backs and condensed schedule, while hitting the number of games, and hopefully giving players more rest.

But then you lose recovery time from the off season, (some of which is when guys have surgery,) and now you have a new set of problems. Maybe the answer is dump the playoffs, and make the 82 games more impactful with a championship determined by those 82 games? I don’t know if the revenue system could be adapted, or if this is even profitable, I am just spitballing. Either way, I don’t see a lot of easy answers.

Recovery might be easier with a schedule that's not as tight. I like the idea of a championship at the end of the regular season, but the playoffs is so amazing, I'd hate to cut into that.

[Bergmaniac]

NBA players and fans in general are way too obsessed with the MVP award. And stars of teams which are certain to be high seeds even if they miss many games should not be mocked for load management and refusing to play through small injuries, it's the rational decision long term and shows they care more about the big prize than regular season stats.

[eyeatoma]

People love to knock Embiid for taking games off but maybe now people will see there was clearly a reason for it, he was never 100% healthy even going into this season.

As I've said before, he has a degenerative knee issue that gets worse the more he plays. If he doesn't tweak it, its manageable. But once he's hurt it, he is basically playing on one leg, and then needs to rest it a few weeks or a month or two to get it back to where it needs to be.

[eyeatoma]

I hope NBA fans feel some shame for the ducking allegations through out the season.

Eh. Multiple things can be true at the same time:

Embiid stays in games to pad his stats for his regular season MVP and scoring title chase; Embiid reguarly ducks playing in Denver and Embiid is prone to having knee problems.

Not sure how you can say he ducked given how he just played though man. Two games off, and he looks horrible prior to Kuminga landing on him.

Read on Twitter

The man could not jump, and was doing 720s at one point so he wouldn't plant on that leg.

[winforlose]

Players definitely want their money. IMO if that's the case they need to extend the season (including post season) to August. Baseball is on, but that is a grind as well, as long as it competes with the NFL they they can all make their money. That way, you can still limit the back to backs and condensed schedule, while hitting the number of games, and hopefully giving players more rest.

But then you lose recovery time from the off season, (some of which is when guys have surgery,) and now you have a new set of problems. Maybe the answer is dump the playoffs, and make the 82 games more impactful with a championship determined by those 82 games? I don’t know if the revenue system could be adapted, or if this is even profitable, I am just spitballing. Either way, I don’t see a lot of easy answers.

Recovery might be easier with a schedule that's not as tight. I like the idea of a championship at the end of the regular season, but the playoffs is so amazing, I'd hate to cut into that.

Maybe, but international basketball is also a thing, including the Olympics. Guys also work on their game in the offseason. I don’t think they want to play from October to August. Honestly, I think some of the dynasty players don’t even like playing from October to June year after year. Maybe the IST should be the regular season championship and the playoffs are for a different crown?

[eyeatoma]

But then you lose recovery time from the off season, (some of which is when guys have surgery,) and now you have a new set of problems. Maybe the answer is dump the playoffs, and make the 82 games more impactful with a championship determined by those 82 games? I don’t know if the revenue system could be adapted, or if this is even profitable, I am just spitballing. Either way, I don’t see a lot of easy answers.

Recovery might be easier with a schedule that's not as tight. I like the idea of a championship at the end of the regular season, but the playoffs is so amazing, I'd hate to cut into that.

Maybe, but international basketball is also a thing, including the Olympics. Guys also work on their game in the offseason. I don’t think they want to play from October to August. Honestly, I think some of the dynasty players don’t even like playing from October to June year after year. Maybe the IST should be the regular season championship and the playoffs are for a different crown?

Ah yes, forgot about the Olympics.

IST?

[HotRocks34]

Amick: Some in Sixers organization think Embiid played in GSW game because of scrutiny.

https://theathletic.com/5240548/2024/01/31/joel-embiid-knee-injury-nba-65-game-rule/

There are people within the Sixers who are convinced that he played only because of all the scrutiny.

If Amick's reporting is correct, then it sounds like it may have been Embiid's decision to play rather than the team's.

They might need to shut him down for his own good and for the good of the team's goals. I guess more will be known from the MRI.