Everything about the Philadelphia 76ers this season rests on one question, and on Sunday the man in charge of answering it gave the most Joel Embiid response possible.
Asked how he felt after the Sixers’ intrasquad scrimmage, Embiid said: “pretty good, not bad.”
That is not a declaration of health. Read on anyway, because the rest of it is more encouraging than he is.
He has not missed a practice
Per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, Embiid has not missed a single practice in training camp. He arrived noticeably slimmer than he has in recent years and has been a full participant, to the point where coaches have had to force him to rest.
LeBron James, now his teammate, offered the strongest endorsement available.
“The difference between ’24 and now, he’s just so much more healthier,” James said. “He hasn’t missed a practice.”
The “’24” is a reference to their time together on the 2024 United States Olympic team, which gives James a direct before-and-after comparison that nobody else in the building has.
Why this is the whole season
Embiid appeared in 38 games last season. Thirty-eight.
And James took a two-year deal worth roughly $8 million to come to Philadelphia, the smallest salary of his career, with an option attached for a 25th season. He did not do that to be the best player on a 40-win team. He did it because a healthy Embiid plus him is a title-caliber frontcourt and a vanishing window for both of them.
So the Sixers’ ceiling is not a basketball question. It is a medical one, and the only evidence available in October is practice attendance and a slimmer build.
Embiid on his new job
The more revealing quote was about role, not health. Philadelphia is building an offense around pace, and Embiid described where that leaves him.
“Guys are going to use their speed against people and try to score a quick basket,” he said, “and if we don’t have anything, I’m the trail guy.”
A former MVP describing himself as the trail guy is a meaningful concession. It also makes sense. If Embiid is not sprinting the floor as the first option, he preserves something, and an offense that scores before he arrives is an offense that asks less of his legs.
What this is not
Be careful with the optimism. No team physician has cleared him publicly. No minutes restriction or load-management plan has been reported. Nobody has confirmed he will play in the preseason opener Monday against the Knicks, the first of Philadelphia’s four exhibition games.
“Pretty good, not bad” is a deliberately low-key self-assessment from a player who has learned not to promise anything, and it should be read that way.
Our take
Camp optimism about Embiid has been wrong before and will be wrong again. But the specific detail that matters here is attendance, not enthusiasm. A player who shows up to every practice in October is a player whose body is cooperating in a way it has not recently.
That is worth something. It is just not worth a prediction, and Embiid is the only person in Philadelphia smart enough to say so.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.