After sitting out a team practice on Sunday, Sixers center Joel Embiid is now questionable to suit up for Monday’s tilt against the Bulls as he continues to battle a lingering knee injury, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).
The seven-time All-Star has only played 19 games this season, averaging 23.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 0.9 blocks and 0.7 steals per night — all significant drops from his output a year ago.
According to Shams Charania of ESPN, the Sixers and Embiid are consulting with doctors about alternative treatment options for the knee, which hasn’t responded as hope to the current treatment plan. As Charania notes, that plan has included regular injections. Sources tell ESPN that Embiid will undergo some additional testing early this week before a decision is made, but surgery is one of the options on the table.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse recently spoke at a presser about Embiid’s struggles to play through the injury, per Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports (Twitter link).
“I would agree that he’s not moving nearly as well as we was,” Nurse said. “We were hoping maybe something conditioning, rhythm, that kind of stuff would get that going, but it doesn’t appear that way right now.”
There’s more out of Philadelphia:
- At this stage of their rapidly disintegrating season, it may behoove the Sixers to shut down Embiid for good, Tony Jones of The Athletic argues. As Jones writes, Embiid has lost his offensive burst off the impacted knee and his offensive game is limited, while his movement on defense has looked rough. At 20-36 and having lost seven straight games, the Sixers have slid to the No. 12 seed in the East Conference and are seeing their play-in tournament window closing anyway, even with Embiid available.
- The Sixers are still dealing with fallout from their 2020 trade that sent big man Al Horford to the Thunder, Pompey writes in another piece. Philadelphia included its 2025 first-rounder with top-six protection in that deal in order to move off Horford’s contract. With the 76ers seemingly lottery-bound but not at the very bottom of the NBA standings, it’s very possible that pick will land in the top 10 and convey to Oklahoma City.
- In case you missed it, Embiid himself has acknowledged that his knee isn’t right and has spoken about looking to improve it this offseason.