Nick Nurse, Andre Drummond, and KJ Martin commented on the news that Joel Embiid will not be available for Wednesday’s season opener.
Despite dealing with injuries his entire career, Joel Embiid has yet to miss the season opener since first appearing in an NBA game back in 2016. That will change this year as the team ruled him out for the entirety of the opening week. The team did not give an official designation, but said he is “responding well to his individualized plan and is expected to ramp up his return to play activities this week, including scrimmaging.”
Embiid has been involved in parts of practice, and has participated in intense 3-on-3 scrimmaging with team staffers after practice each of the last two days, but has yet to practice full 5-of-5 with his teammates so far this preseason.
The team also ruled out Paul George for Wednesday, but said he will be assessed later this week.
With the season set to kick off in just over 24 hours, George and Embiid’s teammates and coach had to answer several questions about the stars’ availability or lack thereof.
Here are some takeaways from a practice that was once again entirely focused on health.
Embiid did not suffer a setback in the Olympics
The big sticking point with Embiid not being available for the start of the season is that he was on the floor playing for Team USA in the Olympics just two months ago. Nick Nurse was asked several times if Embiid suffered any sort of injury, either during or after the Olympics, that caused him to miss the start of the season.
Nurse remained steadfast that he did not, and the team is still just ramping him up.
“No, there’s been no setback,” he said, “again, he’s really active, he’s lost some weight, he’s out on the court, etc., just kind of sticking with our plan of making sure we’re in a really, really good place before we get him playing live.”
That last part there is crucial. Nurse said that this is all part of a plan they are sticking to. He was even asked to clarify later if this was a plan or if Embiid was injured.
Nurse again reiterated, “This is again getting him to where he needs to be to get on the court.”
So this is always what the Sixers were going to do, apparently. They were pretty vague about it, and playing with fire when it comes to the league’s rules when it comes to stars playing on nationally televised games (of which Wednesday’s opener is), but it’s what they’ve set out to do since the summer.
That’s fine, right?
Andre Drummond and KJ Martin found out Embiid was inactive today
Ah, well.
Drummond was of course asked when he found out he would be starting Wednesday night, and his answer was interesting.
“You know the plan is to have him [Embiid] today,” Drummond said, “so I didn’t really know until today.”
That sounds like two different plans. Now, to be fair, it’s very possible that Embiid’s ramp-up process is something him and his staffers are well aware of, but the rest of the team may not. Drummond said he wasn’t surprised to find out he was getting the start, and also stressed the importance of making sure Embiid feels right and ready.
KJ Martin was similarly in the dark about Embiid’s status for the start of the season.
“I really didn’t know, personally,” Martin said. “I mean, we’ve just been going through practice and stuff. So I mean, Joel’s been working out and getting ready.”
Now while the team doesn’t need to keep the whole roster updated on Embiid’s every step of this ramp-up, the pattern of mystery around injuries with this organization remain. While this Andre-the-Giant-sized ramp the team has Embiid on to get ready for this season may end up being the best plan to get him healthy for the postseason, the way the team is handling it so far will not fill any fan with confidence, nor has their history earned them any benefit of the doubt.