The Sixers plan to rest Joel Embiid and Paul George in back-to-back sets this year, but the NBA’s rules could make that challenging.
We’re one game into the 2024-25 NBA season, and the Sixers are already in hot water with the league office. The NBA is officially back, baby!
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the league planned to begin an investigation into the Sixers after Joel Embiid was ruled out of the regular-season opener with what the team called “left knee injury management.” The NBA passed a revised player participation policy prior to the 2023-24 season to curtail the number of high-profile games that star players missed, including any games on national TV. Unfortunately for the Sixers, their Embiid-less beatdown at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks was on ESPN.
There are exceptions to the policy, including if a player misses multiple games in a row “due to a bona fide long-term or other injury, illness, or other medical condition.” However, it’s unclear whether Embiid will qualify for that carve-out since the Sixers have been vague about why he wasn’t ready to begin the regular season.
If the league office rules against the Sixers, they’ll get hit with a $100,000 fine and will be subject to even heftier penalties moving forward. But that isn’t the only cause for concern buried in the participation policy, particularly given the Sixers’ stated plans to hold both Embiid and Paul George out of most back-to-back sets this season.
The policy does contain a pre-approved exemption from team-designated back-to-back sets for any player who’s 35 or older as of opening night and any player with at least 34,000 career regular-season and playoff minutes or 1,000 career regular-season and playoff games. Embiid falls well short of both thresholds, although George should top both the games and minutes marks early this season. (He’s currently at 981 career games and 33,626 career minutes.)
The policy also contains a “league-approved restriction for all back-to-backs,” but approval “would be based on the player’s serious or unusual injury history, and would only apply for a reasonable length of time as determined by the league office.” Considering how many players have recovered from meniscus injuries, it’s unclear whether Embiid’s history of knee issues would qualify him for the blanket exemption from all back-to-backs.
If the Sixers do hope to obtain league approval for Embiid to miss every back-to-back set this season, they need to provide “written supporting information (e.g. a team physician’s opinion letter, player’s medical records, and related imaging)” at least one week prior to the first back-to-back that they’d want him to miss. The Sixers’ first back-to-back is Nov. 12 and 13, although their Nov. 12 matchup against the New York Knicks is an NBA Cup game, which further complicates matters.
If the NBA does approve Embiid to miss at least one game in every back-to-back set this season, the Sixers will have to stick with that plan. He’ll lose the exemption if he ever plays in both games of a back-to-back. The exemption also doesn’t apply to any nationally televised game or any NBA Cup game unless both games in the back-to-back are nationally televised or are part of the NBA Cup. (Thankfully, as Liberty Ballers’ Seth Gupwall broke down earlier this month, that won’t be an issue for any of the Sixers’ back-to-backs this year.)
Once George crosses the 34,000-minute or 1,000-game threshold and gains his exemption from back-to-backs, the Sixers may have to juggle which games he misses and which ones Embiid misses. If both he and Embiid are exempt from back-to-backs, the Sixers will have to play one of them the first night and the other the second night. However, the league office “may in its discretion approve two or more players not participating in a back-to-back game” if the Sixers “equally balance star player absences between the two games to the greatest extent possible” and prioritize any national TV or NBA Cup game.
Granted, we don’t know whether Embiid will receive an exemption from the league office to miss all back-to-backs. If not, the Sixers will have to be even more selective about which games he misses, particularly if George also sits out of a particular back-to-back.
Considering the penalty for violations of the participation policy—$100,000 for the first offense, $250,000 for the second and an additional $1 million for each one beyond that—the Sixers likely won’t press their luck with the league office. If they’re serious about holding George and Embiid out of most or all back-to-backs this year, it would behoove them to get on the same page with the NBA. Otherwise, they could be facing seven-figure fines in the near future.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.