Joel Embiid is improving but is not ready to retake the court and is out Saturday when the 76ers take on the Pistons, coach Nick Nurse said Friday.
“The swelling’s gone down a bit,” Nurse said Friday, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “Still some soreness there. That’s about all I can say.”
Officially, Embiid is out for “
left knee injury management/personal reasons.” He has played in just four games this season for the 3-14 Sixers, who are off to a dreadful start but hoped to use a soft spot in the schedule to turn things around. That is more difficult with Embiid out, as is Kyle Lowry, while Paul George (knee bone bruise, maybe making his return) and Caleb Martin are questionable.
It has been a rough year for Embiid, who had knee surgery last February, pushed to be back for the playoffs but wasn’t himself as the Knicks knocked the 76ers out of last postseason. He was slowed while playing in the Paris Olympics (but won gold with Team USA), then was not ready to go at the start of this season. When Embiid returned, he was not yet in game shape. He lasted four games before swelling in the knee sent him back to the bench and the trainer’s table. During a team meeting airing issues around Philly’s rough start to this season, Tyrese Maxey called out Embiid for not being on time to team events and setting a poor tone, and while that comment was overblown by parts of the media — Maxey and Embiid are good, it wasn’t the focus of the team meeting — it put long-simmering questions about Embiid’s professionalism on the front burner.
Philadelphia has the advantage of playing in the East, where, as bad as their start has been, the team is just 3.5 games out of the postseason and 5.5 out of a top-six seed and avoiding the play-in — there is plenty of regular season left to make up that ground. However, Philadelphia needs to start winning now to make that happen, and not having Embiid on the court makes that all the more challenging.
