A Sixers fan goes entirely too deep trying to parse the Joel Embiid practice video

The NBA offseason has been awfully quiet of late, especially for fans of the Philadelphia 76ers. As we await the Quentin Grimes extension (or qualifying offer) news, the buzz around this team is awfully quiet. We haven't heard official updates on the status of Joel Embiid or Paul George. Even Jared McCain's recovery timeline has been kept close to the vest, although it seems like he will be a full go for training camp.

And yet, while the Philadelphia metro area was celebrating Kyle Schwarber's 50th home run on Tuesday night in a 9-3 victory over the Mets at Citizens Bank Park, the Sixers social media team released a four-second clip that sent the entire fanbase into a frenzy. It features Embiid catching the ball and pivoting into a jump shot. He looks slim, and perhaps most importantly, he's not wearing the bionic knee brace that has become so commonplace in recent years.

Forensic investigation from Twitter user @SixersSaturdays appears to prove that, unlike those images of Donald Trump playing golf before his recent three-day sabbatical, this is a real thing that actually happened on the date it was published. You can see Sixers rookie Johni Broome in the background, meaning we are not being gaslit by a year-old video from the before times.

Sixers fans are all asking... what does the Joel Embiid practice video mean?

It has been a long couple of years for Embiid, who has only appeared 58 games total since his 2022-23 MVP campaign. This past season saw Embiid play only 19 games as he dealt with the fallout of past meniscus surgery. His left knee was constantly swollen and when he did play, it was often at half-speed, with a gadget around his knee that looked more like a small Decepticon than a brace (it was a brace, to be clear).

Since Embiid was shut down for the remainder of the season in February, he has essentially been in Witness Protection. He received arthroscopic knee surgery in April in an attempt to clean up a plainly dysfunctional joint. The updates have been scant, bordering on nonexistent, all summer. Nick Nurse said "all the news is positive" on Aug. 14, but that amounted to the sort of vague non-update Sixers fans are all too familiar with at this point.

The word on Embiid was that he hasn't been participating in basketball activities this summer and that his status for training camp this month was essentially ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. So this does feel like a noteworthy development. If he's in the gym, moving around and taking shots without a knee brace, is certainly warrants some level of excitement. Just seeing him in the building, around his teammates, is a positive sign. Embiid has not always been one to show up early and engage with teammates outside of mandated practice times. Part of why it's been so quiet all summer is that Embiid tends to keep to himself.

We definitely shouldn't put real stock into a four-second social media clip. The Sixers' social media team is paid to send out organizationally approved propaganda, so we aren't going to get any clips of Embiid limping back to his locker or wincing in pain as he calls for his knee brace to be reapplied, if such a clip were to exist. But if we want to engage in a bit of reckless optimism, if we want to believe that Joel Embiid can dribble, shoot and run without a mechanical device holding his ligaments in place... it sure does breed a new level of intrigue into the season ahead.

Can the Sixers actually contend in the East with a "healthy" Joel Embiid?

The answer to that question is a simple yes. The East is wide open this season as Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton recover from Achilles injuries, which knock the last two conference champs out of contention. Indy and Boston may very well scrap their way to a postseason berth without their superstars. Jaylen Brown and Pascal Siakam are both top-30ish players depending on who you ask and you won't more innovative and psychotically committed coaches than Joe Mazzulla and Rick Carlisle. But neither team has the personnel necessary for a deep run.

Cleveland, New York and other upstarts, such as Atlanta and Orlando, will keep the race interesting, but there isn't a single team with more top-end talent than the Sixers at full strength. Embiid is the best or second-best player in the East when he's right, and Philadelphia still has Paul George, Tyrese Maxey, 2025 Rookie of the Year-in-spirit Jared McCain, and the reigning No. 3 overall pick in VJ Edgecombe. Plus late-season breakout Quentin Grimes, lest we forget.

But here's the rub: Embiid's career has been defined by injuries. Just when you think he's in the clear, something happens, almost without fail. He has never been 100 percent healthy, or anywhere close to it, in the playoffs. Sometimes those injuries were complete flukes, such as multiple facial fractures, one of which resulted from incidental contact with his own teammate. But oftentimes the issues are more chronic. Embiid's knees are beginning to wear thin when spring comes around. He has dealt with multiple meniscus tears now, one of which kept him at bay in the 2024 playoffs and precipitated last season's constant battle with inflammation.

It reached a point in 2024-25 when the Sixers and Embiid were at odds over how to go about his recovery. The 31-year-old, tired of the same annual battle, wanted to pursue more drastic medical procedures in order to rectify a decade-long issue. The Sixers wanted to keep kicking the can down the road, propping the door open for a return to action, hoping that extra reps and a targeted rehab plan would unearth the solution. In the end, Embiid was shut down, the Sixers openly tanked, and he went under the knife. Embiid is no stranger to arthroscopic surgeries either, so simply cleaning up his knee is not a proven solution. Just ask his fellow resident on that particular boat, Paul George, who underwent a comparable procedure this offseason after re-hurting his knee in a workout.

The Sixers will begin the season without George as he ramps up his recovery. Embiid is still an open-ended question mark. While four seconds of pain-free, braceless shooting is a wonderful sign, it does not mean that Embiid will be a full participant in camp, nor that he's actually 100 percent. Or 90 percent. Or 80 percent. There is a dramatic difference between shooting in an open gym and playing 30-plus minutes of live NBA basketball.

Embiid has put it the work to stay healthy over the years, from learning how to fall to taking fewer risks and losing weight. But unless he embraces a radical transformation in his on-court approach, which would prevent him from doing much of what makes him special — the chase down blocks, the emphatic dunks, the full-speed, hard-plant turnaround jumpers — it's hard to earnestly believe anything will change. Lower leg ailments tend to get worse with age, not better, and Embiid's unique blend of size, weight and agility has put uncommon stress on his ligaments. I am not a doctor, but I also don't really think a divine miracle is in the cards here. So unless we see it with our own eyes — unless Embiid can stay on the court for 65-plus games and deliver the Sixers to the postseason with forward momentum and two fully functional legs — it's impossible to sit here and alter one's expectations for next season.

We are in wait and see mode with Embiid, essentially. Until it finally happens and the Sixers are holding the Larry O'Brien trophy, the natural (and probably correct) outlook is one rooted in doubt and the preemptive lowering of expectations.