Achilles had his ankle, and Joel Embiid has his left knee.
2026 will be the second season since the Philadelphia 76ers big man's fateful meniscus tear against the Golden State Warriors, and despite his and Nick Nurse's assurances (you can see AP's Dan Gelston's breakdown on NBA.com here), the injury has definitely set Embiid back:
“It felt good at times, it felt not as good at times," Nurse said. "It’s been kind of an up-and-down thing. It gets to the point where it feels a little bit better and he can go play. Then it swells up again and it doesn’t feel that good and he can’t play as well, can’t move as well.”
Yeah, that's how injuries work, Nick. That's why you let your players recover instead of running them into the ground for 19 games before shutting them down for the season when your team is down damn near 20 games in the standings. (Maybe that's why Embiid played sluggish enough to ride the bench for Team USA at the 2024 Olympics).
Well, surprise, surprise, an aggravated "up-and-down" knee injury that's probably still recovering from meniscus surgery is giving the Sixers nightmares again: Despite being projected to be available come the 2025-26 opener, The Athletic's Tony Jones reported that Embiid still has yet to return to the court for basketball activities. And three months isn't a lot of time to ramp up to the 2026 season. Even after getting cleared to return, Embiid's conditioning needs to get brought back up to speed on top of several phases of easing him back before playing with full contact. Even then, the safest thing to do would be to put him on a minutes restriction for another month, and load managing minutes from there.
Of course, it's a given that the Sixers might just be playing it safe with Embiid, and if so they're definitely doing the smart thing. Embiid will be 32 by the end of the 2026 season, and his rap sheet is a CVS receipt before you even get to the meniscus tear.
But that also means the rest of the team needs to step up, and quickly
Don't get it twisted: This team's championship hopes go as Embiid does. But the rest of the roster is more than talented enough to keep Philadelphia afloat in a wide open Eastern Conference. The Celtics are collapsing, who knows what's going on in Milwaukee, and the Cavs and Magic are still unproven.
Philadelphia at its peak has a roster that nicely balances timelines, and their backcourt has plenty of potential. Tyrese Maxey has emerged as a leader and solid 1b, Jared McCain has more star power than anticipated coming into his sophomore season and newcomer VJ Edgecombe has been comped to the second coming of Russell Westbrook. If all three can build on the foundation they already have, the Sixers' backcourt will be among the best in the league.
But without Embiid, oof baboof that back line. Paul George was supposed to be a better Big Three fit than James Harden, but instead started his Sixers tenure with his lowest PPG average in a decade before getting shut down early for injections to his left adductor and knee. And to add insult to (literal) injury, PG even started documenting his own team's struggles on his podcast. That, of course, was only a bit of the drama surrounding last season, but if you're given over $200 million for any job, you have to at least keep yourself buttoned up.
And we haven't even gotten into how the team has lost versatile big man Guerschon Yabusele to the Knicks, or Kelly Oubre's jumper disappearing — long story short, the Sixers are thin on run-ready vets up front. But Adem Bona is young, and new pickup Trendon Watford is an absolute spark plug that already has chemistry with Maxey. If those two can also step up to the plate, Philly might be in better shape to weather Embiid-less games than anticipated, PG or not.
But you know what makes this all go away? If Embiid is able to return at 100% sooner rather than later. Which is why, intentional or not, Embiid's delayed return to the court is nothing but scary news for Sixers fans everywhere.