Injuries to two of the Sixers top players place a cloud over the season opener.
The Sixers will open the season at home against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night and will have to do so without two of their best players as Joel Embiid and Paul George were announced as out on Tuesday.
Ever since last week, it looked unlikely for newly acquired star forward Paul George to suit up for the opener on Wednesday. Paul George experienced an awkward play in the Sixers preseason game against the Hawks last week where his leg seemed to lock up and move unnaturally. Many Sixers fans feared the worst, but George was diagnosed with a left knee bone bruise that came with a day-to-day designation and no long-term ligament damage according to the team.
The team did not say how many games George will miss, but there is optimism he could be back within the team’s first three games as his return to play will be assessed later this week.
Joel not playing in the season opener though comes as a surprise to many, and the injury he is dealing with is shrouded in mystery.
According to the official injury report, Embiid will miss Wednesday’s game with left knee injury management. The left knee is the same knee he tore his meniscus in during last season which forced him to miss multiple months of the regular season and hampered him in the playoffs.
Embiid recovered enough to play for the United States in the Olympics over the summer and his knee mostly looked fine. He was sluggish at times during the exhibition and group stages, but he came up clutch in the knockout round and helped lead the team to a gold medal.
Embiid showed up to training camp looking trim, which he backed up by boasting that he had lost “25 to 30 pounds” over the offseason. He also made a point to stress he has been working on his conditioning and developing a plan with the Sixers saying, “We got to do whatever it takes to make sure that in the postseason I’m healthy.”
The plan, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN, was for Embiid to ramp up his activity level through training camp and for him to be ready to square off against the Bucks. Somewhere along the way the plan changed and Embiid is slated to miss the first three games of the season before being reevaluated next week.
The confusion continued when head coach Nick Nurse said there were ‘no setbacks” for Embiid this offseason despite him missing the season opener. When pressed by PHLY Sports reporter Kyle Neubeck, Nurse seemed to take an agitated tone.
‘I don’t know what to say to you, right? He’s in practice, he’s looking good, he’s progressing, he’s not quite ready yet and he’ll be ready pretty soon. I don’t know what else to say to you.
The Sixers will open the season at home versus the Bucks on Wednesday before traveling to play the Raptors in Toronto on Friday and the Pacers in Indiana on Sunday. With Joel being ruled out for these first three games, the first opportunity for his season debut would be at home against the Pistons on Wednesday, October 30th.