Joel Embiid’s Injury Prevention and Management Remain Key Heading Into the 76ers’ Season

Tell me you’ve heard this before, but Joel Embiid going down with an injury would likely ruin the 76ers’ season.

The career of the 76ers’ center seems made up when you go down the list of events that have taken place over his 12 years in Philadelphia.

From a multitude of general managers who either outright lost games on purpose or had burner accounts talking badly about players and former GMs, to teammates having near-fatal, severe allergic reactions and others forgetting how to shoot the basketball, Embiid has seen it all.

All of that taking place, and you don’t even mention the laundry list of injuries that Embiid has suffered over the years. It would be shorter for me to list off the parts of the body that Embiid hasn’t injured, as from back injuries, meniscus tears, foot fractures, an emergency appendectomy, and even suffering Bell’s Palsy, Embiid is a medical biller’s dream as “The Process” has been in and out of rotations his entire career.

His injury history is so bad that about 1,000 regular-season games have been played in the NBA since Embiid was drafted in 2014. He’s played in 490 regular-season games, and due to injury has missed 495. Embiid has missed more regular-season games than he has played overall. No NBA player has come even close to matching that kind of accolade, and I don’t think another player in the history of basketball will repeat it.

Embiid getting hurt is like the sun rising in the morning; it eventually is going to happen, but being able to prevent the severity of it has to be the key for him heading into the 2026-27 season.

While obviously you want to win every single game you play during the regular season, the 76ers have to look at the bigger picture here. A healthy Joel Embiid just in the playoffs is better than whatever seed you give them with a hobbling, half-healthy Embiid.

Philadelphia will be a threat to win the championship. No matter if they are the No. 1 or 8 seed, so making a big deal about the regular season and forcing Embiid to play and try to win for a good record is nonsense.

The 76ers have to find a happy medium where Embiid can get run with the rest of the starting lineup, while also staying off his feet as much as possible. The new additions of LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Labaron Philon Jr., Dean Wade, and Anfernee Simons give the 76ers a buffer of not needing Embiid night after night to pick up wins to even make the playoffs.

If Embiid can’t make it to the season’s end, despite having a fellow starting lineup that consists of former All-Stars James, Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and sophomore former No. 3 pick VJ Edgecombe, the 76ers can win a championship.

The backup center spot is the weakest part of this 76ers roster, as Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti are alright backup bigs, but having to start one of those guys against potentially Karl-Anthony Towns, Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Duren, and Nikola Jokic or whatever other top center, the 76ers will be heavily disadvantaged.

Sure, they can go small and start a guy like Dominick Barlow at the five, but again, likely every single center previously named would have their way with Barlow. While having the advantage doesn’t guarantee opposing teams the victory, it would have to force the rest of the 76ers to play essentially perfect basketball to stay and have a chance in games.

The dirty work Embiid can pull off during the season while still playing solid defense in the middle, forcing fouls to get opposing bigs in foul trouble and still scoring on them despite solid defense cannot be overlooked.

His presence is needed for the 76ers to be successful, and having to change the way he plays during games or even how much he plays during the season may have to be the route Embiid and the 76ers think is right. You’ve seen it in the past few years: Embiid will not play both games of a back-to-back, so what’s stopping him from just playing every other game, or taking short stints when the team feels like he needs breaks?

That’s the beauty of the 76ers’ deep lineup; having so many dominant scorers and producers helps Embiid not be needed constantly, thus preventing him from destroying his legs or back or whatever even more. The last thing you need is him tearing his knee late in the season, and losing your center right before a playoff run.

The thing that provokes optimism with Embiid is that the man is a warrior. The injuries this man has gone through have been some of the most severe I’ve seen in my years watching basketball, and somehow this guy gets onto the floor when it matters. He’s played in 66 of 75 potential playoff games, never missing more than two games in a single postseason run.

People constantly drag Embiid for never making a conference finals during his tenure. While it’s a valid criticism of his, you have to factor in the fact that the guy may just be injury-prone, and by the time he gets to the playoffs, his body is just not healthy enough to lead a deep postseason run.

76ers fans hope and pray that Embiid can stop the major injury scares for this year, and hope that when the calendar flips to late April, Embiid is healthy enough to win 16 games, officially changing his legacy as a playoff choker, and bring the 76ers home their first title since 1983.

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