Last Saturday afternoon, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Joel Embiid will miss the 2015-16 season as he requires second surgery on his foot. The Philadelphia 76ers made the news official later Saturday night before their summer league team took on the Los Angeles Lakers.
The announcement was not a shocker to many Sixers fans; it was more of a disappointment because they wanted to see him on the court. We sort of had inkling about Embiid’s injury back on June 13 when Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski published a report about Embiid suffering a setback in the healing process of his right foot.
Wojnarowksi had this to say about the healing process:
“After weeks of rigorous workouts, Embiid had not felt pain in the foot, but a recent CT scan revealed an issue in the healing process, sources said.”
With Embiid being out for another season, social media is a buzz about whether the Sixers made the right decision selecting the young big man from Kansas?
Let me tell you, the Sixers absolutely made the right choice when drafting Embiid with the third overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. Just like this year’s draft, last year’s draft had a separation of the top three players from the rest of the draft class. Embiid was one of top three players along with Minnesota Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins and Milwaukee Bucks forward Jabari Parker.
When Embiid declared for the NBA Draft, there was no doubt that he was going to be the number one overall pick. He had the total package of what you wanted to see in a young big man on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. He was even being compared to Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon.
At Kansas University as a freshman, Embiid showed that he could be a dominant force at the next level. In 28 games, he averaged 11.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 23.1 minutes per game. If you want to get deeper into the numbers, his win shares per 40 was .213, offensive rating was 116.6, and defensive rating was 90.9. That is pretty good for a freshman that also had Andrew Wiggins playing with him.
Fast forward to the 2014 NBA Draft and the Sixers selected Embiid with the third overall. Then with the fourth overall pick, the Orlando Magic selected Aaron Gordon out of Arizona.
Gordon impressed in the 2015 Orlando Pro Summer League averaging 21.7 points and 11.7 rebounds in 32.7 minutes per game. He also shot 50 percent from the field.
This is a far cry from his rookie season as Gordon dealt with injuries while learning the NBA game. He averaged 5.2 points and 3.6 rebounds in 17.0 minutes per game.
Gordon is the only player from the top 10 that I would’ve gave consideration to draft at three. If you think about it, the Sixers won the 2014 NBA Draft because they got Dario Saric in a trade with the Magic for point guard Elfrid Payton, and they just acquired Nik Stauskas from the Sacramento Kings. With that being said, Gordon was the only option at pick three.
Now, the question is where do the Sixers go from here and what will be the future for Embiid? For the Sixers, the 2015-16 season will be another season of player development with hopefully more wins than the 18 this past season. They have their third overall pick in Jahlil Okafor, who looks like a stud for years to come. That will be starting in the frontcourt with Nerlens Noel. With Okafor and Noel in the frontcourt the Sixers will not miss a beat.
In terms of Joel Embiid’s future, the Sixers and general manager Sam Hinkie are worried about his long-term health.
“We have been consistent in our philosophy that our focus will be Joel’s long-term health and wellness to ensure he will have a long and impactful career in the NBA.”
Whenever you have a young big man with foot problems, the first name people mention is Greg Oden. Will Embiid become Oden? That cannot be answered yet because we haven’t seen him play. But the upside about Embiid’s second surgery is that his career could end up like Zydrunas Ilgauskas’. In 2001, Ilgauskas had foot problems himself which caused him to only play in 29 games over his first three years in the NBA. But after he had his surgery, he went onto play 10 more seasons in the NBA.
If Embiid ends up becoming like Ilgauskas playing for multiple years, then the Sixers selecting him at third overall is still a great addition to have for the future.
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