The Philadelphia 76ers may finally be seeing the fruits of their tanking labor come the 2016-17 NBA season.
Center Joel Embiid, who was drafted by the Sixers No. 3 overall back in 2014 and still has yet to appear in a single game for the team, declared himself to be healthy in an Instagram post on Monday.
The 22-year-old Embiid missed his entire rookie season with a troublesome stress fracture injury to the navicular bone in his foot. He then suffered a setback in his recovery, re-breaking that same navicular bone and consequently missing his entire sophomore season as well.
There was some doubt that Embiid would be ready for the start of the 2016-17 season, but he appears to be fairly certain that’s not the case, also expressing confidence in his health on Twitter during the draft lottery earlier in May.
While it’s virtually unprecedented for a player to miss his first two NBA seasons and still go on to a productive career, it’s hard for Sixers fans not to get excited about this news. The team may have some decisions to make about the future, namely if Embiid, Nerlens Noel, and Jahlil Okafor can co-exist in the same frontcourt or if one or more of them needs to be traded. But with Embiid’s potential return, the anticipated arrival of Dario Saric, and adding the No. 1 overall pick from this year’s draft (quite possibly LSU’s Ben Simmons) into the mix, everything seems to be coming up Milhouse in Philadelphia.
Image Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
