Sources: 76ers center Joel Embiid suffers setback with right foot

[celticsclay]

I have no idea if this report means anything or not, but the idea that a team would exagerate the injuries of their own star prospect in order to appease their fan base with their selection on draft night seems like some of the most tin foil stuff i have ever read on the site (and that is with a 9-11 truther thread going)

Teams use injury reports strategically all the time. One team in the NFL thats come under fire for it is our own Patriots. Now using it to appease a fan base doesnt make too much sense to me because as a fan Id be more frustrated that we may have wasted a top 3 pick. However, if Philly thought that this was the best way to spin taking another big then I dont think theyd hesitate to do it.

There is a difference between the patriots being less than forthright with an injury to muck up their opponents game planning versus inventing or leaking an injury report in the off-season because you are worried about what your fans will think. Surely you see the difference between this two and why one makes sense and one is ridiculous

[ThePoeticWolf]

I'll give them our 2 second rounders and Wallace's expiring contract for me.  HaHa.

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

In one year , we have seen nothing that would qualify as a positive report in Embiid, not one report saying he looks great in drills or is really learning about the NBA game or anything. All we have seen are negative reports about his health , attitude , and weight , followed by defensive rebuttals from the Sixers , followed by more negative reports and more denials. But still no unsolicited (i.e. not in response to a negative report) thus far. That tells me all I need to know.

I don't really know where to begin in describing how wrong this is...

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2015-03-06/joel-embiid-throws-down-east-bay-dunk-before-sixers-game-philadelphia-76ers

http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/150303-embiid

http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/150409-embiid

http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/150316-joel-noel

Pretty much everything from the end of February on has been positive.

[mctyson]

I have no idea if this report means anything or not, but the idea that a team would exagerate the injuries of their own star prospect in order to appease their fan base with their selection on draft night seems like some of the most tin foil stuff i have ever read on the site (and that is with a 9-11 truther thread going)

Exactly. Some people are so in denial because of personal interests that they come up with the wackiest theories to convince themselves and others

The Sixers are a major lightning rod for debate, so people are either rooting for them to fail miserably or become a dynasty, with little in between. That leads to the 'tin-foil' rhetoric.

[Ilikesports17]

I have no idea if this report means anything or not, but the idea that a team would exagerate the injuries of their own star prospect in order to appease their fan base with their selection on draft night seems like some of the most tin foil stuff i have ever read on the site (and that is with a 9-11 truther thread going)

Teams use injury reports strategically all the time. One team in the NFL thats come under fire for it is our own Patriots. Now using it to appease a fan base doesnt make too much sense to me because as a fan Id be more frustrated that we may have wasted a top 3 pick. However, if Philly thought that this was the best way to spin taking another big then I dont think theyd hesitate to do it.

There is a difference between the patriots being less than forthright with an injury to muck up their opponents game planning versus inventing or leaking an injury report in the off-season because you are worried about what your fans will think. Surely you see the difference between this two and why one makes sense and one is ridiculous

I see the difference and I see why one makes sense, but I dont see why the other is ridiculous. Philly is awful and will be awful for at least the next year or so. The fan base has been cooperative, but I think its hanging by a thread. An angry fan base is not ideal.

Where I lose these conspiracies is here: how does telling your fans that they guy they sucked all of last year to get then selected knowing he had an injury, but sat him out a year he would heal extra special just for them, could well be the next Greg Oden.

I know if Im a Philly fan Id much rather have 3 stud centers than have 2 stud centers and Greg Oden.

Heres where I think it could maybe possibly but probably not be fabricated:

If Philly takes KP or Okafor they have 3 potential "franchise bigs" they now pretty much are going to have to move on from one at some point or another. This inherently drives trade value down.

Now if Embiid is a question mark, Philly no longer NEEDS to trade a big. However if a team comes calling for one of those bigs they can ask for a kings ransom.

Whereas if they have all 3 bigs looking good they lose a lot of leverage because teams know its only a matter of time before they have to kick one of these guys to the curb.

[LarBrd33]

In one year , we have seen nothing that would qualify as a positive report in Embiid, not one report saying he looks great in drills or is really learning about the NBA game or anything. All we have seen are negative reports about his health , attitude , and weight , followed by defensive rebuttals from the Sixers , followed by more negative reports and more denials. But still no unsolicited (i.e. not in response to a negative report) thus far. That tells me all I need to know.

I don't really know where to begin in describing how wrong this is...

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2015-03-06/joel-embiid-throws-down-east-bay-dunk-before-sixers-game-philadelphia-76ers

http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/150303-embiid

http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/150409-embiid

http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/150316-joel-noel

Pretty much everything from the end of February on has been positive.

TP.   It will be interesting to see what actually ends up happening here.   Maybe something more comes out that is cause for alarm (need for surgery)... so far we're just seeing a cryptic report that happens to coincide with some drama surrounding the draft. 

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

I think it's pretty likely the Sixers leaked this to Woj.

It came out on a Saturday so it is off a news cycle and Sam Hinkie had a response written out immediately.

And that's about where I take off my tinfoil hat, this is clearly not good news for the Sixers.

[Eja117]

Perhaps they are in denial, but the consensus amongst Philly fans seems to be that this is old/minor news.  There's no pain.  There is no reinjury.  There's no announcement yet of any surgery.  Just that it hasn't healed the way they want.  The timing of it is peculiar. 

They seem to think this has to do with DeAngelo Russell.  He cancelled his workout with Philly and it lead to wild speculation.   Russell has been widely believed to be Philly's target... but the Knicks are basically in "Russell or bust" mode since Mudiay is a poor fit for the triangle.  The speculation is that perhaps the Knicks have worked out a deal with the Lakers where the Lakers will take Russell ahead of Philly and send him to the Knicks... and since Philly has two franchise bigs already, they expect that Philly will be forced to take Mudiay and let Okafor fall.   They seem to be speculating that this news about Embiid is coming out to give the illusion that Philly is comfortable taking a big... and perhaps dissuade the Lakers from taking Russell for The Knicks.

Sounds cray... we'll see what happens.

They're definitely in denial. It's not good, particularly if it indicates he's a slow healer long term. I'd say this is a major red flag, whereas I think Embiid's weight and the walking boot incident from earlier were much ado about nothing.

But until we see what the outcome is the chicken littles are overreacting as well.

He didn't get hurt or experience any pain from what I understand. It was just something they noticed in a regular check up on it. Hard to say how serious it is without the particulars.

They certainly are in denial. If it's not healing properly then that could lead to yet another surgery where yet another screw is put in.

I don't even think the Sixers or most their fans are in denial, it's just LB33 and a few unreasonable Sixers fans.

Overall it's a terrible sign for a guy who hasn't played in over a year and still is not healthy and may not be able to play in summer league and training camp either. He hasn't played nearly as much basketball as most guys his age and his body is already breaking down. I don't see him holding up over 82 game seasons for very long imo.

There's nothing to be in denial over.  Everything in the report is specifically unspecific. 

No pain.  No re-injury.  Just that they are looking at the results and it's not as healed as they hope.  So what does that even mean?   It doesn't mean that there is something new wrong.  Whatever showed up in that CT Scan probably showed up in all the other CT Scans.  This likely just means they need to pull back on some of Embiid's activity and take a cautious approach so not to risk reinjuring it. 

And the timing of this in conjunction with all the other draft-related reports coming out about Philly, LA and New york is fairly interesting.  I still say Russell is the PHilly target. 

They had a report like this in March and they stuck Embiid in a walking boot for a week.   I understand that people see Embiid and can't shake the vision of Greg Oden, but until we see something about surgery or a timetable, It seems too early to jump to conclusions here.   Even in Woj's report:

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. Philadelphia is consulting with doctors on how to best proceed, and it's still premature to speculate on the possibility of another surgical procedure

We'll see what happens.  Still several months until the season starts.   

FWIW, even with "report", I'd still give up Marcus Smart, #16 and #26 for Embiid.   I think Embiid has the potential to be a franchise player.

He's not suppppoooooosssssseeeeddddd to be in pain! He's not suuuuppppppoooossssseeeedddd to have a reinjury!  He's not supppppppooossssseeeed to have set backs! He's not sssuuuuppppppoooossseeed to have bad CT scans! He's not supppppooooossseeeed to have less healing than anticipated. They're not suuuuupppppppooossssseddd to be taking a conservative approach and pulling back on activities and treating him like he's glass. He's supposed to be virtually fully healed jumping out of the gym with no problems whatsoever with a very firm 100% likelihood of dominating in summer league and then joining the team for camp.

If he isn't in summer league in like 3 weeks it's a very serious problem and no amount of denial can change that.

[LarBrd33]

I have no idea if this report means anything or not, but the idea that a team would exagerate the injuries of their own star prospect in order to appease their fan base with their selection on draft night seems like some of the most tin foil stuff i have ever read on the site (and that is with a 9-11 truther thread going)

Exactly. Some people are so in denial because of personal interests that they come up with the wackiest theories to convince themselves and others

I think the point 76ers fans are making is whooshing over your heads.  I'll try to explain it.

76ers want DeAngelo Russell... everything i've read suggests they want Russell.  It's not a very well-kept secret.  The assumption was that Towns and Okafor were the obvious lock at 1/2 and there was no reason to hide it.  Suddenly, things are getting a little concerning for the 76ers on the Russell front.

The knicks desperately want Russell as well.   Russell just cancelled his workout with the 76ers... which is curious.  Reports say that Russell prefers to go to the Knicks.   

The speculation is that Russell has a promise to be selected by one of the top 2 teams or is trying to fall to the Knicks at 4th.  Some claim that the Lakers may take Russell 2nd and then trade down to 4th to get Okafor... the belief is that the 76ers, who already have Embiid and Noel, would pass on Okafor.  In-fact, if you check out some Philly forums, the fans seem fine with taking the "best player available" (Okafor) if he falls there, but they'd only want to do it if he's he's traded.  Okafor makes no sense on a team that already has Noel and Embiid.    There were reports that Philly would reluctantly take Mudiay if Russell was off the books since Mudiay is a point guard.  That would work out very well for the Lakers and Knicks.   

A more simple theory:  Everyone knows the 76ers want Russell.   It was suggested that Minny wanted Okafor at #1.   If you know how desperate the 76ers and Knicks want Russell... why not just take Russell and force them to trade up?   You know they don't want a big, because they already have Embiid and Noel.  So if I'm Minny or the Lakers, I think hard about taking Russell and forcing Philly to deal with me for their guy.  I can probably squeeze a couple assets out of them.   So suddenly we're seeing all these head-scratching reports that Russell is going in the Top 2...  and suddenly we see a report that Embiid might be on the shelf and the 76ers might opt to take a center.   It's interesting, at least.

And then this cryptic report leaks out by Woj... 3 minutes later Philly releases their own cryptic statement that says they will adjust their plans accordingly.  The wild speculation is that Philly is trying to give the illusion that they are fine taking a big man at #3... with hopes that the Lakers will get scared off and not take Russell on behalf of the Knicks (since the Lakers clearly want Okafor out of this and that's a pretty sizable risk to wager on PHilly passing on Okafor).   

It's a conspiracy theory based on wild speculation, but it's no more wild speculation than those claiming Embiid's career over, because an injury that is notoriously slow to heal is not surprisingly taking time to heal.   

And if you think I'm coming up with this nonsense, you're wrong:

http://www.libertyballers.com/2015/6/14/8778319/joel-embiid-injury-dario-saric-buyout-dangelo-russell-andre-igoudala-mvp

http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1392516&start=180#p43905775

I'm just relaying what I've read.

[LGC88]

They can also draft KP and rotate him at the 3 & 4 position.
Phily & the 3 towers. 

[Eja117]

Orrrrrr.....the simplest explanation is the most likely.  Embiid is a less healthy Oden and the Sixers would absolutely take a big like Okafor because they will need him.

[LarBrd33]

Orrrrrr.....the simplest explanation is the most likely.  Embiid is a less healthy Oden and the Sixers would absolutely take a big like Okafor because they will need him.

and the fans think that's precisely what the 76ers are trying to portray by leaking this info. 

"Go ahead... take Russell top 2... we don't care.  We'll take one of the franchise centers who falls to us"

Because as-is, if Embiid is playing next year and LA/Minny takes Russell... the 76ers will have to give up value to trade up and get the guy they very obviously want (Russell).   I don't think this is a point lost on the teams picking ahead of Philly.

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

Orrrrrr.....the simplest explanation is the most likely.  Embiid is a less healthy Oden and the Sixers would absolutely take a big like Okafor because they will need him.

Uhhhh, they've already got a pretty [dang] good Center on the roster...

And Okafor defensive issues are being downplayed way too much IMO. He's absolutely horrible on that side of the ball.

[Who]

Everybody already believed the Sixers were willing to draft another center despite already having Embiid and Noel. They have been forthright and consistent in their belief that you take the best player available.

They did not need injury news about Embiid to convince anyone they would take Okafor.

[GreenGoggles]

0 trade value now.

Stay away from big men with chronic injuries. Hurts to say.