Joel Embiid sitting out pre-season could be sign of things to come in regular season

Joel Embiid has been ruled out for the remainder of the pre-season as the Philadelphia 76ers prepare for the start of a huge season.

The Philadelphia 76ers made one of the bigger splashes of the NBA offseason by acquiring Paul George in free agency from the LA Clippers. Heading into the 2024-25 NBA season with arguably the most talented Big 3s in the NBA, it's clear that this season will be all about winning a championship for the Sixers. More than ever, Philly is perfectly positioned to not only make a deep run in the Eastern Conference playoffs but to win it all.

Whether they will or not remains to be seen; that's part of the intrigue heading into the start of this season. But at least on paper, the Sixers will be on the shortlist of teams that could do so in the Eastern Conference.

If the Sixers are going to live up to those expectations, though, they're going to need to ensure the health of Joel Embiid. The Sixers, as you would expect, are a completely different team when he's healthy and when he's not.

Embiid has not played in a pre-season game for the Sixers so far and has effectively been ruled out by the team of doing so the rest of the way. Because of his load management, that means the next time we see Embiid on the floor in a game, it's going to come in the team's season-opener.

But if there's one takeaway to how the Sixers and Embiid have approached the pre-season, it's to say that there's a clear load management plan in place heading into the start of the season. And with higher expectations this year, it's going to be of the utmost importance to keep Embiid healthy.

The Philadelphia 76ers must have a plan in place to keep Joel Embiid fresh

I'm not going to say that Embiid is going to miss 20 games or 30 games due to load management this season, but I'm pretty confident that, perhaps for the first time in a while, both Embiid and the team are going to see the bigger picture before trotting him out on the floor during the regular season. The Sixers are not playing for regular-season wins this year. They have real, concrete championship aspirations.

Philadelphia has always perceived itself as a championship-or-bust team. However, this is actually a reality now. With how talented their roster is heading into this season, there are no more excuses for the Sixers. And I'd imagine we're going to see that reflected in how Embiid's minutes and games played are managed this season.