The Sixers DODGED a Major Bullet…

The Sixers DODGED a Major Bullet…

The Philadelphia 76ers have dodged a bullet as the injury to Andre Drummond is not nearly as severe as looked to be the case when he went down in a heap and was carried and then wheelchaired off in last night’s game. Nick Ner has provided the latest news regarding the injury status of this team and we seemingly have arrived at the stage of the season in which Joel Embiid’s injury news is not quite adding up. Do want to dive into the latest of what we know on each of these individual situations there. give a breakdown a lot of these injury reports and really why this is such a huge deal that Andre Drummond is set to return in way closer to the short term than any of us thought was possible. So to dive into things here, do just want to start with the full injury report here. And right at the top of the list, Joel Embiid remains out for tomorrow’s matchup with the Atlanta Hawks due to a knee injury here. This will mark his 10th consecutive game that he does miss due to an injury that we still do not have a label for. That he is back on the injury injury report with injury management here. Not soreness, not swelling, just management. And I do want to circle back to that conversation as a whole. But some of the larger storylines that Kelly Jr. does remain out here. Does seem to be trending in the positive direction towards returning in the somewhat short term that he started walking around doing some stationary shooting and is beginning his ramp up process, but we know how that goes and that can be a process in itself right there. On top of that, Trendan Watford remains out and no clear timetable for what his return will look like. But in positive news, we do have VJ Edgecom has been upgraded to questionable due to his calf issue there. And Andre Drummond being listed as questionable after what looked to be a potential season ending injury, the level of pain that he was showing with his knee injury. Now to give the full specifics on Drummond that we do have coming from Michael Scott of Hoop Hype here as he tweets outdate Philadelphia 76ers Andre Drummond suffered no structural damage to his knee and MRI confirmed and he’s expected to be listed as dayto-day with a hyperextended knee. League sources said this is the best possible case scenario for Drummond in its entirety. The fact that there is no ligament damage, there is no structural damage, and that he’s even has a chance to play against the Hawks just two days later after this injury did take place to me is a massive dodge bullet for this Sixers team. Now, to reflect on Drummond as a whole, I do think he’s been one of the larger unsung heroes of this Sixers team this season that he’s averaging 23.4 minutes per game, and across that level of opportunity, producing 8.2 points, 10.3 rebounds, shooting 55% from the field, 43.5% from beyond the three-point line here. in particular when this is tied to the, you know, who knows situation with Joel Lavine, which once again we’ll be digging into in a second. Drummond has been the guy that has been a foundational piece of this Sixers team. They simply need a guy to be capable to rake in rebounds at the rate that he is able to do there and he’s delivered that. I thought this guy was cooked last year. He did not look the part of the Andre Drummond that was in Philadelphia for the first time, but he does look back to that this season and the six are going to need him back on the court as soon as possible. I do think it’s probably unlikely that he does play against the Hawks, but the fact that this is not a long-term issue is a huge positive for this Sixers team. Now, the bigger story here is, of course, and by the way, I did want to pull up this quote on Nick Nurse or on Andre Drummond from Nick Nurse as he said that Andre Drummond should quote be back out there fairly soon and that Drummond was on the court a bit today. Called the news on Drummond awesome and it absolutely is here well above my best case scenario that I sort of had in my head. The fact that he’s remotely even potentially available for tomorrow is a huge deal for Andre Drummond. So, shout out to the Sixers catching a little bit of an injury break, which is not does not tend to be the norm for this organization. Now, the Joel Embiid conversation is interesting because we do have on the full injury report, of course, him already rolled out. Well, when Nick Nurse was speaking to reporters this morning, we got this quote from him and it was nurse on Embiid’s chances of playing. Quote, I think there’s a chance, but I don’t know if I would put it as good, bad, or medium. And we are back to the stage where I don’t know why we’re talking in riddles about this guy’s injury status. Just be direct, be upfront, and tell us what the deal is. That I think it makes every single person in the building look worse for sort of these guarded quotes. And I understand it is not a black and white issue. This is not as simple of this guy pulled a muscle. It is this timeline. It is this recovery process and then he’ll be back on the on the floor. It is not as linear of steps as is the case with Joel Embiid. But I think you can be directly upfront about that as well rather than these I don’t know if it’s good, bad, or anything in between for his chance of being on the floor. Just say what the deal is. What do you exactly know? And let that be known publicly here. Now, to give credit to these Sixers beat reporters on the job here, Kyle Newck and Adam Aronson primarily, they did press a little bit for the first time really all season. And the quotes that I did want to break down first coming from Adam Aronson. Shout out to Sixers Adam who says on Joel you said that before the Orlando game that he was questionable because it seems like he might have been trending towards he was playing. There was some sign that he might play he was out of the initial on the initial report today. So I guess either there was a setback or what did you not see leading into that game that you did see going in the Orlando game and this was asked before the backtoback there and Nick Nar said quote I just think that again we’ve been thinking he’s been trending towards getting there and he just hasn’t yet. They just haven’t cleared him to go. That’s all it is. It’s pretty much the same thing I keep telling you. He just isn’t there yet. Now, Kyle Newck also getting in in the mix in particular about this update here as he quote tweets his own tweet saying, “I attempted to follow up on this by asking what are the specific protocol is for Embiid to get back on the floor. Here is how Nick Nurse answered and he asked regarding Joel in Paul’s return process. We know that he had to clear a strength test with his knee as one of the hurdles to return to play. Is there something similar with Joel or is this as simple as he needs to be symptom free?” and nurse said, “I think it’s just getting through some pain and then also some unc onc court activity.” Kind of a combination of those things. Which does not really answer the question whatsoever. For Nick Nurse directly, there is a part of me that feels sympathy because this is the last thing that he wants to be dealing with. And he is very visibly and clearly like frustrated by this being the process last year. He certainly went off the rails with things and did not handle himself in a good way in my opinion there for dealing with these type of questions. But you also got to understand this is these are questions that need to be asked that this is the job of the beat reporters to ask about the star player of the team, the best player on the team, the MVP of this league two seasons ago and ask what his available availability is when the team is not going to provide it. Now I think this is a bit of an indictment on the Sixers organization once again that they can do a better job of making these answers just public and known that if it is the status of Nick Nurse has no clue when he’s going to be back. That should be the answer. he can stand up there on the mic and say, “Look, here’s the deal. The medical staff is fully evaluating him. I have no say in this. I have no idea the timeline. I have no clue what the situation is. You’re going to have to talk to those guys.” I could honestly respect that to an extent, but it is just these danced around answers once again. Now, with all that to the side, there is a frightening realization right here that this dude has not played in 10 games without an injury designation coming to the surface here. that he has begun to scale up his process. Started to look like the Joel Embiid that we could hope for this season. And then right when he pushes his minutes to just 26 in a matchup here, that’s when the swelling pops up. Now, there’s going to be the es and flows of Joel Embiid. We know that there is not going to be this. All of a sudden, he is ready to play on an everyight basis. That this is unfortunately the reality of his body at this stage in the game. It’s bone on bone contact. He’s had a million surgeries to his body. his knees. I don’t want to say are shot, but are certainly have to go by different standards than your average NBA player here. That all should be factors in to the way that you handle all of this that I respected the way Joel Embiid stood there at the press conference at media day saying there is going to be things that I just don’t know going in that we’re going to have to react to how my body reacts here. There’s going to be sometimes where swelling pops up when I’m not expecting, sometimes where my body is feeling good and we got to go appropriately with that. That’s sort of what seemed to be the plan. There seemed to be this concrete management plan going into the season and now we feel like we’re back to square one in what was the disaster last year. I would just like a a little more concrete answers in what we’re dealing with. If it is swelling, if there was a reinjury, it feels like there had to be to some extent some level of reinjuring or swelling or whatever the case may be. But something within his situation has changed based on the fact of the way these injury designations are being handled. when he was listed as questionable for a matchup and then did not play and all of a sudden he is out for the next game here. Something switched up there that something does not align with the same thought process that went into each of these and I would just like to know what that is. Now do I expect to honestly get that answer? Absolutely not. That I think the Sixers for whatever reason and the honest answer for what that reason is is Joel would prefer it this way that he does take his health really personally in a regard which I kind of have an issue with in itself because you’re an NBA athlete my guy. you were in the public eye and you know people show up to watch you play that this is sort of what comes with the territory I feel but you do have to respect those wishes to an extent here but the bottom line is we are back at the stage of more questions than answers regarding Joel Embiid’s health status and who knows when that does change up on the bright side Drummond is still going to be a guy that is going to be around to help this team get through it they have a great opportunity over these next handful of games they play the Hawks tomorrow who are a team that’s playing good basketball right now Jaylen Johnson the real deal a guy who I believe is absolutely absolutely an all-star this year. Saw Chris Porzingis has already been ruled out due to illness here. Trey Young remains sideline. But it’s a team with talent that you cannot take for granted there. But then beyond that, a match up with the Brooklyn Nets. And you have this stretch of schedule where you have two games in 12 days. That’s a huge opportunity to get healthy. And by the way, one of those games in that stretch is against the Indiana Pacers. So, not only get healthy, but pick up positive results and maybe, just maybe, get this team back to as close to full strength as is possible. until that point. We will see what happens from there. Shout out to Andre Drummond for his body bouncing back at the rate that I did not think was remotely possible. Shout out to you guys for tuning into this video here. Would love to hear your thoughts on the entire situation and saga below. Drop those in the comments. Make sure you smash that subscribe button if you have not just yet. Drop a like on this video here. I’ll be back talking to you next time right here on Sixers Digest. Space.

The Sixers DODGED a Major Bullet…

The injury to Andre Drummond is not as significant as feared, with the big man avoiding major structural damage. Sean Barnard breaks down the latest as well as why the weirdness surrounding Joel Embiid’s status has increased and what to make of this.

#nba #sixers #philadelphia76ers

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