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CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers went into the 2024-25 season with a plan.
Joel Embiid would eschew training camp and show up for games deemed to matter.
He and Paul George would write off one-sixth of the season in back-to-backs they’d halve. Daryl Morey would declare a focus on “April, May, June.” The Sixers wouldn’t christen themselves championship-or-bust contenders, but their actions strongly hinted in that direction.
Whether that hubris played into the injury disaster that the season became can only remain speculation.
But 361 days later, when the 76ers reconvened in Camden to launch the follow-up to last year’s 24-58 atrocity, the messaging at least had been strengthened.
They’re powerless to do the same to the ligaments and tendons holding Embiid together.
But Friday, the 76ers expressed a desire to avoid the piles of injuries that befell them last year by first removing some of the rhetorical hurdles.
“I think you heard it from them, and this is straight from the doctors,” President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey said. “We’re not getting into the expectations game. The doctors’ advice, what Joel said on listening to his body, which is a big component, and how doctors manage injuries, that’s going to be what carries the day this year.”
Whether that ultimately leads to Embiid playing more than 19 games or George more than 41 is to be determined. But it’s a novel tonal starting point in what the team hopes is a recovery of a season, as opposed to a season spent in recovery.
Embiid never quite recovered from meniscus surgery in February 2024. He returned for the Olympics, then used training camp to ramp up for the season.
A facial fracture, a foot injury and residual knee meant he was rarely available and even more rarely at his MVP best. He underwent arthroscopic surgery on April 11, with Friday the first time the club has supplied substantive updates.
They came directly from Embiid.
“I think we made a lot of progress over the last couple months,” Embiid said. “We’ve got a plan in place, trying to check all the boxes. So just taking it day by day. This is still kind of a feel period where we just take it day by day, keep getting stronger, keep getting better.”
The rubric for future updates will be Embiid and how his body is feeling.
“I want to be as honest as possible,” he said. “I think going forward, we’re just going to listen to the body. I’m going to be honest and say that it’s going to be unpredictable at times, and that’s OK. We’ve got to work with that. We’ve got to take it day by day and go from there.”
George is in a similar recovery trend, albeit with a briefer injury history.
He played through a raft of issues last fall, then hurt his left knee in workouts during the summer that required surgery on July 14. George has returned to “pretty much everything but full contact,” with on-court conditioning near.
After signing a four-year, $211 million contract in July 2024, the 35-year-old is more settled in Philly and more comfortable with the role he’s expected to fill.
“From a motivational standpoint, it can’t get no worse than last year, right?” George said. “That was a rock-bottom kind of season. I think it was a disappointment, personally, for myself, and obviously for the fans here. But I do think it’s a lot to look forward to.”
Conspicuously absent from conversations with those most conspicuously absent last year is any sense of a timeline. Morey and head coach Nick Nurse resisted answering those questions in terms of weeks, months or dates.
What is more fully formed, though, is a sense of what to do when — and it is no longer an “if” — the stars aren’t on the court.
Last year, there were gauzy notions about pace and tempo that didn’t jive with a team full of 30-somethings signed with an eye toward constructing a playoff rotation but without the stamina to make it through the regular-season gauntlet.
Morey made a concerted effort to craft a roster that Nurse enumerated as heavier on “youth, speed, quickness, athleticism.” They hope that group could be less injury prone, with perhaps the aid of some of the luck that deserted them last year.
“We’ve got to earn our way back into this thing, man,” Nurse said. “We’ve got to work and earn our way back into getting in the tournament. That’s where we are.”
Tyrese Maxey has spearheaded forging what he hopes is an identity that can be independent of George and Embiid while bringing out the best with them.
“I think the biggest thing that I’m trying to accomplish is to meet a standard,” Maxey said. “Like, this is who we are every single day, no matter who plays, no matter who doesn’t play. When you see the Philadelphia 76ers, this is what you see. You’re going to see that team every single night, every single time you turn the TV on, every single time you step foot in whatever arena that we’re playing in. This is the team that you’re going to get, and this is the type of culture you’re going to get.”
On paper, that looks great. It did last year, too. And as long as Embiid is in Philadelphia, the standard will depend on his health, which will forever be day to day, whether the team announces it as so or not. None of that is changing.
But how the 76ers approach that challenge just might be shifting. Part of it is Embiid. His desire for basketball remains, he says, and it’s to play every game and with full effort on both ends of the court. But to get there, he is — dare we say — perhaps embracing the process more than in the recent past.
“The only focus that I have is, every single time that we’re on the right path, keep going,” he said. “And if there’s something that happens in that time, it’s OK. Just focus on fixing it and keep going. That’s my mentality.”
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com
Originally Published: September 26, 2025 at 5:16 PM EDT