What is the new normal for Joel Embiid?

In evaluating Joel Embiid’s 2025-26 season, let’s refer back to his comments following the Sixers’ second-round sweep at the hands of the soon-to-be-champion New York Knicks:

“For me, this was a success. I came into this year not knowing where I was gonna be, how long I was gonna play, if I was even gonna play based on how the knee was the last few years. I came in just hoping for the best.

“And I feel like we’re in a position where we figured out the knee. It hasn’t been an issue. If it wasn’t for the oblique or some of the other stuff I had, it would have been different as would have how many games I would have played.”

Under that lens, Embiid’s season was an unqualified success. Following yet another surgery last year, Joel was clearly uncertain whether the knee would allow him to keep playing going forward, particularly at the level he expected for himself. However, after a slow start to the season, he appeared in 14 January games, averaging 29.7 points and 8.4 rebounds, and shooting 53.7 percent from the field. Embiid twice played 40 or more minutes in a game during the month. He wasn’t back to his previous MVP form, particularly with less mobility and spring on the defensive end, but this version of Embiid was still an All-Star-caliber player.

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Of course, Joel would then go on to miss significant time with an oblique injury, have ankle and hip issues, and have the start of his postseason impacted by emergency appendicitis surgery. Add it all up and he only appeared in 38 regular season games and seven of Philadelphia’s 11 postseason contests. Those figures speak to the predicament the Sixers find themselves in with regard to Joel. Embiid is set to make close to $58 million next season, with escalating values across the subsequent two years. You need someone soaking up that percentage of your cap to be the unquestioned cornerstone of the team. But this version of Embiid is more of a seasonal decoration you bring out for a month or two and then place back into storage.

Embiid is automatically missing a dozen or so games per season by sitting out back-to-backs. Even under a…

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Publish date : 2026-06-18 12:44:00

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