CAMDEN, N.J. — Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers have accepted reality. As badly as Embiid wants to play every single game, that just isn’t going to happen. The big fella knows that he isn’t gong to play all 82 games. Therefore, the Sixers have to find ways to win without him.
Embiid played in only 19 games in the 2024-25 season as the Sixers slumped to a 24-58 record. It wasn’t just Embiid who missed time as, obviously, Paul George, Jared McCain, Tyrese Maxey, and others all missed substantial time that caused Philadelphia to struggle on the floor. You need your best players to win in the NBA. Who knew!?
Either way, the Sixers need to set a standard of how they want to play night in and night out. It’s something to bank on when Embiid is sitting or George is sitting or whoever. The Sixers need to have some type of constant identity or standard to fall back on when they’re short-handed.
“It should be like that,” Embiid said at practice on Saturday. “We know it’s a long season. At times, guys are gonna be in. Guys are gonna be out, but this is not a new thing. I think over the years, we haven’t found that consistency. I’m not gonna play 82 games. Everybody knows that, so, trying to find a way to win those games when I’m not playing will go a long way towards accomplishing whatever goals we have so that goes back to every single day. Approaching the day the same way, the same offense, no matter who’s in or who’s out. The same thing with the defense. Always next man up mentality.”
When Embiid sits, the focus will be on Maxey to do more on the offensive end. While the expectation is that George will be by his side as well, the six-year guard out of Kentucky will need to step up and produce. He wants to help set that standard for Philadelphia.
“Habits are built daily,” Maxey added. “What’s the saying? They didn’t build Rome overnight. So every single day, step by step, you have to get better and better at those habits, better and better at building that standard. I think we’ve done a good job of that.”
The Sixers are all about building chemistry at the moment. That’s what these practices and this training camp is for. They didn’t have a chance to do that in 2024-25 due to all of the injuries. The goal now is to build on what they have and continue to come together as a group.
“I think as long as you got a good group of guys that like each other, you’re gonna be good no matter what,” Embiid finished. “A lot of times, different things happen because guys are not on the same page so I think that’s what it comes down to. Guys liking each other and guys wanting to be with each other, around each other, that goes a long way, so yeah. When I think about the team, that’s what I see.”
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Joel Embiid discusses standard that Sixers need to play with in 2026
