Philadelphia 76ers

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has been ruled out for Friday's game against the Brooklyn Nets and Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers, per ESPN's Shams Charania.

Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports initially reported Embiid would miss Friday's game for left knee injury management. According to Charania, the 76ers revealed the veteran is dealing with swelling in his knee.

The 2022-23 MVP missed the first six games of the season due to maintenance on his surgically repaired left knee. He was out for another three games due to a suspension for shoving a reporter in the locker room.

Before the season tipped off, Embiid and the Sixers signaled that the team would be even more proactive in handling his workload in an effort to keep him healthy for the playoffs.

The plan made sense in theory because Philadelphia needs the seven-time All-Star at his best in the postseason to have a realistic path to a championship. However, his absence early on pointed to one risk with the strategy.

By the time Embiid made his debut on Nov. 12, the Sixers had dropped seven of their first nine games. It became eight out of 10 when Embiid wasn't enough to help Philly avoid a 111-99 defeat to the New York Knicks. The fact he's not playing back-to-backs then left the team short-handed in a 114-106 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers the following night.

Signing Paul George was supposed to give the 76ers a bit of a buffer when Embiid is out of the lineup. However, George also missed the start of the year and is on a similar plan in terms of load management.

How Philadelphia fares in the playoffs will be the ultimate barometer for how this year is judged. Maybe everything is clicking for the Sixers once April rolls around.

For now, a lot of the excitement coming out of the summer has probably dissipated in the City of Brotherly Love.

James Harden believes the Oklahoma City Thunder could have won "at least" two titles with himself, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had the franchise not broken up the trio after three seasons.

"Two chips at least, at the minimum," Harden said on the Earn Your Leisure podcast (48:45 mark.)

When asked if not having won an NBA title weighed on him, Harden said, "No."

"I'm still going to try to get one," the Los Angeles Clippers guard added.

Harden was selected by the Thunder with the No. 3 pick of the 2009 draft.

He joined Westbrook and Durant in Oklahoma City, where the trio played three full seasons before Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets in October 2012.

Harden started just seven games through those three seasons and earned the Sixth Man of the Year title in 2012.

Led by a starting lineup of Durant, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka and with Harden coming off the bench, the Thunder went to the Western Conference Finals in 2011 and the NBA Finals in 2012 but were eliminated by the eventual champions both times.

The Thunder then dealt Harden after they were unable to work out an extension with him ahead of the 2012-13 season.

According to ESPN, the Thunder's offer was $4.5 million under the deal Harden was seeking, and received from the Rockets.

"It's hard to say, because I was going to have to eventually start starting," Harden said about the trade. "'Cause it was cracking. I only did that because of the sacrifice as the team, and as a team it made us better. But I was going to have to start eventually start starting. My swag was getting there to where, my fourth year, I'm like, 'I'm not sixth man. I already got that.'

"But it was over four million dollars."

Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors in 2016, and Westbrook was traded to the Rockets in 2019. The Thunder have meanwhile not made an NBA Finals appearance since 2012.

Oklahoma City could be hoping to end that drought for the first time in the post-Harden era in the upcoming spring. The Thunder currently sit second in the West only to the Golden State Warriors with a 12-4 record to start the season.

Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain's hot start to his NBA career has caught the eyes of those around the league.

The rookie has been the lone bright on a struggling 76ers team and scouts around the league have noted his confidence on the floor.

"He's one of the most confident, self-assured kids you'll ever meet," one scout told Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

Executives have praised the rookie as well, noting that he looked like he will carve out a solid career.

"He's smart, he's got guile and he's got an NBA skill," an executive told Bontemps. "I thought watching him in the draft process he'd be a 10-year pro, and he's showing that so far ... he's not playing with any pressure and he's getting an unexpected opportunity and running with it."

McCain was selected with the No. 16 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft after a strong freshman season at Duke. He has carried that over to the NBA, averaging 15.6 points, 2.7 assists and 2.1 rebounds in 14 games thus far.

He has made four starts and is averaging 22.6 minutes per night. This has come amidst a dreadful 2-12 start for Philadelphia and he should be making a case to get an even bigger role going forward.

The starts have come in his last four games and he is currently serving as the team's shooting guard. His improvement can add a new element to the team as it looks to turn its season around and improved health from Joel Embiid and Paul George should only help McCain soar even higher.

The Philadelphia 76ers called a player's meeting on Monday night following a loss to the Miami Heat and news of it leaked to Shams Charania of ESPN, who noted that Tyrese Maxey called out Joel Embiid for habitually not reporting to team activities on time, among other details.

And Embiid was not happy that the details of that meeting were leaked publicly.

As NBA reporter Jake Fischer wrote: "So when ESPN reported details on Tuesday morning, from inside the 76ers' team meeting following Monday night's blown lead in Miami, one league figure close to Philadelphia's All-Star center told me: 'Joel is going to be furious.' And that Embiid was going to try and find the Sixers' supposed snitch."

Embiid also publicly spoke on the situation.

"Whoever leaked that is a real piece of s--t," he told reporters on Wednesday. "But even then, we talked about a lot of things. I don't want to get into the details, but that whole thing probably took 30 seconds."

Paul George also expressed disappointment that the team meeting was leaked during Thursday's episode of Podcast P (7:30 mark), though he said the meeting itself was "healthy."

"It being leaked, that's where it kind of negates everything that we had in that meeting as far as trusting in one another and putting everything out there so that we can all have these conversations and it being not taken from a bad place," George noted. "So it was kind of f--ked up that got leaked."

The Sixers have now started 2-12 on the season, a discouraging first chapter for the superstar trio of Embiid, George and Maxey after the summer addition of PG-13 brought plenty of excitement to Philadelphia.

But a combination of injuries, unfamiliarity and the role players not being able to pick up the slack—outside of rookie Jared McCain, who has looked like a future star early in the year—contributed to the nightmare start. It hasn't helped that there have been off-court issues like the leaked meeting, or Embiid's confrontation with a reporter in the locker room over his displeasure with a column mentioning his family while questioning his professionalism.

"It's kind of annoying, having to deal with the same things over and over and over," Embiid told reporters. "All I am trying to do is focus on basketball and be the best I can be for my family, on and off the court. But for some reason, it just feels like negativity keeps following me, which I don't understand why. It's a shame, but it doesn't change the fact that we still have to do better as a team. Right now, we don't have a lot of margin for error."

Now the question is simple—can the Sixers turn this thing around? The one silver lining is that they still have 68 games to figure it out.

Joel Embiid has taken issue with his injury designation on the Philadelphia 76ers' injury reports throughout his tenure with the organization, according to NBA insider Jake Fischer.

"Embiid has notoriously posed challenges to the Sixers' medical updates, leading to numerous organizational fines, while the center prefers some level of control over what injury he's listed for and how he's listed with it, sources say," Fischer wrote on Thursday.

The star center's presence behind the scenes in Philadelphia has generated buzz recently, especially after point guard Tyrese Maxey called out Embiid regarding being late "for everything" during a team meeting on Monday night (via ESPN's Shams Charania).

Embiid missed the start of the 2024-25 season with a "left knee injury management" designation, as he underwent meniscus surgery on Feb. 6.

The NBA fined the 76ers $100,000 for comments that head coach Nick Nurse and president of basketball operations Daryl Morey made regarding the health status of the former MVP, as they made "public statements" that were "inconsistent" with Embiid's health status.

He's been able to suit up in each of Philadelphia's past three contests, but he's still been present on the team's injury report with an illness.

While Embiid's exact influence on the 76ers' injury reports is unknown, it's worth noting that the team was also fined $100,000 in April for failing to "accurately disclose the game availability status" of the center.

In the announcement of the fine, the NBA explained that "the fine takes into account the 76ers' prior history of fines for violating injury reporting rules."

Embiid has made four appearances this season, and the results are far from encouraging. He's averaged just 19.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game while shooting 37.9 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from three.

Philadelphia owns a mere 2-12 record to open the regular season, the worst mark in the Eastern Conference.

Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George will miss the team's next two games due to a bone bruise in his left knee before he'll be re-evaluated on Monday, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

The 76ers also revealed that George underwent an MRI on his left knee that revealed no structural damage (h/t Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports).

The 34-year-old exited in the third quarter of Philadelphia's 117-111 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night after hyperextending his knee.

It's concerning that George suffered the injury to the same leg that caused him to miss the first five games of the regular season due to a previous hyperextension, but it's still a relatively encouraging sign for his long-term outlook that there wasn't any structural damage.

The nine-time All-Star has dealt with inconsistency to open his first year in Philadelphia, averaging just 14.9 points and 5.4 rebounds to go along with 4.8 assists per game. He's also shooting a mere 38.3 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from behind the arc.

It's been a disappointing start for George, especially after signing a four-year contract worth $212 million to join the organization in July.

The 76ers currently sit in last place in the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 2-12, as injuries have defined the early portion of their 2024-25 campaign. George, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey have all missed at least six contests due to their respective injuries and the team hasn't been able to rally in their absence.

Philadelphia has struggled to score with the star trio's lack of availability, owning the worst offensive rating in the association (via NBA.com).

George has now been ruled out of the 76ers' matchups with the Brooklyn Nets on Friday and the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, meaning that his earliest chance to return will come against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.

The Philadelphia 76ers held a team meeting on Monday night, in an attempt to turn the season around, after a loss against the Miami Heat dropped them to 2-11 on the season (they have since lost again and are now 2-12)

That meeting was subsequently reported on by ESPN's Shams Charania, who noted that Tyrese Maxey called out Joel Embiid for being routinely late to team activities, among other details leaked.

On Thursday, Paul George spoke about the meeting during an episode of Podcast P Presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment (6:10 mark):

"That's normal in the NBA– teams go through that," he said. "I've been on multiple teams where we'll at some point have a meeting and a check-in if things aren't going right or if we know we could be playing better and we're trying to get the most out of one another, that's normal. That happens. ... It was healthy, it was positive conversation, it was healthy conversations. We all just want the best. We are at a point where we're a team that cares, right? A team that naturally cares about what's going on with their team. They're going to have sit downs and they're going to discuss, how can we get back on track or start winning tradition or winning culture. So that's just where we're at with it. "

George was not pleased that the team meeting was leaked to the media, however.

"It being leaked, that's where it kind of negates everything that we had in that meeting as far as trusting in one another and putting everything out there so that we can all have these conversations and it being not taken from a bad place," George noted. "So it was kind of f--ked up that got leaked."

Embiid had a similar take.

"Whoever leaked that is a real piece of s--t," he told reporters on Wednesday. "But even then, we talked about a lot of things. I don't want to get into the details, but that whole thing probably took 30 seconds."

Some of Philly's struggles are to be expected. The team made major changes in the offseason, adding George, Caleb Martin, Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond and Guerschon Yabusele in free agency while drafting Jared McCain (who has been one of the few bright spots thus far and has earned himself a starting position).

That much roster turnover takes time to coalesce, but it's been further hampered by the injuries that sidelined Embiid and George to start the season and forced Maxey to miss several games as well. Wednesday night's loss to the Memphis Grizzlies was the first time the trio of Embiid, George and Maxey had played a regular season game together.

It was also the first time that Embiid looked like his normal self, posting 35 points and 11 rebounds in what was easily his best game of the season. But while he appeared to be back in top form, Maxey was incredibly rusty in his return and played on a minutes restriction (3-of-13 from the field and eight points in 20 minutes), while George suffered a hyperextended left knee in the third quarter and didn't return to the game.

The Sixers have dug themselves an immense hole, though they have 68 games to shovel themselves free. Monday's team meeting was perhaps the first step in beginning that process.

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid was less than thrilled that some of the team's internal business made its way out to the public.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported Tuesday the Sixers had a team meeting after their 106-89 defeat to the Miami Heat. During the discussion, guard Tyrese Maxey "challenged Embiid to be on time to team activities, calling out the 2022-23 league MVP about being late 'for everything' and how it impacts the locker room."

Embiid was blunt when asked Wednesday night about the meeting.

"Whoever leaked that is a real piece of s--t," he told reporters after Philly fell 117-111 to the Memphis Grizzlies. "But even then, we talked about a lot of things. I don't want to get into the details, but that whole thing probably took 30 seconds."

The Athletic's Tony Jones offered more:

Embiid's frustration is understandable to an extent. You'd always hope you can keep something like the details of a closed-door meeting from getting outside of the room.

However, publicizing Maxey's direct critique of the seven-time All-Star also feels like somebody within the Sixers was making sure the message gets through. If punctuality continues to be an issue with star of Embiid's pedigree, then desperate measures are required.

Based on Wednesday night's game, the story has lit a fire under the 2022-23 MVP. He had 35 points, 11 rebounds and one block against Memphis, by far his best showing so far this year. He hadn't scored more than 20 points in any of his previous three outings.

The fact the Sixers lost signaled the general drama surrounding the organization may not be slowing down anytime soon, though.

Philadelphia is now 2-12 and stands alone at the bottom of the NBA standings. Paul George could be headed for another spell on the sidelines as well after injuring his left knee against the Grizzlies.

Despite their dreadful start, a sense of optimism about the 76ers remained. They have too much talent to stay this bad, and they're still only four games out of the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.

But maybe things won't get that much better in Philly.

Should the team's season continue to spiral, the revelations about organizational discord might only be starting.

Amid early season woes, the Philadelphia 76ers were dealt another blow on Wednesday.

Star forward Paul George exited the Sixers' matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies in the third quarter with a left knee hyperextension, per The Athletic's Tony Jones. Shams Charania of ESPN added the injury came on the same leg that caused George to miss time at the start of the regular season.

He appeared to suffer the injury early in the third quarter after coming down awkwardly while going up for a rebound. He did not return to the game.

Head coach Nick Nurse provided updates to the injury afterwards:

In his debut season in Philadelphia, George is putting up 16.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, though he's only appeared in seven games thus far. He's missed a handful of games over the first month of the season due to the knee injury he suffered in preseason.

The 76ers, who are off to a disastrous 2-12 start to the season, played their first game with all three of their stars—George, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey—but now it's possible it could be some more time until all of them are on the floor at the same time again.

Maxey has been terrific this year, averaging 27.6 points per game, but like George has been limited to just seven games. Embiid has played just three games due to a knee injury, illness and a suspension. He's put up 14.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in his limited action.

When George came to Philadelphia this offseason, there was optimism that he could be the missing piece that finally helped the Sixers get over the hump and contend for an NBA Finals. After the way the first few weeks of the season have gone, the 76ers would be lucky to even reach the playoffs.

The one bright spot in the rough year has been rookie Jared McCain, who is averaging 15.2 points per game despite coming off the bench for most of the year and playing just 21.2 minutes per game. Over the last five games, he's had 20 or more points, including a 34-point outing against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

If Philadelphia can finally sort out its injury woes and get all of its stars rolling, it could easily turn things around. For now, the 76ers will look to manage with George potentially out for a while.

Former NBA guard Lou Williams stated on FanDuel TV's "Run It Back" podcast that the Philadelphia 76ers' emergency team meeting which reportedly included guard Tyrese Maxey calling out center Joel Embiid for being late to "everything" was blown out of proportion.

"From my understanding, they just had a conversation on accountability, just keeping everybody in check you know?" Williams said in part. "And sometimes, you just got to have that as a team to make sure we all on the same page."

Williams also added: "It wasn't as much as Tyrese Maxey challenging Joel Embiid as it's been stated."

ESPN's Shams Charania previously reported on the Pat McAfee Show that the 76ers had a 90-minute meeting after a 106-89 road loss to the Miami Heat on Monday.

Maxey reportedly called Embiid out and "challenged" him to be on time for team activities going forward, noting how his behavior "impacts the locker room, from other players to the coaching staff," per Charania.

The 2-11 76ers currently own the NBA's worst record along with the Washington Wizards.

There's a few different perspectives on the meeting based on the different reports, most specifically the tone.

Based on the content of Maxey's reported remarks, according to Charania, it wouldn't seem like the happiest of locker room environments, especially considering how poorly the team has played.

Williams obviously brings a different outlook on the matter.

"It wasn't as much about accountability by all accounts. Those guys are doing just fine. They were sitting next to each other when we were on the phone laughing and giggling and having a good time, trying to get this team back on the same page. And so from what I understand, that was the context of the conversation, not as much of the negative stuff that's trying to come out at this point."

Charania did note that Maxey and Embiid "have a close friendship and have a history of holding each other accountable."

"Tyrese loves Big Fella', but this is the elephant in the room," a source told Charania.

So at the very least, the two clearly are on good terms personally. That's a good foundation for the 76ers to have as they look to turn this season around.

This season has been an abject disaster, with the team most notably sitting dead last in offensive rating, per Basketball-Reference.

But the season is still just 13 games old. There's plenty of time for the 76ers to dig out of this hole and put the first month behind them.

Philadelphia has also been shorthanded all year, with the big three of Embiid, Maxey and Paul George playing a combined 17 games. The trio hasn't suited up for the same game yet either, as Maxey is currently out with a right hamstring injury.

However, Wednesday presents an opportunity for the trio to finally start together as Maxey is listed as questionable for a road game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.