The NBA Summer League just got a whole lot less interesting.
The July games, which are designed to give rookies, young pros and free agents a chance to put in some needed work and/or impress coaches and front offices, aren’t exactly the height of basketball entertainment. But catching an early glimpse of an incoming lottery pick or seeing how a young player buried on an NBA bench performs when he actually gets some minutes provides fans and those who follow The Association with some offseason intrigue.
Sure, this year’s summer action most likely will include top picks Ben Simmons (LSU) and Brandon Ingram (Duke). However, even though the Sixers will end up with one of those potential stars, it’s a top-three pick from two years ago that many in Philadelphia have been clamoring to see.
Some hope existed that [a recovering Joel Embiid][1] finally would make his 76ers debut this summer. After two completely missed seasons and a recurring foot injury, it seemed Embiid’s rehab had gone well enough of late that you couldn’t rule out a summer preview of the former Kansas center. Until now.
Speaking with [NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper][2] on the state of the 76ers, Philadelphia’s new president of basketball operations, Bryan Colangelo, squashed the idea of the 7-footer running the floor in Las Vegas and reminding everyone why Embiid might have gone No. 1 overall — instead of KU teammate Andrew Wiggins — in the 2014 draft had he not suffered such a serious foot injury beforehand.
Colangelo told NBA.com “there’s no timeline” for Embiid’s return to five-on-five basketball. Next, he gave Philly fans a sliver of hope on the Embiid front before abruptly wheeling the other direction.
> “But until I hear a doctor tell me,
> ‘No summer league,’ I will always say
> anything’s open,” Colangelo began.
> “But the likelihood of him playing
> summer league is nil. I would only say
> that because of where he is in the
> progression right now.”
Although the team boss went on to concede if Embiid made enough progress and the doctors signed off on it, there would be no reason to keep the big man out of Summer League games, he went ahead and essentially shut the door on the matter.
> “I would say it’s a 99-percent chance,
> maybe a 100-percent chance, that he’s
> not going to play,” Colangelo said.
> “We just don’t want to put him in a
> situation where he hasn’t been playing
> competitive basketball. We probably
> want to ease into that and that would
> mean sometime after Summer League. But
> if he is going to come into training
> camp you want him to have at least a
> little bit of flow and a little bit of
> rhythm and to be in a position where
> he could have tested the foot to the
> extent that he’s ultimately going to
> be exposed in a training-camp
> environment.”
Bummer. Still, this is actually good news for Embiid. The organization isn’t about to rush him back onto the court and risk the years and money they’ve already invested in a center they hope can play a starring role in the franchise’s turnaround.
So those of us who miss watching Embiid’s absurd agility and footwork in the paint will just have to wait until the regular season begins. Hopefully. I mean, the 22-year-old from Cameroon hasn’t played a game since the Jayhawks traveled to Oklahoma State in 2014.
In the meantime, there’s always Embiid’s hilarious Twitter account to keep us entertained.
Time to RECRUIT KD to the Sixers????????????????????????
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) May 31, 2016
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/hawks_nba/2016/may/10/sixers-coach-thrilled-with-joel-embiids-/
[2]: http://www.nba.com/2016/news/features/scott_howard_cooper/06/10/never-down-time-for-bryan-colangelo-and-his-plethora-of-decisions-with-philadelphia-76ers/index.html
