The Philadelphia 76ers' awful 2015-16 season finally came to an end earlier this week, and now they can start looking forward to next season. The 76ers are expected to be pretty active under their new front office to try and improve their roster, but the biggest addition that they will probably get has already been on the roster for the past two seasons.
Joel Embiid is a player that the 76ers love and feel will be a superstar in the NBA one day, but he has been unable to play in his first two seasons. Embiid, though, has been making massive progress on the foot that he has broken twice, and the team is confident that he will be ready for opening day next season.
There has been some question about whether Embiid would be allowed to play in the summer league, and the 76ers were opposed to it at first because they didn't want to risk injury before the regular season, but now it seems like a possibility.
"We're still monitoring how far along he is with his injury," head coach Brett Brown said. "I feel like as a staff when we learn more from the medical staff, we'll be able to make a stronger comment then."
Brown later went on to add that Embiid is "most definitely on track" and that he looks good physically. The 22-year-old center has been to Qatar twice this season for state-of-the-art treatment on the foot, and each time he came back, he reportedly made significant progress. Brown even called the second trip to Qatar "fantastic," as he could now do basically everything but take full contact.
Of coure, the 76ers are going to be extremely cautious with Embiid considering his past injuries and how big a part of their future that he is. Them being cautious and the fact that next season is so far away are probably two huge reasons for why he is not taking contact yet.
Regardless of when he starts to take contact, the 76ers are making it seem like it will be all systems go for next year, and they have extremely high hopes for him. Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of Basketball Operations, said that he expects Embiid to make a big impact on the court next season, and that falls in line with all of the things that the 76ers have said about him since he has been drafted, as they expect him to be a star. At this point, 76ers fans would likely settle for seeing Embiid play an NBA game, but all of the signs right now are pointing to that happening at the start of next season.
