Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Simmons cleared and confident, Embiid still limited for 76ers
CAMDEN, N.J. » Ben Simmons is ready. Joel Embiid will be ready soon.
As they prepared Monday to open training camp, the 76ers would have to be content with that measure of progress.
“All in all,” president Bryan Colangelo said, “I believe our medical team feels good about where we are.”
Simmons missed all of last season with a broken foot. Embiid was limited to 31 games before a season-ending knee injury. For all of their processing and patience, the Sixers are aware that nothing will work as planned if the two marquee talents are not available. They are close.
“I am ready to go,” Simmons declared Monday, on the eve of the Sixers’ training camp. “I am 100 percent cleared to play. I am working out, playing five-on-five. I am where I was before. “I am ready to go now.” Though Simmons was rarely seen in summertime competition, save for a wavy film out of of his native Australia, where he was caught playing against what appeared to be high-schoollevel talent, his official declaration of readiness was significant.
But Embiid, who originally was thought to have nothing more than a hyperextended knee last season, is still being limited by the Sixers’ sports scientists. When camp opens Tuesday at the training cen-
ter, Embiid will participate in drills and other on-court activities. He will not be permitted to play five-onfive, game-speed basketball.
However, both Embiid and Colangelo stressed that the fourth-year center is on target to be ready for the Oct. 18 regular-season opener in Washington.
“Joel is doing well,” Colangelo said. “Recent scans show that his joint is intact
and structurally sound. A body reacts differently from one patient to the next. But he is on pace to be ultimately available for the regular season, which is our intended goal.”
While Simmons’ “100 percent” declaration all but eliminated any discussion of him being on a minutes restriction, Embiid has not yet received that green light. Last season, the only one he has played as a pro after sitting out two years with a foot injury, the center was limited to 28 minutes a game
and was effectively forbidden from playing on backto-back nights.
“It depends on my body,” Embiid said. “If I can play 82 games I think I will. But to be honest, I don’t think I’ll play in 82 games.
“I hope the minutes restrictions,” he added, “go away too.”
Simmons was injured during training camp almost exactly a year ago. While he termed the year off as “frustrating,” he is returning with a positive attitude that edged Monday toward a forecast of
greatness.
“It took time and the experience of breaking my foot to grow as a person,” he said. “I think in my time off, I have grown on and off the court.
“I believe I can lead this team. Even if I am one of the youngest guys on this team, they will learn about who I am as a leader, a teammate, a friend, everything.” Simmons expects to impose his will on the sport beginning Tuesday, then to dazzle in the regular season.
“Beating everybody up and down the floor, doing drills, going on the fast break as soon as I get the ball, I don’t think players are used to that,” he said. “It will take time for everybody to adapt to that. But to me, it is normal.”
The 6-10, second-year LSU product is anxious to show why he was selected as the top pick in the 2016 draft, and he’s excited to show that from the point guard slot.
“Not many people can guard me off the dribble,” he said. “And over the full
length of the court, I am going to be a mismatch problem a lot of the time.”
That’s what Embiid proved to be last season, blocking shots at one end and swishing three-pointers at the other.
But when will the Sixers finally have Simmons and Embiid together?
“If it was Game 7 of the finals, I definitely could play,” Embiid said. “God has a plan in place. I have to check a couple of boxes before the season and before my first game. And that’s what I intend to do.”