Embiid’s injuries, load mgmt blunders, Shelburne’s update & trade targets

The happiness of last week’s podcast is all but gone now that Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid has missed the last few games with a knee injury.

Adio Royster and David Early express frustrations with the Sixers coaching staff, training staff and/or front office (seemingly) continuing to mismanage Embiid’s minutes and games played based on his health. But don’t worry, Embiid himself catches plenty of our wrath as well if indeed recent (confusing) reports from Ramona Shelburne are true he’s tempted to push through this injury to accrue more regular-season accolades.

After an awkward landing against the Toronto Raptors, Embiid continued to play and now hasn’t been in the lineup consistently since before Christmas.

He will miss Friday’s game when the Sacramento Kings come to the crib in South Philadelphia, (our Tom West previewed the game in that link above) but with a handful of significant contests ahead two against the Denver Nuggets (one of those marquee MVP battles on-the second-of-a-back-to-back for the Sixers, yuck) and one game each against standings chasers the Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic. How detrimental will that decision to let Joel play hurt a couple of times recently become?

The Sixers are currently 2-7 on the year when Embiid is out, and Tyrese Maxey (who has been playing out of his mind, lately) can only carry the team so much on his 6-foot-2. 200-pound frame.

After the break, now that OG Anunoby has been traded to the Knicks since the last pod, Adio and Dave go through the potential tier listed group of players whom the Sixers might want to think about targeting before the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline.

Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam is a name that continues to swirl around the league, but now, Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray has also come up as a potential target for some teams. Do we like either of those studs?

Will the Sixers make some kind of move to widen the championship window this year or keep calm and carry on this season to have more options this upcoming offseason? We’ve now heard credible reports that they’re always star-hunting and will be aggressive, as well as reports they’re content to wait for a summer splash when they’ll have two more draft picks to move and potentially max cap space.

In that section, we touch upon names like Siakam, Murray, Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Bogdan Bogdanović (who our Harrison Grimm just took a closer look at as a target).