CAMDEN, NJ — The regular season begins Wednesday, Oct. 23, for the Philadelphia 76ers, who will welcome the Milwaukee Bucks into town. Ahead of the season opener, the status of Sixers stars Joel Embiid and Paul George remains unknown. After a Monday morning practice session, Nick Nurse gave an update on their status, in addition to a follow up on Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain.
“Let’s see Joel was in portions of practice today, Paul was not. Tyrese was a full participant.Jared was in portions of practice. Jared and Joel were in the same portions.”
Nurse later confirmed that the portion that Embiid and McCain missed was the five-on-five end of practice scrimmage. Pressed even further, Nurse stated that Embiid missing portions of practice would not be uncommon moving forward.
“He’s going to be very limited in that stuff as the kind of new normal. I think, I think, again, he’s moving pretty good. He’s getting a lot of work in, he’s out there. And again, 60, 70% of team practice until we get to the real physical stuff… That’s gonna come here pretty soon. I think, again, we’re just trying to make sure we’re not overdoing it here with that this early in the year.”
To be clear, this is not the same as Embiid likely not playing in back-to-backs moving forward. Based on Nurse’s words, this sounds more like a ramp up in practices as opposed to Embiid not participating in scrimmages altogether; at least that is the current appearance.
When asked about his level of optimism around the players’ potential availability for Wednesday’s game, Nurse was non-commital, citing Tuesday as day a decision should come forward.
“I don’t really have a level, because they said tomorrow we should have a good idea on all three of them. I do know that just you know personally talking to them, they all feel pretty good, but until I see him a little bit more on the court. I can’t really decide that till after tomorrow’s practice.”
As for the Milwaukee Bucks, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported this morning that Khris Middleton is expected to miss Wednesday’s game as he continues to rehab from offseason surgery on both ankles.
The Sixers will practice again Tuesday, which means another opportunity for an additional injury update.
Stay tuned to Philly Sports Network for additional updates and all the latest on the Sixers and other Philly sports.
