Joel Embiid On His Minutes Restriction: "Fucking Bullshit"

Joel Embiid—who was great enough last season that he maybe should have been the Rookie of the Year despite averaging just 25.4 minutes in 31 games—will start the season on a minutes restriction. It makes sense, since he missed his first two entire NBA seasons with injuries and sat out 51 games last year and is very, very expensive. Embiid played 15 minutes in each of his two preseason games this fall, and coach Brett Brown told reporters yesterday that while he didn’t have a set number yet, Embiid would start off playing “somewhere...in the teens.”

Embiid isn’t too happy with that prognosis, saying yesterday that it was “disappointing” and imploring the Sixers to listen to him because his knees felt “fine.” Today he used some stronger language.

When Embiid gets on the court, he is God’s honest truth, but with a long history of knee, foot, and back injuries, it’s probably worth letting him get settled in and comfortable before ramping him all the way up and letting him bang for 36 minutes a night. Brett Brown recently called his style of play “reckless,” which is both accurate and uncomfortable. He’ll get there (hopefully), but after two and a half seasons on the shelf, it’s no surprise that he wants to get out there and start wrecking right now.