Joel Embiid‘s limited availability is drawing the attention of the NBA.
ESPN insider Shams Charania reports that the league is considering opening an investigation into the Philadelphia 76ers and their management of the former MVP’s minutes.
Embiid, 30, missed all of pre-season while nursing a knee injury and will miss the first week of the regular season. Those same injuries limited Embiid to 39 games last season but he was able to play in the six-game opening-round loss to the Knicks.
The 76ers and Embiid have not been shy when discussing their strategy for managing the All-NBA centre’s minutes this season with the goal of keeping him healthy for a deep playoff run.
“If I had to guess, I would probably never play back-to-backs the rest of my career,” Embiid said in an interview with ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
The NBA introduced new rules for load management, called the Player Participation Policy, ahead of last season. Those rules include:
• Rest no more than one star player from a game. (For purposes of the restrictions, a “star player” is defined as someone who has been an All-Star or an All-NBA selection in any of the past three seasons. It also will impact for the balance of the schedule players named to that season’s All-Star teams.)
• Make star players available for nationally televised games and In-Season Tournament games.
• Balance the number of one-game “rest” absences a star player accrues in home games vs. road games, with a recommendation that a player more often sit out at home.
• Refrain from any long-term “shutdown” when a star stops participating in games or appears only in a materially reduced role that could affect the integrity of the game.
• Have any healthy players resting for a game present and visible to fans.
“This is ultimately about the fans,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last year. “And that we’ve taken this (load management) too far. This is an acknowledgment that it has gotten away from us a bit.”
The 76ers will open the season against the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday night on ESPN. The 76ers’ other superstar, Paul George, will also miss the game due to a bone bruise suffered in pre-season.