The 76ers were on a roll for the entirety of December and at the beginning of January. However, with the 76ers dropping their last 4 games and being without Maxey, Tobias Harris, or the reigning MVP, Joel Embiid, playing, things still look slightly hopeful. The big issue is the injury of Joel Embiid and the handling of him.

Since the NBA had added the 65 game benchmark for any player to qualify for a regular season award, players have been playing more games and so far it has seemed to be beneficial to the league. Players like Paul George and Anthony Davis who are known to miss games consistently during the regular season, have missed less than 10 games combined already this year. Yet, players like Joel Embiid who have been injury prone since stepping into the league, are struggling with this rule as their body is crumbling under the pressure of meeting this benchmark forcing themselves to play games injured.

Embiid is having a monstrous season with the best of it coming against the Spurs where he dropped 70 points on just 1 3-point shot. However, Joel is already 5 games away from not qualifying for any awards of All-NBA teams and with barely being over the halfway mark on the year, it is looking to be that he won’t qualify for these teams.

As a 76ers fan, I don’t care about this as I would rather have my team 100% going into the playoffs instead of trying hard in the regular season to make an All-NBA team and pushing your body too hard so you are worn down by the playoffs. I can see why players think they mean something and to an extent, they do, especially when you are trying to define your legacy. But that only works up to a point and once you have all of the accolades, the only thing that matters is getting a Finals trophy to validate the success you have had in the regular season.