Possibly trade fodder? They might do a lineup with Noel at 4 and Okafor at the 5, I think Embiid could be out for a longer period of time.
So I'm guessing some sort of trade. I was expecting them to trade down if Okafor fell to them.
He has been out for more than a year and now needs more surgery. I think it's fair to ask if he will ever play an NBA game. And if he does, is he a shadow of his former self?
Maybe Hinkie knew Embiid was a wasted pick which is why he took Okafor.
Sixers GM Sam Hinkie doesn't rule out another surgery for Joel Embiidupdated June 26, 2015 at 3:13 PM
http://www.nj.com/sixers/index.ssf/2015/06/sixers_gm_sam_hinkie_doesnt_rule_out_surgery_for_j.htmlFans holding out hope that Sixers forward Joel Embiid would be healthy enough to compete in summer league this year were dealt a harsh does of reality Friday morning by Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie.
"I don't see that happening," Hinkie said Friday when asked if the team had made any official decisions on the possibility of Embiid suiting up this summer. "That's not the kind of stuff we're having conversations about.
"I had a conversation about Joel at 9 a.m. this morning and one of those meetings was to talk to Carolina's medical team about what was the best day to get him there."
Perhaps even more worrisome about the prognosis of Embiid actually stepping on an NBA floor is the fact that a second surgery remains part of the conversation of what's next for the 7-foot center.
"No." Hinkie said when asked if surgery had been ruled out. "All options remain on the table."
Hinkie said that it was fair to say that Embiid had suffered a setback after the initial timetable for a full recovery was 5-8 months and a recent CT scan revealed that his navicular bone hadn't shown sufficiant healing.
"We watched Joel's rehab like a hawk every day for a year," Hinkie explained. "The nature of navicular bone healing is that you see slow improvements and then you slow it down. so you load it and then unload it in terms of a workload depending on the feedback you get.
"As part of that we had set a schedule of regular, proactive MRIs. As part of that we would look at each of those and send them out to a variety of doctors at each checkpoint and see what they would think. If we'd find enough of a consensus we would move onto the next phase.
"We did that at each step and we got to March ... In March, Joel got a CT scan that looked right on schedule. At that point he was nine-months post injury and all looked good. So we took the next step. He played wonderfully, was able to do more and more each day, including playing in our gym, shoot and run and all of those things.
"We had one more scan and that was the pre-summer league scan, and that one was different. It just looked different. He doesn't have any pain. It hasn't been bothering him. It's been many weeks without any symptoms but it looks different and that causes a surgeon to look at it and say 'that looks different, let's get to the bottom of this.'"
Embiid missed all of last season while recovering from a stress fracture in his foot and now over 12 months into the process, it appears the next step is to get the University of Kansas product in front of a medical team in Charlotte after already consulting a team of doctors in New York."It's a tricky bone," Hinkie explained. "It was healing on a steady upwards slope and curve. And then it doesn't seem to be healing as well, anymore."
Hinkie said Friday that a decision on what is next for Embiid will be made by the team sometime over the next couple of weeks about what will come next for the player chosen third overall in last year's draft.
"I think we're closing in on a decision there," Hinkie said. "We've been talking to a team of experts from around the country and quite frankly around the globe about what the best course of action is. We're not sure what that is."
Hinkie's assessment of Embiid certainly leaves a significant shadow of doubt over the possibility that he will see the court this season and raises concern about what the future holds for a player many view as a cornerstone for the franchise.
