CAMDEN, N.J. -- As the Philadelphia 76ers continue through the preseason and prepare for the challenges they will face in the upcoming 82-game grind, all eyes will be on Joel Embiid and how he looks out on the floor. The 2023 MVP winner will be looking to take big steps toward getting back healthy and looking to move forward on a championship journey after dealing with injuries.
Embiid was limited to only 38 games in the 2025-26 season due to a variety of issues from his bothersome knee injury to an oblique issue and an emergency appendectomy late in the season. All of that is behind him now as he looks to move forward and be a positive part of this Sixers team, and his teammates are noticing, especially on the defensive end.
"He’s been great," said VJ Edgecombe. "He's on both ends of the floor – I mean, offensively, you're going to get Joel Embiid. Defensively, you're going to get Joel Embiid. He's been really good, especially defensively. It's been what I've seen the past couple weeks. He’s been playing really hard, defending at a high level, just trying to do (his) best protecting the rim and rebounding the ball. It's been great."
Everybody knows how dominant Embiid can be while on the floor. He is somebody who completely shifts games in Philadelphia's favor when he's in a rhythm and that's why his teammates are excited and ready to see him break out.
"Joel’s Joel," added Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. "He's gonna work. He comes in, he gets his work done, and it's just good to see him. Like, how how slim he is, like him getting up and down the floor running, and I think that's gonna be good for us. He's our motor. Like, once he gets going, like everybody's going."
Before the injuries, Embiid was an All-Defensive Team player. He was an elite shot blocker, deterred players from even trying to get to the basket, and was able to make game-changing plays on that end of the floor. The injuries have robbed him a bit of his defensive ability, but when considering the hard work he's put in over the summer, it appears the big fella is regaining some of that rim protection.
"It's been really good just to see him in practice being able to handle the pick-and-roll well," acknowledged Labaron Philon Jr. "Guys not really getting behind him for lobs and stuff like that. So if you see that as a big that's kind of in a drop, that's what you want to see. Not letting guys get behind. But I feel like he's been doing pretty well, and his practice level has went up. Just seeing that it's been great to see for one of the guys that’s definitely going to be definitely a leader for us."
Sure, the Sixers now have LeBron James and Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey has taken leaps forward as a leader, but Embiid is still going to factor into a lot of what Philadelphia wants to do. He will need to be his usual force on the offensive end and be a big defensive presence for this group.
"He's going to work," Philon added of Embiid. "You come in every morning, I see him and Bron working out in the mornings and they in the same spot, just working on moves and stuff like that. So I would just say, with him, he's going to work, and we got to trust and believe that he's going to be ready each and every night. And I feel like he is going to be ready each and every night, just because I feel like the guys he got around him is going to help him a lot."
One thing's for sure, Embiid is still going to deal with a lot of double teams. He now has real weapons around him to pass out to punish those doubles.
"Guys are going to double him and stuff like that," Philon added. "So we got a lot of guys that can make plays, and I'm happy to see that we can take some of that pressure off."
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Multiple Sixers give early praise to Joel Embiid for defensive work