Mad Dog DECLARES the 76ers’ title hopes ARE OVER with the Joel Embiid injury news | First Take

Mad Dog DECLARES the 76ers’ title hopes ARE OVER with the Joel Embiid injury news | First Take

Is the Sixers season over with the news of embiid yeah they are not winning a championship so if the definition of title or a bust yes I didn’t think they’re going to win a championship anyway but now they’re going to be a lower seed they’re not going to be a top

Three seed because they’re going to miss him I’m assuming Steve would know more than me so with Brian I would assume he’s going to miss what 20 25 games minimum maybe the rest of the regular season and then they’re going to plug them back in the lineup when the six

Seed to go navigate all these tough teams in the Eastern Conference I don’t see it plus they’re going to learn how to play one way with Adam try to be effective get the amount of wins and then plug him back in and see if he can

Go out there and sort of fit in and they got to rearrange the way they play I saw that happen with Magic Johnson 40 years ago and they came back and lost the Rockets and the great Malone in a first round playoff series so I think this is

A terrible blow for Philadelphia I’m as assuming it’s going to be lengthy and then you’re going to have to work him back in shape he’s going to be rusty this is a mess there will not be a championship parade uh down whatever that street is called in Philadelphia uh

In uh June they are not winning the NBA Championship simple as that what a New Yorker it’s Broad Street Mad Dog Broad Street UMO Street broad I should have known that yes yeah so take it easy take it easy Wendy he’s not he’s not even a New Yorker he’s mred Connecticut he just

Shows up to New York for work yeah that’s right the parm up in Connecticut all right so this is a loss for the NBA because joeel embiid’s playing a level of offensive basketball that I’ve never seen in my career and it’s an indication of how hard he’s worked on his game so

That’s one thing it’s a loss for the Sixers and it’s a loss for the NBA secondly from what I understand and what I have been told the Sixers really don’t 100% know exactly what’s going to happen coming out of this surgery um miniscus injuries are are delicate I am certainly

Not an orthopedist but from what I have been told and understand the surgery will happen or is scheduled to happen tomorrow and they will find out if they can repair the meniscus or have to remove part of it he could potentially be looking at six eight weeks or he

Could be looking at the end of the season I’m sure the best orthopedists in the country have review the MRI and they have a good idea but that’s important to know because I would almost argue that what happens from this embiid surgery could be one of the most important

Things in this train deadline week and that’s because the Sixers are a team that have a lot of options they have three tradeable first round picks they have over $100 million in expiring contracts and they have a belief that they at Jo with Joel em beid healthy

That they can compete they would be an underdog against um against Boston right now but Milwaukee is fading so I would just say that like depending on how this comes out of the surgery does Philly make you know try to go to acquire a

Center who can be a stop Gap fill in or do they sit on their salary caps space because Stephen A the Sixers if they wanted to could just sort of stand Pat try to play out the season do the best they can then they’d have over $50

Million in cap space to go into the market this summer and improve to be ready for an embiid return but if they feel like he could come back they could make stop Gap moves where they could hold maybe their seat a little bit higher than that six doggy they could

Maybe get in that top four so when he comes back they got a better chance here’s the deal y’all first of all let’s understand something none of us had Philadelphia winning the championship any damn way so let’s get that out the way first we didn’t have to win in the championship

Some people picked Milwaukee some people obviously most people pick Denver um somebody like me picked Boston okay we got that out the way secondly when you talk about Joel embiid this brother’s on another level he is something spectacular he truly truly is and doggy I got news for you his offensive

Repertoire is so pure so Sensational all I care about is is that his legs are healthy if that means that man got to sit out every game for the rest of the regular season Joel and beid Rusty on the basketball court can average 30 a night for you he’s that

Sensational we got to get that out the way now we got to take into account doggy the Eastern Conference I still believe in Boston because I’m a huge Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown fan I don’t want to see them jacking up 45 threes a game I’ve Lo I’m losing more

And more faith in Milwaukee by the day because they just can’t seem to get it together they just seem like a shell of themselves my God the loss of buen hos it just seems to just have ravaged them okay they just don’t they they don’t even seem to be together

Organizationally let alone on the basketball court okay then we look at Miami we see how they’ve nose dived as of recently okay with their losing streak they lost again last night to the Los Angeles Clippers no sh no shame in that cuz the Clippers are an elite team

But we see that Miami doesn’t look like themsel so I’m saying if you look at the Philadelphia 76ers even though they will struggle and they will suffer without the presence of MB if you can find yourself in the playoffs and a rusty but healthy embiid comes back oh I think they could still

Make it interesting and by the way Nick Nur can coach here’s the problem I think if the Philadelphia 76ers Don’t Make a Deal before the deadline embiid May shut it down for the season and when it comes to embiid he’s a guy you cannot take tomorrow for granted he gets

Drafted in the league number three overall he misses his first two years he’s been hurt every single year getting him to play 60 games is a challenge getting him to be healthy in the playoffs is a challenge and so for me you can’t sit up there and look look at

Him and say okay we got the next year and the year after year no not with him you got to take every little crumb you can along the way and if that means modifying your roster to some degree to elevate his level of faith that would coax him into being ready for the

Postseason if I’m the Sixers I say you do it because I can’t assume he’s gonna be ready next year he’s just not built that way all you guys all you guys overrated and be from a historical perspective when you are a center no we don’t you get you get evaluated by

Championships that’s what you get evaluated by Kareem Wilt joic oh yes it is Shaq that’s what Cent get evaluated I don’t evaluate a center by getting to a conference final which he’s never done by the way I evaluate cers by Rings youing didn’t win one Elijah won did it always hurts Ying

Malone won Shaq won K won Wilt won yish one theal championships are about I agree with you for the bring in your C holder listen listen I agree with you when you bring in Immortal status I got that but I am saying to you there have been great big men throughout

History before they won championships we said you got to win the chip but we still acknowledge their greatness a Patrick Yuan was a perfect example of that elijahwan before Jordan retired and he won back to back was an example of that David Robinson before Tim Duncan

Came along was an example of that you do have situations where you look at big men and you say for the purposes of a doggy Mad Dog russos of the world you got to win the chip for Immortal status but it doesn’t mean we ignore their greatness we haven’t bloated we haven’t

Buffered or bloated about you know just just going off about embiid in terms of championships but from a talent perspective watching this brother play yep there’s no question he’s going of the greatest talents as a big man in the history of basketball now you got to now

If you don’t see that doggy grab your damn glasses go to your opthalmologist tell them to to to to to rearrange your damn prescription and get it together because inid in is special embid is special well how come well how come two years ago he he lost to Miami in his

Second round in six games how about last year we forget about the game what do that mean go ahead Wendy go ahead Wendy you if you’re if you’re an all time great you don’t lose those games that’s what it means doggy I will give you this doggy his playoff record is not

Exemplary and that is a fair thing to say his career is not over but I will also say he is basically dealt with injuries almost every playoffs broken faces messed up knees it’s been his career story unfortunately pull [Applause] [Applause] up

Mad Dog DECLARES the 76ers’ title hopes ARE OVER with the Joel Embiid injury news | First Take
Stephen A. Smith, Brian Windhorst and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo join Molly Qerim on First Take to discuss their concern for Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers.
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