Despite his return, Joel Embiid could not win over fans after the recent Miami Heat-Philadelphia 76ers matchup. After left knee management caused the player to miss out on 9 regular season games, expectations may have been on him to pull his team out of the hole the franchise was in. Instead, Philly lost against the Knicks and Magic with Embiid in the lineup. He missed out on the Cavaliers game. Now, he delivered another abysmal performance against Jimmy Butler and Co. At a time when Embiid may not have that much support, Nick Nurse made an attempt to defend the center.

In the aftermath of the Heat-76ers game, the 76ers HC engaged in a Q&A session. It didn’t take long for a question to pop up about Embiid. Nurse looked to reason for the player’s poor performance by stating, “I think he’s, obviously, not in rhythm, and really rusty. I feel like he’s got ways to go to get into rhythm. I mean, I think he’s not that comfortable out there, right? He’s got a bunch of new guys out there to try to figure out what’s going on. And that’s going to take some time.”

The recent offseason saw the Philadelphia 76ers acquiring almost half a dozen new players, including star veteran Paul George. The trio of Paul George, Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey on the same team would have been the perfect solution to get the 76ers out of their losing streaks from the previous seasons. Instead, with Embiid’s long absences, George himself getting sidelined for a few games, and the inclusion of younger players seem to have created the opposite of the desired effect.

Joel Embiid came back to the court against the Miami Heat by scoring only 11 points in 31 minutes. The same was accompanied by 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Criticism was directed towards him for a bad first-quarter start. After all, Jimmy Butler kept stripping him off the ball on a few occasions. The Miami Heat star stole the ball, and all Embiid did was display frustration instead of chasing his rival. With the center not being so efficient on offense, other players like Paul George and Jared McCain took charge, making 18 and 20 points, respectively.

In the end, it didn’t help to close the gap by much, causing the 76ers to end up with a 2-11 record, joint-worst in the league alongside the Washington Wizards. Not just the Heat game, but Embiid’s overall status during the ongoing season is earning him scrutiny.

The 30-year-old’s absence against the Cavaliers caused the Sixers to pay a $100,000 fine for resting him without appropriate justification. Former Hawks forward Chandler Parsons outright stated, “Personally, for him and the team, it’s just best to shut him down. Have him ready, for next season.” Amidst all of these issues, the 2023 MVP now looks to change the overall perception.

Highlighting the same reasoning as Nick Nurse, Joel Embiid discusses the need to do better

During the post-game presser, Joel Embiid became another person to explain what went wrong during the game. He sent out his flowers to Jimmy Butler over a memorable performance. At the same time, however, he took responsibility for the 76ers’ faults too. Just as Nick Nurse stated, the player also attempted to connect the losses with the changes.

He stated, “I really want to empower all of our guys to succeed, but this is a learning experience for me and for us because we have a lot of new guys. … But we’ve got that record and something needs to be done about it.” For the 7x All-Star, the buck “starts with the best player.” Therefore, he feels that both he and Paul George need to lead by example.

“We know what it is, we know where we at, and we know we got to do better, which we will,” said Embiid. “It is unacceptable, but something is going to be done about it. We’ll be fine, you know. This…. we’ll be fine.”

After a 2-11 record, do you still believe that Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers hold a fighting chance? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.