Looking Back at the Three Most Impactful Sixers’ Rookie Injuries
Once again, it seems like the mysterious, otherworldly injury plague has affected yet another Sixers’ top pick: this time being the 2019 20th pick, Matisse Thybulle. Although Thybulle only “turned his ankle,” this news is significant enough to cause heart palpitations among Sixers fans everywhere.
Since taking Joel Embiid 3rd overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, Sixers fans have routinely had to suffer through a pattern of season-ending injuries, from Embiid’s navicular bone fracture to Ben Simmons’ Jones fracture to (nearly) Zhaire Smith’s allergic reaction. Over the course of the last five years or so, these events have without a doubt played a large part in the ultimate position in which this team currently finds themselves. With that being said, let’s look back at the three most impactful of these rookie injuries.
3) Joel Embiid’s Break/Re-Break of His Navicular Bone (2014-2015)
Coming out of Kansas, teams knew about his back injury, but it wasn’t until a Cavaliers’ pre-draft physical that teams recognized the foot issue. As the story goes, after the Sixers drafted him, Embiid would go on to miss the entire 2014-15 season. Without Embiid, the Sixers wound up taking Jahlil Okafor in the 2015 Draft. Based on needs at the time the Okafor pick was considered a bit of a headscratcher as it related to a pairing with Embiid, but that all quickly dissolved once news surfaced that Embiid had re-broken the same bone after months of rehabbing it.
Without a healthy Embiid for the 2nd consecutive season, the 2015-16 Sixers were headlined by a group which included the likes of Ish Smith, Tony Wroten, Hollis Thompson, and current GM Elton Brand. Ultimately finishing that campaign with a record of 10-72 (15th in the East) without Embiid produced the key that unlocked Ben Simmons with the 1st overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. If the Sixers had a healthy Joel Embiid, the course of that season would have been drastically different. At the very least, with a completely different rotation, they wouldn’t have finished 10-72, almost certainly altering where they would have made their 1st round pick, losing out on the chance to draft Simmons.
2) Ben Simmons’ Jones Fracture (2016)
The impact of this injury was similar to Joel Embiid’s re-injury in 2015. The 2016-17 Simmons-less-Sixers went on to finish with a 28-54 record. This team most notably featured Embiid’s rookie season. Although only 31 games, Embiid’s rookie campaign was a success: 20.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, and 2.5 BPG in 25.4 minutes per game. Embiid’s production gave Sixers fans legitimate hopes and dreams for the potential of a 2017-18 Embiid-Simmons pairing. As you know, those hopes were more than warranted, evidenced by the Sixers league-best improvement of 24 wins the next year, going 52-30 in 2017-18.
What Simmons’ absence from 2016-17 most importantly produced was the 3rd overall pick which was packaged in a deal with Danny Ainge and the Celtics to move up to 1st overall. In what ended up being one of the most head-scratching 1st overall picks of all-time in Markelle Fultz, the Sixers couldn’t have remotely foreseen what they got themselves into. However, the events of the Markelle Fultz saga benefited the Sixers in more ways than one, resulting in the very position they currently find themselves: Finals Contender.
1) Markelle Fultz’s Thoracic Outlet (2017-?)
There’s always a reason why someone gets picked #1 in any draft. The flashes Fultz showed at Washington were incredible; no one could’ve seen his injury scenarios coming. The mysterious case of Markelle Fultz started with an ankle injury in the 2017 NBA Summer League and has continued with what has been practically universally deemed a battle comprised of both shoulder and mental components.
Although Fultz caused a great deal of heartache among Sixers fans who had dreams of the once-thought limitless possibilities of a Fultz-Simmons-Embiid trio, his injury chronicle led to a spiral of events which consequently forced the hand of current GM Elton Brand. If Fultz was fully healthy during his tenure with the Sixers, they’d likely find themselves having had to potentially commit to a long-term, three-player core which would’ve shackled roster flexibility for a long time.
Moreover, with the anticipated emergence of Ben Simmons’ shot, a Fultz presence could easily hamper Ben’s development. I don’t know about you, but I’d take the alternative of Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson, and Al Horford over Fultz any day of the week.
Photo: via philly.com (Charles Fox)
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Categorized:Sixers