CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Philadelphia 76ers will go as far as Joel Embiid takes them in the 2022-23 season. Sure, the Sixers will need James Harden to get back to who he was before and will need the supporting cast to play their part, but ultimately it will be up to Embiid.

Therefore, the big fella has to be healthy more often than not for the Sixers to have a chance.

Embiid played a career-high 68 games in the 2021-22 season on his way to leading the league in scoring at 30.6 points per game and he averaged 11.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists while guiding the Sixers to a 51-31 season. He probably should have won the MVP award, but that’s for another day.

Then in the playoffs, Embiid suffered an elbow to the face late in the first round, which forced him to miss the first two games of the second round. He then had to wear a protective face mask as he suffered another freak injury. This came after he hurt his thumb in that series as well.

On Thursday, Embiid discussed his desire to be available for every game.

“I wanna play in every game possible. I wanna play as many minutes possible. I felt great last year. Obviously, you can’t control freak accidents, but I feel great, I need to keep going, and I’m only doing this for 20 years so I need to get it all as long as I can.”

“It sucks, but it’s basketball. You can’t blame it on anybody. It happens, you move on. One thing I’ve learned dealing with injuries early in my career, you just gotta keep working hard, and every single problem that you get into, just gotta keep working harder.”

“I would say it’s still not the same. I don’t think it will ever be the same, but you work with it. You get used to it and I’m sure it’s gonna be fine.”

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