Rasheed Wallace May Have Been Right About 76ers' Joel Embiid Injury Concerns

Former NBA champion Rasheed Wallace appears to be right about Joel Embiid's knee injury.

Dec 21, 2016; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons former player Rasheed Wallace in watches the game against the Memphis Grizzlies at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-Imagn Images / Tim Fuller-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia 76ers are not in a good place after their first 12 games of the season. They sit with a 2-10 record, which is good for 14th in the Eastern Conference, and injuries have severely hampered them. 

The 76ers could be in trouble and will be playing from behind eight balls for the rest of the season. Health has not been on their side, especially for their superstar center Joel Embiid. Embiid has only played in two games, missed the first ten games to start the season, and has already said that he won't play in back-to-backs this year.

Embiid's injury history is long, so it may not have been hard to predict that he wouldn't be available to start the 76ers. However, not for former NBA champion Rasheed Wallace. 

Wallace predicted this could happen a few months ago. On his show the "Sheed & Tyler Podcast," the former All-Star talked about Embiid's injury problems.

"I'm telling you that you got to look at Embiid's body. Like young fella's starting to break down. You know what I'm saying?" Wallace said. "30 years old, he young. But his body's starting to break down. You know, you got to start looking at certain things."

"Hey, you got to start looking at the knees. You got to start looking at, okay, is this weight putting all this pressure on your back, your knees, your ankles, all of that? Bro, you got to start looking at things like that. Like I said, look at the way he runs," Wallace continued.

"It's laboring. Compared to, and I'm not even going to go in the beginning of his NBA career. Let's look just the middle of it. You know what I'm saying? Like, that fourth and fifth year, sixth year. He was running a lot more better, but now it's like, get the rebound and take a couple of shuffle steps and then. Ah, ah, man," Wallace concluded.

Philadelphia's trio consists of Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and the newly signed Paul George, but those three have yet to play a game together.

The 76ers have all the talent in the world, but they have yet to be a healthy bunch, and it's hard to say that we will see that this season. 

Embiid doesn't look like himself; George is still getting his feet under him, and Maxey is inching towards a return. The 76ers have a lot of work to do, but if things remain how they are, they may not be the contender we all thought they'd be.

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