It's been a rough month for the Philadelphia 76ers.
The team has been trying to navigate without their all-star big man Joel Embiid, who is out due to a knee injury.
Now it appears the reigning league MVP may be on course to return sooner rather than later.
On Wednesday, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski updated Embiid's injury, stating that the franchise hopes to have their all-star center back on the court in late March.
"They are still optimistic that they can get him back. I think there's some hope that they can get him back on the court by sometime in late March, back, starting to get into condition."
He adds, "the goal here isn't necessarily to try to bring him back and see how many regular-season games you might be able to win with him. The goal is to get him as healthy as he can be for the postseason, hope they can hang in where they are and then have as spry and mobile and conditioned of a Joel Embiid as they can for what would either be a play-in game, maybe as a seventh seed or at five or six, a nightmare first-round matchup for a team that gets home-court advantage in the East and, all of a sudden, here comes a healthy Joel Embiid with Buddy Hield, with Kyle Lowry, with the additions."
Wojnarowski revealed that the Sixers are a week away from providing a more in-depth update on Embiid's current injury status.
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Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid Knee Injury Timeline
The most recent Embiid injury update is good news for the 76ers. Embiid has been out with a knee injury since January 20th; he got hurt when Jonathan Kuminga landed on his left leg diving for a loose ball against the Golden State Warriors.
The Sixers then announced on February 6th that Embiid had surgery to address the injury to his lateral meniscus and he would be re-evaluated in four weeks.
During Embiid's absence, the team has gone 7-17 and fell to the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, just above the seventh seed Orlando Magic and the eighth seed Indiana Pacers.
In Embiid's games played, the Sixers were 26-8 chasing the Celtics for the first seed in the Eastern Conference, now they unfortunately have fallen into the Play-In with Embiid off the court.
Joel Embiid was having another monster season prior to the injury, posting career highs at 35.3 points per game in 34 starts. The 76ers will likely go as far as Embiid goes if they have any hopes of winning a championship this season.
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