By Peter Gleason
Sixers coach Brett Brown told reporters Monday that he didn’t have a set number of minutes in mind before acknowledging “somewhere like in the teens” for Joel Embiid’s minutes tonight in DC.
Embiid said Brown’s projection was “disappointing” on Monday, and he doubled down yesterday:
“That’s f—ing bulls—. I wish I was playing more minutes. I think I’m ready. I think I’m ready for more than whatever number they have. I don’t know. I wish I was playing more, but we’re going to see how that goes.”
The Sixers limited Embiid to less than 15 minutes in each of his two preseason games this month, and Brown indicated that he would adopt a similar approach at the start of the regular season.
“There will be some minutes restrictions, but it’s also a judgment of how is the game being played, not just looking at a rote, rigid number,” Brown said.
But Embiid, who signed a five-year, $146.5 million extension last week, said he will lobby to play more minutes.
“I got a voice,” Embiid told Philly.com on Monday. “They got to listen to me. … If I feel great and my body feels great and my knee is fine, I should play 30 minutes or more. I definitely have my opinion on that.
“They are going to hear me. We are going to discuss it.”
