CAMDEN, N.J. -- Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey said Thursday that having a healthy Joel Embiid "changes everything" for the Sixers.
Embiid's 10-year career has been marred by injury. He has never played a full 82 games and has played more than 60 games just four times in his career. Over his 10 seasons, he has averaged just 49 games per season, which doesn't include him missing his first two seasons with injury.
Embiid played just 38 games last season, double his number from 2024, as he navigated right hip complications, left knee management and appendicitis. The injuries have often kept Embiid out of training camp and the preseason -- crucial time for a team to get comfortable playing with a player like Embiid, the 2023 NBA MVP.
"You can put in more packages," Maxey said. "There's been times where he hasn't been healthy and we get into the game and now we're trying to learn on the flow."
Maxey said his experience gives him the advantage. He knows where Embiid likes to catch the ball, where he wants guards to cut and other tendencies that he has learned over six years of playing together. But many of the Sixers' new additions, most notably among them LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, don't have that luxury.
The difference this year is that they had a healthy Embiid in training camp and the preseason to make that transition easier.
"If you haven't been playing with a big like Joel, there's not many. It's very hard, very difficult to learn certain things," he said. "...So, with him being here, we can drill those things over and over. It's been what, like two, three weeks that we've had just drilling and drilling. That's a good thing."
At the end of last season, Embiid said he was "as confident as I've ever been" about his health moving forward.
"I think, obviously, [my knee] was the biggest concern, and I'm not thinking about it," he said. "And as long as we keep doing what we've been doing, I won't have to think about it anymore.