It feels inevitable that Joel Embiid will be shut down, or at least severely limited, for the rest of the NBA regular season. That’s following a Sunday night report from Shams indicating that the Sixers are “considering alternative options” for his injured knee.

The Sixers come into Monday’s game against the Chicago Bulls in 12th place and with a 1.5-game deficit to the Eastern Conference play-in spots.

Embiid hasn’t been 100 percent and the Shams report didn’t exactly add any positivity to the big man’s situation.

Although Embiid is listed as questionable for Monday, I think everyone is preparing not just for Embiid to miss the game against the Bulls, but to potentially not play again this season.

The Sixers are 8-11 with Embiid on the floor. They are 12-25 without him.


Obviously, either of those records need to improve for the Sixers to make the playoffs. They are currently +550 to earn a spot and down to -125 to just participate in the play-in round.

If Embiid is out, there is a significant drop-off in play at the center position. Andre Drummond is borderline useless, but he’ll have to play reserve minutes behind Guershon Yabusele. Drummond might start a bit, but for the most part, it’s going to be small ball.

That is significant from a betting perspective for Yabusele, Kelly Oubre, and even Quentin Grimes for rebounding.

Yabu’s averaged over six rebounds per game in January and February and he just put together back-t0-back eight-board games. Oubre’s rebounding increases significantly without Embiid. Four of Oubre’s last five double-doubles have come without Embiid in the lineup.

And then there’s Grimes, who has been a sneaky good rebounder since his arrival from Dallas. He has at least seven rebounds in each of the last five games. He’s also got four or five assists in four of those five contests.

A lot of analysts are going to chase after Oubre props, starting against Chicago, but I think the real value will come with Grimes, who was a 30-minute-per-night player with Embiid active.

The most inflation on props will go to Tyrese Maxey’s points. His over/under on Monday night is 30.5, and while the shots will be there in some matchups, it’ll be hard to justify betting that every night.

You’ll also see an increase in people betting on rebound props of Sixers opponents. The lack of size will hurt, especially against Karl-Anthony Towns on Wednesday.

The Sixers are actually in the middle of the pack in rebounds allowed per game, but I would expect that number to get worse and for them to be in the bottom 10 in rebounds allowed by the end of the season.

It’s bad no matter which way you put it, and that could mean we’re in store for more painful losses, like the one against the Nets on Saturday.

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