Sixers

Kevin Garnett Not a Fan of Joel Embiid’s Load Management

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 22nd, 2024 · 10:54 AM EDT

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Safe to say that Kevin Garnett isn’t a fan of managing Joel Embiid’s minutes this season:

Kevin Garnett goes off after hearing Joel Embiid’s decision to sit out of back-to-backs:

“82 games, man, this is what the fu***** job calls for.”

(via @allthesmokeprod) pic.twitter.com/kwZkLypYfu

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) October 19, 2024

“Man I don’t wanna hear that s*** man, I don’t wanna hear none of this s***, mother****** can sit out of back-to-backs?”

Well, yeah. 30 year old Embiid’s gonna sit out of back-to-backs because he’s 7’2″ with injury history and tread on the tires, so they’re going to try to manage his health throughout the year with the playoffs in mind. We’ve litigated this a million times over and it is what it is at this point in Joel’s career. Insanity is trying the same thing over and over and getting the same result, so they’re gonna mix it up and try something different, apparently. The Raptors did this with Kawhi Leonard and won a title.

Kevin Garnett played a lot of NBA games. Between 1999 and 2005, he missed three out of 492 regular season games. That was during his Minnesota days. When he got to Boston he was 31 years old, and didn’t play a full 82 during any of those six seasons, dealing with some injuries along the way. But during the Celtics’ title-winning season, he played 71 games, Ray Allen played 73, Rajon Rondo played 77, and Paul Pierce played 80. So there’s certainly something to be said for continuity and consistency and building something by having everyone on the floor together. Unfortunately it’s just not possible for Embiid to replicate that in 2024, so here we are.