Has The Sixers Time Table Been Moved Up Because Of Embiid?

With Sixers Head Coach Brett Brown confirming Rookie Center Joel Embiid is fine after his knee looked to hyper-extend during Friday night's game, the team is still resting him the next two games with the expectation he will be available to play this Friday night versus the Houston Rockets.  With Embiid having a great season and the team exceeding many people's expectations, the question arises is it time for the organization to recognize that they may be ready to contend sooner then anticipated?

Philadelphia Daily News Sixers Beat Writer Bob Cooney joined The Sports Bash on Monday and discussed how the play of Embiid may alter the team's timeline to contend:

"Seeing as how good (Joel Embiid) is so quickly, sure I think everybody's timeline changes a little bit.  I didn't envision him playing this well probably ever this season and he's done it right out of the gate.  This guy is really good right now and he's only going to get a lot better; I still see a lot of rust on the guy and there's so many things that I think will come naturally that just aren't right now simply because he hasn't played for two and a half years.  So now you envision how good is he going to be next year and the year after and now they're going to have a pretty good draft this year most likely, maybe two picks in the (draft) lottery....I think once you fill out this roster the way you want....The addition of Ersan Ilyasova at the (Power Forward) if you don't resign him at least he's given you the perfect model of what you want to play upfront with Joel Embiid.  So there's a lot of other things besides Embiid that have improved, that going forward you look at holes may have been filled or very close to being filled so I do think your timeline does move up a little bit."

Checkout what Cooney had to say about the time table for Ben Simmons return, his conversation with Embiid after Friday night's game, and more Sixers talk