Sixers rookie Joel Embiid will not play tonight when they take on the Indiana Pacers.

While its not a shock, its somewhat of a surprise that Embiid is sitting out due to what Brett Brown described as a "volume of games in a condensed period of time." Dating back to Monday, the team is in a stretch where they will play five games in eight days, and 17 overall in the month of November, including four back-to-backs.

“That kind of caught me off guard,” Embiid said when he found out about sitting out tonight's game.

Embiid leads the Sixers with 17.6 points and 6.8 rebounds in just over 20 minutes per game.

The team did stress that Embiid absence has nothing to do with the foot injury that kept him sidelined for two seasons, just the early workload he has had after sitting out two full years.

"I want to play more but they care about me and I am going to follow whatever they have planned for me," Embiid admitted.

Before the season started the team announced that Embiid would not play on the second game of back-to-back nights, but this is not the case here. The Sixers did not play Tuesday and are also off tomorrow, so it is a little bit of a head-scratching decision for a team that is still searching for its first win of the 2016-2017 season.

More From 97.3 ESPN