Joel Embiid is healthy and "extra motivated" with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown now on his side, according to Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey, who added that the former league MVP is "ready to go."
"Joel is great," Gansey said in an interview with ESPN's Kevin Negandhi that aired Thursday. "This is like the first summer I think in a while that he's been healthy, so he's been in the gym working out. He's been lifting weights. He's extra motivated. He wants to play a lot of games, and he's excited about the group we've built now.
"Even before these trades and LeBron, I think he was excited. So he's motivated to have a good year and he's ready to go."
How many games Embiid plays in 2026-27 remains to be seen. The center has played a combined 96 regular-season games over the past three seasons and has not played in more than 40 games since 2022-23, his MVP season.
Gansey said the team would decide the best course of action for Embiid once the schedule was released next week.
"We'll sit down, talk to him, talk to performance staff, talk to [coach] Nick [Nurse] and try to figure out a plan," Gansey said when asked if he has a number in mind for how many games Embiid would play. "These guys want to play every game, but we got to map it out and see what's best for him and the team."
In 2025-26, Embiid played in only 38 regular-season games and underwent an emergency appendectomy on April 9. He returned for Game 4 of Philadelphia's first-round series against the Boston Celtics, then sat out Game 2 of the second round against the New York Knicks because of ankle and hip injuries. In total, he would end up playing in seven of the Sixers' 11 postseason games.
Embiid has had a healthy summer for the first time in a while and is rejuvenated by Philadelphia's blockbuster summer. The Sixers traded Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to the Celtics for Brown. And then James stunned the NBA when he chose the Sixers in free agency.
James spoke to Embiid during his process to gauge Embiid's health, according to Rich Paul, James' agent and CEO of Klutch Sports Group.
Gansey said he watched tape of James and Embiid playing together for USA Basketball during their gold medal run at the 2024 Olympics. He said he felt the duo played "pretty, pretty well together" but understands it will take time for Nurse to mesh a potent starting five of James, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Brown and Embiid.
"Any given night, anyone can be the guy," Gansey said. "So I think sacrifice will be big for us. But Joel is arguably the best and most talented big I've ever been around. ... He's going to be a huge piece to our success. We have LeBron and Jaylen, but Joel's going to be as important as those guys.
"LeBron's had a lot of usage his whole career, but last year [with] the Lakers with Luka [Doncic] out, he was the guy. Jaylen last year with [Jayson] Tatum out, he was the guy. VJ and Tyrese did a lot outside of when Joel plays or doesn't play. So everyone's been used to that for their career, but I think getting them all together, in camp, in practice, they're all going to benefit from each other."