WILMINGTON, Del. — Normally, the Sixers' annual Blue X White Scrimmage isn't much more than a glorified warmup period, with extremely lax runs of five-on-five at an event more about engaging fans at the Chase Fieldhouse, home of the G-League Delaware Blue Coats. But on Sunday afternoon, it became the first major public checkpoint in the recovery of Joel Embiid.
The Sixers conducted a practice in Wilmington before the doors opened to media and fans, and when spectators began trickling in, Embiid was part of an active game, leading a team also including Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Dominick Barlow.
Quentin Grimes shuffled in for Team Blue, and interestingly enough, so did Embiid's primary backup, Adem Bona. Team White was made up of most of the players on the fringes of head coach Nick Nurse's regular rotation. Paul George, Eric Gordon, Kyle Lowry, Jared McCain and Trendon Watford did not play, but everyone else on the roster stepped onto the floor at some point during the two 10-minute periods.
What was more notable than any lineup combination or schematic choice, of course, was the mere fact that Embiid was out there in plain sight.
And once the official Blue X White Scrimmage was underway — Edgecombe and Johni Broome each served as public address announcers for their teams, almost certainly as a form of rookie duties — Embiid was still out there. The mood in the building was somewhere between shock and amazement; Embiid has done live five-on-five work in practice but has not played a basketball game in public since February.
VJ Edgecombe just served as the public address announcer for Team Blue in the Blue X White Scrimmage. Huge ovation for Joel Embiid. pic.twitter.com/ZnCzff3KwF
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) October 12, 2025
Sunday's event was suddenly the first chance for anybody other than those around Embiid and the Sixers to get a sense of where the former NBA MVP is at physically after undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee in April. The results were largely encouraging based on how dire things were at this time a year ago. Nobody looks particularly explosive in this setting (other than Bona, it turns out), but Embiid routinely had opposing defenders — namely Broome and Andre Drummond — at his mercy.
Sixers have to go quick on a sideline out of bounds… Joel Embiid ends up with an open dunk: pic.twitter.com/hfj5knbsLD
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) October 12, 2025
Embiid constantly drew double-teams and found teammates for open looks. "He's even more of a willing passer than I thought," Jabari Walker said after the scrimmage, soon after praising Embiid by saying he "knows what he wants, and he just makes the game easy."
Joel Embiid draws two and finds VJ Edgecombe for a corner three: pic.twitter.com/9AR25Vjr70
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) October 12, 2025
There were even some vintage Embiid moments as a one-on-one scorer at the nail. It all began to feel normal, which these days is awfully abnormal.
Vintage Joel Embiid one-on-one stuff against Johni Broome here… pic.twitter.com/XirVGLEyJ4
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) October 12, 2025
"Today was a good progression day for him," Nurse said after the scrimmage. "Lots of running, lots of five-on-five, lots of early practice stuff, lots of drill work, lots of five-on-zero, just lots of getting him caught up to speed. And then he went out there and did his thing: he shot the ball well, he scored well, he orchestrated the offense well. I thought he ran pretty good as well [in] both directions."
What fans and media watched on Sunday afternoon was, more or less, the final portion of a standard Sixers practice this time of year. That this work for Embiid is so newsworthy speaks to the constant mystery that has surrounded him for years more than anything else. But after eight months of wondering what Embiid would look like if he stepped onto a basketball court with nine other players, there was finally some visibility on Sunday.
The new terminology being associated with Embiid's recovery is "checking boxes," and as of last week, the Sixers were intimating that there are still boxes for Embiid to check before a timeline for his return to NBA games is established. There is still no indication either way about his status for the team's first regular season game on Oct. 22.
Whenever Embiid does play, do not be shocked if he shares the floor with Bona. It is a combination Nurse used quite a bit during the scrimmage, and after it concluded he confirmed it is a combination he is intrigued by. The Sixers have a clear hole at power forward; Embiid and Bona coexisting help fill that vacancy. Bona could be an indirect solution to the team's issues at the four.
"There's kind of an open position at the four, especially right now with Paul not being quite ready yet," Nurse said. "There's a number of guys that we're trying to work into that spot, [Bona is] just another one… He's probably going to be more the five. He's going to play down towards the basket and rim protect and things like that. There's certainly some drive, dump-offs to him; hit Joel [or] Joel hits him type of situations that are high-percentage plays. I like that part. I think he'll help the rebounding, he'll help the rim protection. We'll see how it goes."
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Embiid defending modern power forwards certainly does not sound ideal, and the Sixers have always made concerted efforts to keep him closer to the rim as much as possible. If Embiid and Bona end up sharing the floor, expect Nurse to get quite creative with his defensive coverages as he attempts to utilize a massive frontcourt without subjecting Embiid to much perimeter responsibility. If there is anyone pining for this partnership to expand, it is Bona.
"I think it would be awesome," Bona said after the scrimmage. "That has been my goal since I got here, since I got drafted: at some point, I want to be able to share the floor with Joel. I've been working towards developing my game to be able to complement his game while I'm on the floor with him. So, yeah, I've been working towards that and I'm really excited to see how that's going to pan out."
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