Another blow strikes the Sixers' depleted roster as Trendon Watford joins the growing injury list, further straining their already thin depth.
The only thing that's been worse this season for the Philadelphia 76ers than their 41-point loss to the Orlando Magic is their incredibly unlucky stretch of injuries. In that game against Orlando, the Sixers were down four starters in Joel Embiid, Paul George, VJ Edgecombe, and Kelly Oubre Jr., as well as Adem Bona who also saw a couple starts this season.
While things seemingly couldn't have gotten much worse for Philadelphia, in the middle of the game, Trendon Watford suffered a non-contact injury and immediately removed himself from the game, going back into the locker room with the help of Kyle Lowry.
After being evaluated, it was confirmed that Watford suffered a left adductor strain. The team also announced that he will be re-evaluated in two weeks, so Watford will be sidelined until then and likely even longer.
Though he isn't the team's MVP by any means, he's still another body in the lineup who can produce well offensively and with the current lack of depth on the roster, his absence will be felt much more. That said, the Sixers don't play until Friday, and they'll have a good opportunity to give their players some rest over the next few days.
Edgecombe should return by Friday and Bona already said that it's his goal to return in that game as well. Both George and Embiid should return, but that doesn't mean much these days as they were trending in the right direction to playing in their last game, but were ultimately ruled out.
This early string of injuries has been incredibly frustrating from the outside perspective, as we've seen the team go from 4-0 to 9-8 and lose all of the momentum that they gained over the first few games. It appears that the biggest factor this season has been Embiid's availability, which wouldn't typically be a surprise, but they were doing so well without him at first that it's very unfortunate to see them struggling again.
Since Embiid went down with right knee soreness, this team wasn't the same and it became evident how valuable their star big man still is for them. If Philly can get Embiid back even on a part-time basis, they'll be in much better shape to compete for the playoffs.
Putting all of the weight on Tyrese Maxey's shoulders hasn't worked so far, so they need someone else to come carry the load in some of these games. Hopefully, that someone is Embiid and that starts on Friday.