East Notes: Sixers, Joel Embiid, Pistons, Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo

Over the past two years, 76ers center Joel Embiid has suited up for only 58 regular-season games. Since the widely criticized Denver absence in 2024, ESPN’s Zach Kram notes he has appeared in just 25 of a possible 121 contests — or about 21 percent.

Even when on the court, he hasn’t looked like peak Embiid. The 76ers still have the ceiling of an Eastern Conference contender if he’s right, but as Kram points out, that hypothetical has become harder to count on.

In other words, no team enters 2025-26 with a bigger gap between floor and ceiling.

• Pistons’ lottery core remains a mystery: Detroit made a massive jump last season, going from 14 wins to 44, but Kram highlights that Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren barely shared the floor. Namely, just two games, five total minutes. Add in No. 5 pick Ron Holland, and the Pistons’ full group of recent lottery picks still hasn’t truly played together. The veterans around them are shifting again (Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dennis Schroder out; Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson in), but the bigger questions are internal. Can Ivey’s late-season shooting hold up? Can Thompson and Ivey take some of the weight off Cunningham? And how does Holland fit after a quiet rookie year?

• Bucks’ postseason failures piling up: Kram runs the numbers: since their 2021 championship, Milwaukee has won just one playoff series in four years. The list of exits tells the story — second round to Boston in 2022, then first-round losses in three straight seasons (to Miami, Indiana, Indiana again). Injuries have played a part, with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton all banged up at key moments. But the results are the results, and for a franchise spending deep into the tax, they’ve been disappointing. It’s the backdrop for the Bucks’ aggressive moves this summer, betting big on roster changes to try to keep Giannis in the title picture.

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