It's starting to sound like Philadelphia 76ers fans are going to have to wait until the regular season to see Joel Embiid suit up and play in any sort of competitive basketball for Brett Brown's squad.
Fans got a glimpse of hope a couple of weeks ago when Brett Brown said there was "a chance" Embiid could see action in Summer League. Scott O'Neil quickly poured some cold water on that and now Bryan Colangelo made things even more clear.
Colangelo caught up with NBA.com reporter Scott Howard-Cooper in Italy where the Sixers' brass is attending the adidas Eurocamp, "the largest scouting event for international draft prospects."
The topic of Embiid and his timeline to get back on the court was discussed.
"People are just looking for a timeline," Colangelo said. "There's no timeline. But until I hear a doctor tell me 'No summer league,' I will always say anything's open. But the likelihood of him playing summer league is nil. I would only say that because of where he is in the progression right now. But if he makes enough progress and the doctors say he's ready to go there's no reason he shouldn't. But having said that, I would say it's a 99-percent chance, maybe a 100-percent chance, that he's not going to play. We just don't want to put him in a situation where he hasn't been playing competitive basketball. We probably want to ease into that and that would mean sometime after summer league. But if he is going to come into training camp you want him to have at least a little bit of flow and a little bit of rhythm and to be in a position where he could have tested the foot to the extent that he's ultimately going to be exposed in a training-camp environment."
So much for getting our hopes up.
Colangelo also discussed the other relevant topics of the day: Ingram or Simmons at No. 1? Any chance of trading out of No. 1? What about 24 and 26? What about trading Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor.
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He doesn't tip his hand at all in any of those areas.
"I can't put a number on it," or "It hasn't been in any realistic conversation," or "It's been discussed," is about as descriptive as he'll get.
So Sixers fans will have to wait until Colangelo and the brass finally make a pick, or a trade, or decide to allow Embiid to put on a uniform before we really know what the team is thinking.