In an interview with ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi, Sixers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey said former NBA MVP Joel Embiid is “extra motivated” after the team acquired Jaylen Brown and LeBron James this offseason, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.

“Joel is great,” Gansey said. “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.”

Embiid has battled significant injury absences throughout his career and particularly over the past three seasons. The 32-year-old suffered a torn meniscus midway through the 2023/24 campaign, when he appeared to be on his way to a second straight MVP award, and the knee has given him problems ever since.

After making just 18 regular season appearances in 2024/25, Embiid suited up for 38 regular season contests last season. Gansey said the 32-year-old center is eager to play as much as possible in 2026/27, but said the team would come up with a plan to figure out his workload once the schedule is released next week, per Youngmisuk.

Embiid was one of several key members of the 76ers who recruited James to Philadelphia in free agency. The two stars won a gold medal together with Team USA at the 2024 Olympics and Embiid reportedly told James he’ll do all he can to get his body to a point where he’ll be available more often for the upcoming season.

Gansey said he watched film of James and Embiid at the Olympics and said they played “pretty, pretty well together,” Youngmisuk writes. Still, the team’s new top executive acknowledged it will take time for head coach Nick Nurse to figure out how best to utilize a starting lineup featuring Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Brown, James 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.”