Is Joel Embiid in danger of not qualifying for MVP? Tracking his games played and path to repeat.

Joel Embiid is putting up stats worthy of repeating as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, entering Wednesday leading the NBA in scoring (34.6 points per game) while also averaging 11.8 rebounds, a career-best six assists and two blocks per game.

Yet another figure remains relevant to track — the number of games Embiid has missed.

Embiid was out for Wednesday’s 139-132 overtime loss at the Atlanta Hawks with left knee swelling, the ninth game out of 36 he has not played in so far during the 76ers’ 2023-24 regular season. Because of a new NBA rule, that puts Embiid on pace to fall short of the 65 games played requirement to be eligible for end-of-season accolades.

The criteria, which is part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, applies to the MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Most Improved Player awards, as well as the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams.

It is one rule created to promote player participation during the regular season, after load management became a prominent issue in recent years. Another is that teams can now be fined for violating the “player participation policy” — which includes sitting multiple star players during nationally televised games — such as when the Brooklyn Nets were dinged $100,000 last week for resting four rotation players who were deemed healthy during a Dec. 27 game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Embiid first “twisted” his knee during last Friday’s loss to the New York Knicks, though he stayed in that game before sitting out Saturday’s loss to the Utah Jazz. He did not practice Monday or Tuesday, coach Nick Nurse said, and was spotted with a heavy wrap on his knee following Monday’s session. Before Wednesday’s matchup in Atlanta, Nurse maintained hope that Embiid could return for Friday’s home game against the Sacramento Kings.

That Embiid’s absences could potentially impact his MVP candidacy became a topic after he missed the entirety of the Sixers’ four-game road trip over the holidays with a sprained ankle. He and Nurse — who reminded reporters last week that the injury was “really legitimate” — shrugged off bubbling outside concern about the superstar big man being eligible for such awards.

“My goal was to try to play 82 games and every single game,” Embiid said following his return from the ankle injury in a Jan. 2 win over the Chicago Bulls. “Sometimes, it’s just not possible. Sometimes stuff happens. Sometimes the staff wants you to take a break. But any chance that I get that I’m healthy, I’m always going to be out there.”

Added Nurse: “It’s not like there’s been a whole lot of even thinking about, ‘When is [he going to] play? When isn’t [he]?’ … We’re going to play him when he’s available. I don’t think we have to really worry about the rule. It’s just going to be legitimate injuries or not.”

» READ MORE: Sixers hopeful Joel Embiid will return from knee swelling injury Friday against Kings

Injuries have been a significant story line throughout Embiid’s career arc. He missed his first two NBA seasons with foot issues. Health then became a prominent talking point during the past three MVP races, including when a late-season knee injury prevented Embiid from winning the 2021 award. His primary competitor, 2021 and 2022 MVP Nikola Jokic, has long been praised for his durability while playing in at least 69 regular-season games in each of his first eight NBA seasons.

Embiid, meanwhile, has hit that 65-game threshold in each of the past two seasons — but then sustained freak injuries during the playoffs. Last spring’s knee sprain kept him out of Game 4 of the Sixers’ first-round sweep of the Nets, then Game 1 of their second-round loss to the Boston Celtics. In 2022, Embiid missed the first two games of the Sixers’ second-round loss to the Miami Heat and because of an orbital fracture and concussion and, before then, tore a thumb ligament that required offseason surgery during their first-round win over the Toronto Raptors.

Yet Embiid is not the only player in danger of being affected by this new policy. Five members of the 2023 All-NBA teams — the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler, the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James, and Damian Lillard (then of the Portland Trail Blazers) — would have been ineligible this season because they did not reach the 65-game benchmark.

This season, Butler had already missed 12 games entering Wednesday. The Celtics’ Kristaps Porzingis and the Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker had already missed nine. Though Indiana Pacers rising star Tyrese Haliburton recently avoided what initially looked to be a nasty hamstring injury, he is still expected to miss at least two weeks.

“What you think? You think I’m worried about some reward?” Butler told the Miami Herald when asked about his potential ineligibility for such honors. “The only reward I give a damn about is those [championship] banners over there. That’s all I told Spo [Erik Spoelstra], I told Pat [Riley]. ... I’m going to help us get that.”

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More immediately pressing for the 23-13 Sixers is figuring out how prevail when Embiid is unavailable. They fell to 2-7 without the big man Wednesday, wilting down the stretch of overtime after Tyrese Maxey fouled out with 35 points, nine assists, and four steals.

That was a stretch — and a game — when the Sixers could have used the reigning MVP. And despite his eye-popping numbers, now Embiid can only miss eight more games before losing his opportunity to repeat as the winner of the NBA’s most prestigious individual award.