Call him Dr. P: Paul George has a prescription for a healthy Joel Embiid

Paul George isn’t a doctor. Doesn’t play one on a podcast, either. But the 34-year-old superstar offered an interesting medical opinion during his introductory news conference on Tuesday afternoon. Asked whether there were any key precautions the Sixers could take to ensure that Joel Embiid and his aging supporting cast make it to the postseason in good health, George essentially answered, “Yes. Me.”

“I think I can kind of help him get through a season healthy,” George said. “It’s just not putting so much pressure on him. Regardless of how good you feel, I think pressure causes a lot of injuries … you think you have to get overplayed, you have to touch every possession. That kind of wears you down, especially for how physical he is.”

I’m almost ashamed to admit how good of a point that is. Not that George is incapable of making good points. On the contrary. They don’t just give a podcast to anyone, right?

Kidding. Of course they do.

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But George is a man worthy of the mic. In his first official appearance as a Sixer, he treated the assembled media to a public relations master class while Josh Harris and Daryl Morey nodded along like a couple of dashboard bobbleheads. George was mature, vulnerable, confident, deferential. There was no disaffection, no hint of insecurity. He wore a white polo shirt that was more Summer Friday than Cannes. He leaned forward, held his gaze, flashed funny faces at his children, all without any of the obsequious try-hard that sometimes mars these occasions. Everyone talks about George’s fit as a player — it might be even better as a leader. If you were going to give four years and $212 million to a man who is nearly old enough to run for president, this was the chief you wanted to hail to.

My shame is not that George made his point. It’s that I didn’t. All this talk about the risks of combining an aging superstar with an injury-prone Embiid and not once did I consider that the problem might solve itself.

It’s so obvious, isn’t it? Part of the reason Embiid’s injuries are so maddening is that they feel so preventable. They aren’t the result of accumulated mileage or repetitive pounding. No amount of load management is going to stop a man from passing the ball to himself off the backboard and dunking it in traffic. When that man is 7 feet tall and weighs 300 pounds, he has a good chance of hurting himself when he lands.

Embiid took some heat when he hurt himself with his self-alley-oop in Game 1 against the Knicks in April. The critics said he needs to be smarter, that he shouldn’t try to be a superhero. They had a valid point. But the bigger problem is that he felt like his team needed a superhero.

It is a common theme. How many times has Embiid hurt himself while trying to do too much? Running the length of the court and trying to block Robin Lopez with the Sixers on the verge of sweeping the Washington Wizards. Limping his way through a game against the Golden State Warriors. Carrying the Sixers to a buzzer-beating playoff win against the Toronto Raptors. You can’t make a tiger change his stripes. But you can show him that the collective will survive if he does.

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The issue is bigger than Embiid, obviously. George will be 35 years old by the start of next year’s conference finals. In the four years leading up to 2023-24, he missed a playoff series and averaged fewer than 50 games per regular season. The Sixers need to be strategic and intentional with their deployment of both of their veteran superstars, regardless of criticism. They need to prioritize on-court experience for young, unproven players like Jared McCain and Ricky Council IV, especially with a bench that includes aging veterans like Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon and, apparently, Reggie Jackson.

“I think that’s certainly gotta be part of the plan,” coach Nick Nurse said. “You can probably throw a couple of the other guys [besides George and Embiid] in there, too … I think it will take some managing of those guys as they get older. Most of that, though, comes with what you are doing day to day, training camp, practices, travel, all those kind of things. I think us and medical and the front office will work very closely. I think everyone is on the same page, that we want to try to get to the first round of the playoffs with energy and health.”

We hear similar things at the start of every season. Usually, reality takes over. This year, the hope is that the Sixers will actually have a team that doesn’t play like it is bound for the lottery whenever Embiid is off the court. George is a big part of that. He and Tyrese Maxey are a coupling that can win without Embiid. Likewise for Maxey and Embiid without George. Logistics can’t reduce all of the risk. But there is reason for optimism.

Paging Dr. George.