Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O'Connor and NBA writer Tom Haberstroh discuss why the NBA is investigating the 76ers over Joel Embiid's rest and whether load management will prevent Philadelphia from making the playoffs . Listen to the full conversation on The Kevin O'Connor Show and subscribe on , or wherever you listen.

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Video transcript

We had received reports earlier in the night from Sham Sharana who said that the NBA will likely launch an investigation into the Philadelphia 76ers later this week related to the player involvement of all NBA centers, Joel and Bead.

And he later wrote: “It is typical for the NBA to scrutinize a team every time a superstar player misses a nationally televised game under the player participation policy.”

So Tom, I'm asking you if this is typical, as Shams wrote. What do you think about this actually being reported?

Like there's a threat from the NBA to say, “Hey, there's no fooling around here?”

For example, if this is typical, what is the reason for this?

So now you will see left knee injury and left knee pain in the future. The management word will come out. That's what's going to happen in the future, if you just say Joel and Bead are going to be out because of left knee pain or whatever, what have you.

I don't think there is an investigation.

I think the word “management” is a stigma, it's a buzzword, it's going to trigger some sort of investigation by the league office and you'll see, I think in the future teams will get rid of the word “management” so they can do this can avoid the situation.

And Kevin also admits that the Philadelphia 76ers view the regular season as an 82-game preseason.

That's it.

This entire season is about getting to the playoffs in one piece.

Fans want to see Paul George Joel and Bead play for their team.

And unfortunately, Darryl Morey and the medical staff decided it was their best chance to win a championship.

They won't be playing opening night.

They're going to be stuck and the NBA isn't happy about it.

They need at least one of these guys, Paul George or Joel MB, to be competitive against the other best teams in the league.

Or you talk all you want about preparing for success in the postseason, but you know, you know, having these guys bubble wrap all year and treating it like an 82-game preseason is like you said, a good way to put it, but you also have to have a good seed because you don't want to be the seventh and the eighth or eighth seed and you have to be in the game and right now it's very competitive in both conferences.

I do think there is a danger here of not overreacting to game one.

But playing with your food sometimes gets you eliminated from the playoffs.

We saw, um, James Stephen and Curry completely miss the playoffs.

And I think that's what's at stake here if the Philadelphia 76ers aren't serious about playing in the regular season.

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