If there was ever a textbook example of the theory of risk and reward, the Philadelphia 76ers had it by drafting Joel Embiid No. 1 in the 2014 NBA draft. ‘Had’ is the operative word in this case, because any objective look at this situation has to include a high probability that Embiid will never play for the team.

Embiid was always a high-risk guy to go along with his high-reward potential. Still, any time a guy misses two seasons and now has a stress fracture there is no reward anywhere in sight. Despite clearly needing to add muscle to his 7-foot, 250-pound frame, it took only one season at Kansas to know that he had the tools to be the next great NBA center.

Now he has two years of relative inactivity to add pounds and not muscle to his frame. The weight gain cannot be doing the stress fracture any favors. It’s a darn shame because Embiid had all of the tools — agility, quickness, jump hook — that reminded some of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his prime. Defensively, like future teammate Nerlens Noel, he was a rim protector and a game-changer.

The only thing he had not shown was a proclivity to remain healthy. That characteristic has been highlighted and has not improved since he was drafted. He missed the entire 2014-15 season while recovering from a stress fracture to the navicular bone in his right foot. The Sixers thought by shutting him down they would accelerate the recovery, but on June 13, he had a setback to the recovery process.

That’s not what the team needed to hear. He has undergone a second surgery and will miss yet another season. So what the Sixers have done is draft a guy in Noel who had to miss his first season. Then they drafted another guy in Embiid who will have to miss two seasons. That’s a lot of patience to ask of a fanbase. It may be time to shift the draft paradigm from high risk, high reward, to low risk, maybe not so high reward.

The Sixers need more players who can get on the court, not more guys to visit in the hospital room.

Mike Gibson is a featured writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @papreps , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.