When Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid went down in a heap on Friday, grabbing his knee, many feared the worst.

Fortunately, Embiid avoided catastrophic injury in the form of a ligament tear. However, he did suffer a bone bruise, and while the diagnosis has left many optimistic of his chances to resume his MVP caliber season in short order, Paul Pierce is preaching caution.

The Truth has had a bone bruise in his knee before. He’s even played through such an injury. But he’ll be the first to admit that he wasn’t himself until he was fully recovered — which could take months.

“I’m very concerned about this injury,” Paul said. “I’ve had a bone bruise in my knee, and I’ll tell you what, there’s no timetable on this. Bone bruises in the knee — mine took eight months to heal. I played on it, but it took eight months to heal. I had no lift. And it’s different for a bigger guy who carries more weight. It gave out on me at times. There was times I couldn’t walk up the stairs. Some people will tell you they’d rather have a break than a bone bruise because there’s no timetable on it.”

Watch Paul, Kendrick Perkins and Rachel Nichols discuss it all below.