Joel Embiid Is Proving His Doubters Wrong!

Joel Embiid Is Proving His Doubters Wrong!

Joel Embiid as a rookie in these despicable jerseys. Joel Embiid now in these beautiful throwback jerseys. Tony Jones posted Embiid playing fives 3 days before training camp starts. Well, that seems like it should be a great sign to Philadelphia 76ers fans. And of course, the Sixers posted this clip of Joel Embiid hitting Maxi on a backdoor cut. Even his haters can’t deny the fact that he looks to be in great shape. Will that translate to the games played category? Who knows? But I feel like that’s the first step to getting there. And let’s go back to the off season. Pretty much everyone and their mamas was believing that Embiid’s career was over. So the fact that he’s on pace to play the first game of the season, I mean, that’s a huge win for Sixers Nation. Are you guys officially excited for this season? and let me know your thoughts below. Now, David Lee is doing 30 teams in 30 days and he just covered the Sixers had some interesting thoughts and paragraphs. So, I want to go over some of them and give my opinion. I want to start off with this question. Can Embiid get a player with modern force skills in size next to him? He mentioned that Embiid challenged the lowest shots at the rim of his career by far. He mentioned that Paul George and UB were the main power forwards last season, but he believes that’s a recipe for disaster and they should be playing the three more often than not. I’m going to read this word for word. PG and UB should not under any circumstances dominate the power forward minutes. He backed up that claim with stats from the last three seasons. So, it turns out Paul George at the small forward position plus 4.2 net rating, a tad bit better than plus 3.8 eight net rating at the power forward spot. UB has been a negative allaround. However, better at the small forward position, negative -3.37 to negative 5.55 as a power forward. Asking MB to continue to cover for guys playing out of position who also lack the physicality and mentality to do the trench work such as boxing out and rotating from the weak side just isn’t feasible with his offensive load and decreased mobility. I was intrigued by the adamona Alberon Shenun minutes in Euro basket and I wonder if that could work for stints against certain matchups. I totally agree with this assessment from him and this is an area we have to hold Nick Nurse accountable because there’s no excuses. There’s more options than ever compared to last season. There’s no need to put Paul George at the power forward spot 247. You should be investigating Trendan Watford next to Embiid. Jabari Walker next to Embiid and every now and again even Adona next to Embiid. So I found something very interesting with Embiid at the five, Gershon at the four, Kelly Ubé at the three. That trio played 124 minutes together. It turns out they had 115.7 offensive rating along with 104 defensive rating. Of course, it wasn’t the largest sample size because Embiid was in and out of the lineup. 124 minutes to be exact. But it’s clear they got to start thinking about putting more size next to Embiid. Overall, you’re just handicapping your lineup because Kelly Ubé at the three, he’s got enough size, but when he goes to a power forward, he’s a smaller and scrawnier power forward. Same exact thing with Paul George. In the modern NBA, from a height perspective, Paul George is fine. It’s more so weight. For instance, Trendan Watford and Jabari Walker are list at 238 compared to Paul George 220. And I know Gershon is not on the team anymore, but I feel like Jabari Walker is very, very similar to him outside of the body frame because as we know, Gershon is built like a football player. Meanwhile, Jabari Walker just looks like a normal tall NBA basketball player. I feel like what he does would fit next to our best players very well. Last season, the Sixers were literally the worst rebounding team in the NBA. Jabari Walker grades very well for rebounding defensively and offensively. A minus across the board for defense. Offensive rebounding for sure more of a mixed bag, but definitely above average. On top of that, the Sixers were ranked second last for assist percentage during the regular season next to Paul George, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxi. All of them want the ball. All of them are going to create in the ISO situation. And when they drive, we know they’re going to be causing attention. And when they kick it out, you need quick decision makers. And that was lacking last season because overall, Maxi, Joel Embiid, and Paul George on a night-to-ight basis can also lack in the quick decision-m category. At times, they can take a little too long making that decision. So knowing that arguably as a role player on the Sixers heading into next season when they’re fully healthy, one of the biggest traits you must have is making quick decisions. And Jabari Walker graded a minus on basketball index for that. I also want to highlight that he grades B+ as a screening talent, which can be very useful playing next to guys such as Jarro McCain and Tyrese Maxi to open them up off the ball so they’re catching with more space and opportunity or potentially just catching to go right up with it. Hopefully the Sixers utilize that skill. His makeorb breakak skill and why he’s probably just a bench player at this point is his three-point shot has been very inconsistent. defenses don’t really respect him and won’t really close out when he’s spacing on the perimeter. He was graded C plus for offball gravity. Two things are holding him back from being a starter. Number one, defensively he doesn’t have the quickest feet on the perimeter. And that’s kind of a must for power forwards in the modern day. And then number two, of course, is shooting the three ball. And last season, he shot 38.9% which is very good, but just 1.2 attempts per game. And the season before that it was 29% on 1.9 attempts per game. But believe me, if his shooting comes around with the Sixers, I think he’s going to be a crucial part with this team because a lot of his strengths are Sixers weaknesses and it would help out their best players. He’s also a guy who you can trust every single night to hustle, be in the right spot, and give it their all. He will be on a regular contract instead of a two-way contract by the end of the year. You heard it here first. Him suggesting the Adam Dembona and Embiid pairing is interesting because think about it, the big three, Apollo George, Maxi and Embiid played 294 minutes last season, not very successful offensively, 110.5 offensive rating, but they were pretty successful defensively. 110.5 defensive rating. If they can maintain that for a whole entire season, that would have put them right in the middle of the Rockets who were at five. 110.3 defensive rating and the Minnesota Timberwolves at 610.8 defensive rating. In theory, if you add a guard next to those three like Grimes or VJ and then add Bona, I mean, that should be a great defensive unit. Bona as a rookie graded A for rim protection, A+ for rim disruption, B for rim deterrence, A+ for help defense talent. He was great in the pick and roll. The only place he really struggled was post defense, but no one really post up any more besides Joic and MB. Obviously, this type of unit would be matchup dependent. Probably won’t be relying on them for large amount of minutes. Maybe just like quick stints, and if it’s working, keep going. That’s how the Rockets found their Steven Adams and Shangon lineup last season. They started out very, very small. And then once they realized that it was working, despite the weird clunky fit visually, they just let it loose in the second half of the season and was one of their most productive units in the playoffs against the Warriors. Point is, I’m expecting Nurse to get creative and, you know, address the rebounding issue and address the lack of size at the power forward spot. There’s options out there. Let me know your thoughts below.

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