JOEL EMBIID CHECKS HIS BIGGEST BOX YET! – Locked On Philadelphia 76ers

JOEL EMBIID CHECKS HIS BIGGEST BOX YET! – Locked On Philadelphia 76ers

Welcome in to a fun-filled and exciting edition of Locked On 76ers. And this might be the easiest cold open we’ve ever had to do, Keith, because all I’m going to say is Joel Embiid played basketball last night on a court with his teammates against an opponent in front of people in South Philadelphia. We’ll talk about all that and more on this edition of Locked On 76ers. You are Locked on 76ers, your daily Philadelphia 76ers podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And we do thank you for making Locked On 76ers your first listen every day. Part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. That’s fanduel.com. Yes, Mark Jackson, we are live today this morning. And I will say I was monitoring the chat as we were getting underway here, fixing a little technical difficulty. And I got to put this up right out of the gate, Keith, because it’s my favorite thing. The Bull RJ, I truly want to pump the brakes. I really do. But I just witnessed the Kensington A zombies turned into the 76ers even though it’s pre-season. Uh you could get a little bit excited about this. I certainly am. Uh Keith watching Joel Embiid play last night. I wanted to watch him play but at the same time I didn’t want him to play but he played and it was awesome. I was very much impressed. And I’m going to use this word. Some might say it’s overdramatic but I’m going to use it. Comforted. I was comforted. I did not expect him to play in the preeason. He was running up and down the court. He had a coast to coast laying. He got fouled. Uh he was aggressive under the basket. Kind of close to a triple double in like 19 minutes played. It was it was exactly what I wanted to see from Joel Embiid in his preseason debut in the preseason finale for the Sixers. It’s what I wanted to see before the the season starts up Wednesday night. You were down there. you were on the scene. Tell me the vibes. Yeah, it was it was great. I mean, for him, like it it was funny. He uh when he was introduced, he got a nice applause, right? Um you it was it was something for him that I felt like it was important for him to hear the way that the crowd uh applauded for him. And it was crazy because at the beginning, like 4 seconds in, like he he he gets the uh the opening tip and then all of a sudden he turns around and he shoots this long three and you’re like, yo, what are you doing? But then you realize you’re like, this guy is just so amped up. And then there was like what 19 seconds later from that he just snatched the ball from the guy underneath the uh the Minnesota Timberwolves basket. and you’re like, “Okay.” And then he comes down and he scores. He makes a midi a little bit later. So, you know, Joel was excited. Um, the one thing that really stood out to me the most was his passing, right? It was the the way that he was able to pass the ball. He was getting teammates involved. You know, right now I don’t know if this is how he wants to play or this is how he believes at this particular time he can play for maybe fear of reinjuring the knee. You know, we didn’t see a lot of MB driving to the basket. you know, we saw a lot of Embiid like he was in that in the in this wide scrimmage, you know, facing the basket um from the elbow from and from the three-point line, what have you, you know, dishing the ball to teammates and then certain opportunities uh taking advantage, but his elite passing, you know, on on guys cutting to the basket. There was three where dudes were streaking down the court for uncontested which would have been uncontested layups. And what did MB do? He got dime assists on them right pinpoint. He had three of them. So, you know, I was impressed with what I saw. I mean, he finished with 14 points on five for 10 shooting, two for four on threes. In addition to that, he had seven rebounds. He had eight assists and had three steals. Right. um in the little bit over 18 minutes. So, he played well. Now, Mark, I must add this. There was a scare though. There was a scare. Um in the third quarter, you know, Joel Embiid gets a charge. Uh he he he gets up, his knee buckles a little bit, like wobbles a little bit, and he but he he he sprints down court, but the Sixers quickly call a timeout. She goes to the locker room, you know, I asked the team spokesman, “What’s wrong?” He says, “Oh, nothing.” You know, everything is okay. And and you know, he says he’s done for the game. He’s getting some treatment. And he comes back in the fourth quarter and sits on the bench. Um he did have a big pad on his knee after the game, but that’s the same pad that I told you that he had on during the scrimmage. The heating pad. Yeah, the the heating pad. and and that he normally walks out the game. So, there was a scare, but everybody made it seem like it wasn’t as bad as it looked, but you know, it was good to see him out there. All right. Uh, let me let me put this under the umbrella. Normally, we do this when we talk about what what they’re facing, the opposition, all that stuff. Like, we understand who they played against. Well, last night, we understand who they played against. It’s not about they played against Yeah, they played against man an 18y old that was the equivalent of the NBA’s version of church league. Yeah. I was Yeah. Washington Generals. Yeah. Washington Generals, Sisters of the Poor, Keystone Cops, whatever. I I’ll say I don’t care. This wasn’t about, you know, playing the, you know, the 80s Celtics, you know what I mean? this was about uh playing, you know, just playing. That’s all it was about. So, I don’t care that he was, you know, going up against Baron Jay, for instance. I I only care that he was out there running the floor. Uh the the the two coast to coast plays that he made last night were great. You mentioned the passing. He had three assists in the first six minutes he played in that first quarter. There was one play he made with Kelly Ubé cutting on the baseline where uh he provided the assist and the screen all in one fell swoop which was just a great play by him and I hope he can I hope that he can accept playing the way he’s playing or the way the way he’s play make it seem like he’s playing 30 games here. Um but I I hope he can accept the style of play that you saw him play in the scrimmage. I hope he he can accept the style of play that you saw him play last night because look, you’re talking about you said 18 plus minutes between 18 and 19 minutes played last night. You’re talking about still getting pretty damn close to a triple double just to look at the numbers of it. Now that would be a little bit more difficult against a better opponent obviously, but just in terms of style, in terms of health, in terms of health, this was I feel for Sixers fans and maybe you alluded to it there with the ovation he got or the welcome he got back. This was the warm hug I think a lot of Sixers fans needed like just to see him play. You saw him ramp up in the uh the practice going one-on-one with a coach. Just a little move there, a little thread the needle bounce pass. You saw in a later video. You saw him obviously at least go out there and make the trip to Abu Dhabi. You see him in the scrimmage game. You see him last night actually play against an opponent in live game action for the first time in 237 days. This, I think, was a nice warm hug that a lot of 76ers fans needed. Now, after the game, he addressed the media. I caught some of his postgame press conference there, Keith. He seemed like he was in good spirits. He seemed like almost he was relieved that he went through his first live action game. Yeah. Well, he was relieved, but he was also elated. It was kind of sort of like, you know, first of all, I want to say this. Normally, typically Joel normally takes a long time to talk. Now, again, I get it. I get it. you know, he in the third quarter, um, when he came out of the game, he took his shower, he changed his clothes, he came he came back in, right? Um, but, you know, he was talking about how excited he was to be back on the floor, how much he loved being on there, right? Um, and he was he was in a in a great mood, you know what I mean? So, but the thing that really stood out, one of the things was how the way he loves the way the team is playing. He said that. He says, “I think the way I always wanted to play is everybody touching the ball, moving the ball, moving side to side, you know, people getting off the ball and just playing together.” I guess he talking about more team ball. So far, it seems like that’s the way, at least tonight, that’s the way it was with everybody touching the ball. I was happy about the assist. That’s how I want to play. that keeps everybody happy, keeps everybody involved, and it’s fun to play that way. And with that, he talked about how, you know, Tyrese Maxi had 27 points, how VJ Edgecomb had 26, how Quinton Grimes had 22, right, off the bench, you know, shooting seven for 13, four for six on threes. So to him, you know, he’s saying this is the best way. And then even Nick Nurse even raved about him afterwards, right? Um, you know, uh, Nick was like, uh, you know, I thought he moved good, played good, shot it good, passed it good. I was about say, D, dude, how many goods you going to say? But then he kept going. He said, I didn’t see too many negatives out there. So that’s good. I thought he was moving. The main thing is that he’s moving and making good good basketball plays. It didn’t that didn’t look it didn’t look like he was that rusty in general. Right. So, you know, Nick Nick had felt that MB speaking for Nick. Nick felt that NB played a good game. Let’s just put it that way. I think that’s a safe bet. Now, let me I you don’t you don’t you answer totally independent. Don’t let me influence anything. I maybe it was just me being optimistic. I don’t know. Maybe it was letting the moment get the best of me. But it certainly felt like to me and you pointed out the three that he attempted. So Bona takes the tip, Embiid corrals it and right away shoots a three. Unfortunately, it was a miss, but it seemed like from that moment and then for the rest of the 18 plus minutes, it just seemed like you could you you saw him get more comfortable and try to test himself a little bit. And what I’m alluding to with that was again to go back to it, see him go coast to coast, see him run the floor, see him try to draw a charge, see him have a charge, uh test the limits of the injury. It seemed like as the game was going on, you could see him progressing and getting more comfortable and trying to test it a little bit more as the game went on. Did you get a sense of that or is that just all in my head? Yes and no. like it there were certain things that I I I felt like he was still I mean he he got a little bit more comfortable. I felt like there were certain things that um he still was is a little hesitant to do and and and I think that when you look at the injury that he overcame that that’s that’s normal. You know what I mean? Like you got to get confidence in it. again and talking about like you know the way he was like move maneuvering you know and and things like that. Now to you all right towards the end when he bowled over the dude and got the charge. Yeah he was trying to do something and then they took this sorry to sorry to interject but I do have to I just want to share this with you. I literally have in the third quarter in my notes Embiid too hard to the rim. Don’t need that. Yeah. So he tried then and then they said oh no we got to get him out of here. But but but the thing is I do also believe like for MB for like we you know we’re talking about a confidence game, right? I do think that the NBA version of the Generals, the Washington Generals that they played last night, I lie the church league team. I lie the Jerusalem Rockets. Aha. Little sisters but the poor. that was the best team for him to go come back against because what it is is like no offense to that team, but you know, Embiid is probably getting more uh defensive coverage at practice with if Bona goes up against him against Drummond. You know, these guys, I’m not saying I’m not not a knock against them. They were just young dudes and they probably only had like two guys on there who has a chance to be in the Minnesota Timberwolves actual rotation, right? But at the same time, you got to get somebody out there and just have them go through things and do things. And I felt like this was the best thing. It was like the equivalent of saying, “Okay, Joel, you’re coming over an injury. We want to send you down to the G- League for a game and see what you can do. But some of Huh. Yeah. Rehab assignment. But the thing about it is some of the things that we saw the Chris passes, you know, the other things, you know, he the the way the the the aggressiveness, all that other things, those are some things that you will see him doing against anybody that passing, right? The outlet passes. Um, so again, like I like it and I felt like it was a smart time to bring him back. You know what I mean? Where he doesn’t have to he can just get used to playing a certain role, get confident in that role as opposed to saying, “Okay, I got to go against Carl Anthony Towns. If if if I don’t if I don’t totally dominate Carl in this game against the Knicks in Abuhabi, then all of a sudden people are going to say I’m not the same guy. If that makes sense to you. You know what I mean? Like stop trying to, you know, you you yesterday gave him an opportunity to play a certain role and get comfortable with it as opposed to trying to say, “Well, d is this for my legacy or not?” You know what I mean? Get caugh up with that. Yeah. Like if if Gober would have played last night, for instance, it would have been, “Oh, look at him. Look at look how the mighty have fallen, you know, that kind of Yeah. Yeah. This and that. And he looked good. I’ll be honest with you. He looked good.” Now, the question mark is he says he likes passing the ball, he likes doing all this other stuff, right? The question, and we talked about it before, is if they start struggling, is he going to be content feeding the ball to players? Or is he going to do what he’s done in the past and say, “I got to I got to uh I got to attack.” But again, there was an aggressiveness, there was an alertness, and there was an unselfishness that if he continues to play that way in the way in this style of play that they want to play, I feel like the 76ers will do fine. I mean, it looks like to me, to be honest with you, um Joel Embiid is going to be uh he’s he’s going to be like Mr. Versatility. the head of the snake on the offensive end is going to be Tyrese Maxi, right? I think he’s going to be the head of the snake. And and so, you know, we’re going to look at Tyrese Maxi probably leading the team and scoring, doing everything, but I I feel like if Embiid is content with this role, it’s going to benefit a lot of people. It is. It is. I agree. And you know what? I’ll add this, including him because if he’s not pushing it with the knee, if he’s not trying to bowl over people or he’s not trying to, you know, fight his way to the basket and do a lot of foul hunting and all that, then he’s only going to be healthier for it, I believe, as the season goes on. So, I think it helps everybody, including himself. When we come back, I I absolutely love, Keith, what we saw from the three guards last night. Again, granted, who they were against, but still seeing them out on the court, including Quinton Grimes for the first time, uh, it was a sight to be seen. We’ll talk about that when we return. This is locked on 76ers. Speaking of sightes to be seen, ladies and gentlemen, how about your front yard for Halloween decorations, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the holidays. Wayfair has you covered with some fantastic items for you. The holidays, they’re going to be here before you know it. Starting with Halloween, then rolling into Thanksgiving. 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Wayfair, every style, every home. You mentioned Tyrese Maxi. You mentioned Quinton Grimes. You mentioned VJ Edgecom. I I mentioned there for a second Kelly Ubé on the nice little give and go and screen with Joel Embiid. It was a beautiful baseline jam there for Kelly Ubé. But this is the first time we got to see Maxi Edge and Grimes out there on the court. You mentioned their scoring. I will say this, their chemistry seemed like they had been playing together for a long time already. I I really there was one or two mispes but it felt like to me that these guys were on the same page already. I think that’s a testament to a lot of work that VJ and Maxi were doing in the off season and also Grimes trying to stay sharp uh while he was in Houston. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the thing is and I’m pretty sure Quinton Grimes would love to be in that starting lineup, right? I mean, he would love to and I wouldn’t be surprised. The lineup that we saw they throw out there threw out there yesterday is going to be the lineup that we’re going to see on opening night if MB plays with Bona playing a four, MB playing a um excuse me, Bona playing a five, MB playing a four, Quinton Grimes coming off the bench, right? Kelly Ubé getting the start at small forward and the back court being Edgecomb and Maxi. Here’s the thing that really stood out to me and you know there were certain times where you know they they well they had they bringing the ball up and when you look at him you say to yourself like okay but all right he he’s not it by doing this he’s not being free he’s not doing certain things. You know, don’t get me wrong. There was times they took him off the ball. They tried to get the lob. They did that. But what you noticed was with him bringing the ball up, it was enabling Tyrese Maxi to roam freely, to sprint up the court without the ball. He would find Maxi. Other people would find Maxi and Maxi was like just a killer like just getting buckets, you know, left and right. Now again, little sisters of the poor poor, but at the same time, we’re looking at it and we’re saying to ourselves, the Sixers got to work worry about themselves. They’re working on things. This is the first time that they had Embiid out there. First time they had this lineup. This is what they they got. This is first time that Quinton Grimes played as well. So, this is what they’re trying to work on and get. So then you look at it and then all of a sudden Maxi comes out and it’s kind of like, okay, let’s get Quinton involved. Let’s see what he can do. And he was getting buckets. It was like they were all taking turns. And then the thing about Edgecom when you talk about the missed passes is it was like the timing factor. A couple lobs he tried to get and they missed on, a couple dumps he missed on, you know, things like that. But you look at it and you say, “Okay, they’re working on those things.” Well, did it look a little sloppy at times? Yes, it did. But then in the fourth quarter when they made him the focal point, he ended up scoring 11 of his 26 points, right? And then on the defensive end, you know, we could talk about Joel Embiid, you know, having a game high six assists. Well, VJ Edgecomb had a game high five steals, you know what I mean? So, y he brought it on the defensive end getting in the passing lanes. He did a lot of great things. Now, again, it’s like when you initially look at it, it’s one of those things because you’re saying, “Okay, what is he doing? He’s standing around offensively early on.” You know, I don’t know. He’s just athletic. He’s this. He’s that. Then you look down at the box score and you’re like, “Oh, hey, he got all these steals. Oh, he got a couple assists. Oh, he’s doing this. He’s doing that.” So, yeah, I I like what I saw when you look at the three-headed and and you know, Quinton Grimes, you know, he looks pretty good coming off the bench. I mean, you know, seven for 13, four for six shooting threes, 22 points. He looked good. And all three of them picked their spots. like they picked their spots when it was time for them to dominate. One of my favorite plays of the game was in the second corner. Bona Bona has the block. Maxi is the one that that gathers it and then right away the quick outlet pass to VJ Edge and VJ was like gone. Like the second the shot was up and you can see Bona under the rim uh blocking the shot whatever and then you see Maxi gets it, he’s just gone. He’s already at the foul line on the other end and Maxi hits him perfectly. He go throws it down for the jam. I every time I watch VJ Edgecom, I have to almost be it’s like we knew coming out of the draft or going into the draft how athletic he was. Anybody that watched Baylor, anybody that watched the highlights, you saw how athletic he was. You saw him in uh summer league, the two games, wildly athletic. And then you see him out there in Abu Dhabi, even more athletic. Then you see him, I guess it was the adrenaline of the hometown crowd for the first time, you see him just take off to another height. It was it was awesome to watch that on display last night to see him and Maxi and Grimes running the floor. Ubé obviously being out there as well throughout the game. That was great. But I just continued to be reminded and impressed with the athleticism of VJ Edge and I thought that was off the charts last night. One of the things that I did see that was a little bit unique that I hadn’t seen as much in the previous games, you mentioned the steals, the quick hands. Uh it was it was wild. I I thought he was forcing a lot of turnovers that way. He was getting his steals that way. He was doing something that I know we liked Matis Thyel a lot when he was here for his defensive ability and all that. I noticed VJ Edgecom on one or two of his steals do something that you would see a lot from Thyel, which was kind of baiting guys into into thinking the passing lane was open and then jumping the passing lane for the steel. And that’s a that’s an instinct that you don’t nobody teaches you. And VJ Edge was doing that last night. And that is obviously not just a testament to, you know, speed and quickness, but just the the mental maturity this guy has when it comes to the game of basketball. Everything I saw from him last night with Yeah. You some tweaks like for instance, first quarter, you mentioned some of the pass and all that. First quarter, he’s bringing the ball up, zero assists. Didn’t didn’t have one helper, you know, in the time that he was bringing the ball up. And then they started to come a little bit more as the game went on. But the the just being comfortable out there and showing the mental maturity of a guy like that I I think is going to be a lot of fun to watch how he plays over the 82 games of a regular season. Yeah. And I’ll say this and and I talked to him about this is be you know I talked to him about um the situation that he’s in right now. So you know V I know VJ Edgecomb said you know I want to be rookie of the year. I want to do this. I want to do that. But the situation that he’s in, if the 76ers are extremely successful, you and I talked about this this summer, he’s not going to get rookie of the year because that means Joel Embiid, uh, Paul George, um, Tyrese Maxi, all these guys are playing well. So, but you look at it from a standpoint is the number three overall picked. You know, you could say, you know what, if I was on a bum team, a rebuilding team, this and that, I would get as many shots as I could. It would be more like how it was in the fourth quarter for him, right? He can like just spread the floor. They spread the floor and let him go to work, you know, learn from his mistakes, get a jack up a bunch of shots. Or you can be on this team where you got a lot of veterans where you know you got three future Hall of Famers and uh you know Joel Embiid, Paul George, Kyle Lowry. People may hate on Kyle Lowry, but he has the resume. He won a championship. He won a Olympic gold medal. He you know a six-time allstar the whole nine. Uh very well respected around the league. He can still get in. So I said, “Is this a blessing?” And he said, “Yeah, man. God is great, man.” He said, “I’m thankful to be in this position. Like you said, it’s a blessing. Like you said, I’m not part of a rebuilding team. I’m part of a team that’s ready to win right now. It’s a blessing from the man above just to get me in this situation. I don’t know that everyone thought I would go to a rebuilding team or whatever.” Like he said, I did know like everyone thought that I would go there, whatever. He said, “Like I said, I’m just blessed to have a former MVP on my team, allstar, superstars, all the best that’s going to help me learn learn um out there.” And that’s true because it’s being set up for him kind of sort of like how Tyrese Maxi was. You know, he was a late first round pick. So with late first round picks, you tend to play on veteran teams. You look at all the guys who’ve helped Maxi out. He had James Harden, right? He had Tobias a little bit. You know, he learned a little bit from Ben. Now, some people may say, you know, what’s that? But Ben was an allstar. You know, he learned from so many people and he became a sponge and a hard worker and now we look at him as, you know, an all-star caliber player. He got it one year. So, when you think a guy like VJ, this is only going to help him down the road. And it takes the pressure off of he does not have to be the day one mega star. You know, he can develop um uh grow into his role, get coached up, learn things, see work ethic at practice, everything. Because to me, I’m going to be honest with you, when we look at the Spurs, and I’m not, believe me y’all, I’m not comparing this guy to Tim Duncan, but what I’m trying to say is it was a similar situation. What happened is David Robinson got injured. The Spurs decided to tank and what happened is the next year they came back with a veteran unit and Tim Duncan was there and Tim Duncan was able to soak up things like a sponge from David Robinson from the other veterans they had. So again, I’m not comparing this guy to Tim Duncan the Hall of Famer. I’m not saying that. But what I’m saying is at the same time he’s able to soak up things from three future Hall of Famers and no one knows how good Ty Tyrese Maxi can be. So you know he has four solid players that he’s learning from and not to mention Eric Gordon, not to mention other players, you know what I mean? Andre Drummond. So there’s a lot of people there that he can learn from. Fantastic. When we come back, we’re going to pick up some loose change here. We’re going to talk about Don Barlo. We also got to talk about uh one thing in particular where I I actually felt for the guy, but we’ll talk about that when we return. This is Locked on 76ers and Locked on Sixers YouTube channel. How about FanDuel? Take advantage of all FanDuel has to offer right now, ladies and gentlemen. Have yourself a good time on FanDuel. NFL season’s here. NBA season just around the corner. FanDuel has an offer that you don’t want to miss right now. New customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. That’s right. 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One thing, Keith, I saw throughout last night’s game whenever Odona was in the game and he was deliberately trying not to foul and I think it was in the first quarter of the game where he was playing good defense, just using his body, moving with the uh offensive player, moving with the ball handler down, getting close to the post, and he got called for a foul. And the look on his face was that’s the one thing I’m trying not to do tonight is foul. Now, here’s the deal. He ended up playing 23 minutes tonight or last night. One foul. It was his only foul. And that was early, too, wasn’t it? That was the early Yeah. I was like, “Oh, brother. Oh, brother. Here we go.” They took him out shortly afterwards, didn’t they? They They did. I Because we’ve talked about that a lot in the show. We talked about how in summer league like eight fouls, nine fouls, whatever. They talked about him having foul trouble in Abu Dhabi and making the effort to not foul. You saw that he was really disappointed. He’s like, “What do I need to do? I’m just a magnet now for calls, unfortunately.” So, that was one thing where I really felt for the players like Stop reaching. Did he Did he reach on that? Because Huh? Did he Did he Did he reach on that foul? No, not really. He got a reputation. I was like, “Yo, bro, man. Somebody gets close to him, he’s gonna hack him.” Okay. Foul. Boom. Right. re reputation fell. Fair enough. Uh the other guy that I just was really happy for and continued to be happy for is I don’t think anybody has helped their stock more uh from last season to this season and obviously he wasn’t here last year, but just I I’ll say from the time he joined the Sixers in summer league, Dominic Barlo, Don Barlo, I feel like if you’re buying stock in a player, he’s the guy to buy stock in right now. Again, another night where he was just super aggressive. Oh yeah, no doubt. And it’s funny because there was if you notice like you know Joel Embiid the one thing I will say when that lineup of Don Barlo and uh and um Bona and then you Maxi and and Edgecom and whoever else you want to put out there they get out and go. I mean that transition like you know like Joel was more like Joel was playing well but you know Joel was more like anchor in the gym so to speak you know he was keeping up he was trying to run but that second unit or or when they tweak stuff it’s kind of like okay it’s fun and gun time and and Barlo was keeping up he was doing all the things you know like you said we keep talking about it you know and we keep comparing them but you know they’re they’re they’re extremely he’s more athletic than I thought he would be that he can keep up with these dudes. But at the same time, it’s like the Mark Irone role. Like, you don’t have to do draw any plays for him. He’s just smart enough to know that, hey, crash the crash the boards. Um, play solid D, do whatever I can to help this team. You know what I mean? just helped this team because you know him him and you know let’s say he’s you know if he’s not the sixth man he’s the seventh man but at the same time I really like that change of pace that they provide when MB was out of the game they got out and go went got out and uh went and and he was out there with him he was he was keeping up the pace I really like what Barlo brings man I do and it it’s funny because you know I’m saying to myself. Daryl my you waiting for bro like what are you waiting for now? So the thing is when you look at his stats you say six points on three for six uh shooting. You know what I mean? He had he had five rebounds but three of them were on the offensive. He did pick up three fouls. You know he didn’t have any steals. He didn’t have any blocks. But this just that energy that he provides in those offensive boards. Like we look at it every game so far that I’ve been paying attention to. He’s had more offensive rebounds than he’s had defensive rebounds. And that’s what the Sixers are going to need to keep these possessions alive. Absolutely. His name is Keith Pompei. Make sure you guys are checking out all his writing about your Philadelphia 76ers. is a Sixers beat writer for inquire.com. My name is Mark Varzetta. Appreciate you guys joining us on this Saturday morning after the Philadelphia 76ers wrapped up preseason play with Joel Embiid on the floor. We’ll be back with you guys on Monday to break it down even further. Make sure you guys like and subscribe to Locked on 76ers. That’s Locked on 76ers. And how about this? Thank you for making Locked on 76ers your first listen today. For your second listen, make sure you guys find Locked On Fantasy Basketball, where Josh Lloyd hosts the number one fantasy basketball podcast, giving you daily tips and helping you win your league, all while making you a smarter NBA fan. Find Locked On Fantasy Basketball on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Catch you guys on Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. See you.

Keith and Marc react to Joel Embiid playing in the Sixers’ preseason finale!

The Show also talks about the production the team got from guards, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes!

Segment 1: Embiid’s play impresses!

Segment 2: Three Guards flying around

Segment 3: Dom Barlow and Adem Bona

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