Joel Embiid Preseason Debut Was INSANE

Joel Embiid Preseason Debut Was INSANE

Joel Embiid pre-season debut. What a game. 18 minutes, 14 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, three steals. On top of that, the Sixers were plus 12 in his minutes. Obviously, the competition wasn’t anything crazy. The T-Wolves were playing their third stringers, but it’s just good to see him out there and having success. And I was laughing. He started the game with a damn heat check. What are we doing here? It was nice to have his rim protection back and off the ball he was very active with his hands getting steals just like this. But more importantly when he was in this situation where he got a rebound, he got a steal. He was looking up the court immediately. And this is how you run a fast break. Unfortunately, UB smoked the dunk. What else is new? But he did get fouled. And here’s the Joel Embiid we know and love. One dribble between crossover into the hey pullup midi. The Joel Embiid Gravity is back. He passes up the three-pointer, takes the driving lane behind the back, and look, he’s got four players surrounding him. VJ is wide open. He kicks to Ubé for three. And guess what? That opens up a free offensive rebound for VJ. All set up by the gravity of Embiid. He passes up another wideopen three. Then he turns into Jaylen Brunson trying to foul bait. And he does generate a wideopen three for VJ. Just an unfortunate miss. As I was saying, he gets a rebound, looks up the court, fires away to Dominic Barlo, who does the rest, and one. This was a funny moment. Tyrese Maxi is going up against Rob Dillingham. For once in his life, he has an opportunity to back him down and play bully ball. The roles are reversed. You got Embiid trying to throw an entry pass to Maxi and it doesn’t go well. Maxi’s probably looking at Embiid and saying, “See, it’s not as easy as it looks.” Great defensive rep from Embiid. He’s taking away the paint, then takes away the three-point look. Later on, he’s helping out UB, taking away that driving lane, and then he gets a deflection. He’s not done yet. He’s playing point guard again. And I was impressed by the touch and accuracy on this pass. I feel like in this situation a lot, it usually goes into the eighth row. His accuracy is very inconsistent in those situations, usually throughout his NBA career. He’s working with Quinn Grimes once again, passing up a three-pointer. And here’s a spot last season where he would drive. Usually his knees would give out on him and he’s falling to the ground or he’s just driving out of control. But here he’s under control. Doesn’t fall. And just because he’s Joel Embiid, he acts like he’s Steph Curry and throws up the highest finger roll you can possibly imagine. But the touch is nice. So it goes in. This is very nice to see. The Maxi and Embiid twoman game is back. Nice burst from Embiid after the pump fake into the crossover. maintains control, doesn’t force anything up. He finds Maxi and sets a great screen. Now a wideopen three is generated. Now he catches in the corner, works the twoman game with UB. Nice bounce pass. And I feel like that’s Kelly at his best. No dribbling, just play finishing off Embiid. He comes up with another steal. And at this point, I was like, “Oh no, this is going to be interesting. Hopefully he doesn’t fall.” But he finds Jabari Walker for a layup. And that’s the thing, he was playing very slow tonight, but very in control. And most of the night, he was staying on two feet. He wasn’t falling over a bunch. I feel like in his second stint when they were stealing passes like this, he was struggling to get up and down the court more than his first stint. He only played like 3 minutes to start the second quarter and then later on he came back. We see his versatility. They’re running a three-point action for Embiid. catches the rock wall while moving right into the three-point shot at his size. I mean, that’s that’s just insane. That’s why I do get annoyed at times when he constantly passes up three-pointers. I understand he doesn’t want to live off those, but I feel like when he gets a ton of volume up, it’s more likely for him to, you know, knock down two in a row. And now here, he’s just doing his thing, chilling, and then eventually take the jumper. He bricks it this time, though. Look at this savvy move from Embiid. You see the rookie catch it and he pulls the chair. Whoop. So now he’s completely off balance shooting it up. He bricks it and be gathers in the rebound and then he takes it up the court. This is the most impressive play from him. He was going full speed and he euro steps. The ability to put pressure on that knee and for it not to give out. That’s a great sign for the Sixers. And then in transition, he takes a three-pointer that I’ve been asking for. And it’s almost like he’s more comfortable when there is someone in front of him or near him. Now he fakes a three-pointer. He’s going back and forth, switching gears, staying on balance, having fun with it. He breaks it, but it’s just good to see stuff like this from him. I miss it. Joel was also missing the foul baiting tactics. He starts it off with a picture perfect half spin going the other way. Look at the separation created. Pump fake and then he just jumps right into the defender who completely got fooled. And the last clip of the night was the only time where I could say he really was out of control. You could tell he was a bit nervous after this one. Probably had some knee to knee contact, a little PTSD from his past injuries, but he shook it off and he was running back down the floor fine. Now it’s all about how does his body respond? How will he feel tomorrow? That’s the next test for Joel Embiid, but it seems like he’s on track to play opening night. And honestly, he looks very good. I thought last season a big issue for him was, you know, trusting that knee to plant and holding his weight when he’s moving quickly. I thought tonight he played a really mature style of basketball. And when he took a little more risk like doing a euro step or driving to the hoop, his body actually, you know, didn’t give up on him. I was impressed. Hopefully the guy can continue to stay healthy because if he does, the Sixers are going to be a playoff team. Let me know your thoughts below.

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