With the uncertainty surrounding the health of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid will have to carry the Philadelphia 76ers for more than just a few games. There’s only one thing standing in his way.
The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t lived up to expectations so far this season. If the NBA playoffs started today, Philadelphia would not have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
That’s a significant decline for a team that was expected to compete for an NBA title at the beginning of the year. The most important piece for Philadelphia to turn things around is the consistent play of Joel Embiid.
The three-time NBA All-Star hasn’t had it easy this year. Embiid, by his own admission, has struggled with finding his role in the offense. Spacing on the floor alongside veteran forward Al Horford has been an issue. When Embiid does catch the ball in the paint, defenses can quickly double-team due to Ben Simmons’ inability to shoot the basketball.
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Those two factors alone are enough to cause any player to struggle. In the case of Embiid, that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. The big man had surgery in early January for a torn ligament in his finger. He missed three weeks, and the 76ers were 1-4 in his first five games back.
Embiid took a lot of the blame for those losses, despite averaging 20.8 points per game and 10.4 rebounds a night during that stretch. He was playing with a cumbersome hand wrap, and still contributing at a high level.
Battling injuries is nothing new for Embiid. He’s gone through this since sitting out his entire rookie season. But for the first time in his career he’s showing an ability to come right back to the court without signs of being out of shape and fatigued.
In previous seasons, that was the biggest knock on Embiid. His previous returns to the court, after not playing for a substantial amount of time, would include several lackluster moments when his team needed him at his best. We can’t say that this year.
It’s not the personnel concerns or Embiid’s health that’s preventing him from flourishing on a nightly basis. It has more to do with the demeanor of Philadelphia’s star player.
The biggest concern is that Joel Embiid isn’t allowed to be himself. The 7-foot big man likes to have fun. He enjoys Twitter beefs and getting under the skin of his opponents. The 76ers’ front office asked him to tone it down at the beginning of the season after a scuffle with Karl-Anthony Towns.
I thought the 76ers were supposed to be a fiery young team? I understand that you don’t want your star player tossed from games and facing suspensions, but that’s not an often occurrence in today’s NBA. Besides, at the time of the fight with KAT, Embiid had 19 points, five rebounds and Philadelphia held a 20-point lead in the third quarter. It seems odd to ask Joel Embiid to turn that off.
Still, he obliged to the request. Embiid appears to struggle with consistency ever since. Toning it down often has an effect on his game.
"[via SI.com]“One of the biggest parts of my game is just having fun,” shared Embiid in December. “By having fun, it means talking trash, but that part of my game has been cut, so I just need to be myself.”"
As contradictory as that statement sounds, it must be even harder to find that perfect balance on the basketball court.
LeBron James went through a similar adjustment period in Miami. His entire first season with the Heat, LeBron played the role of villain. He addressed it in an interview with ESPN following a loss in the NBA Finals.
"“I play the game fun, joyful, and I let my game do all of the talking and I got away from that. That’s what I lost last year. Going through my first seven years in the NBA I was always the “liked one” and to be on the other side — they call it the dark side or the villain or whatever they call it — it was definitely challenging for myself. It was a situation I had never been in before, and it took a while … it took a long time to adjust to it.”"
Ironically enough, LeBron wouldn’t win his first NBA championship until he got back to being the ultimate fun guy. It’s a role that he still cherishes today in his 16th NBA season.
The one thing that we can definitively say is that like LeBron, it’s obvious when Embiid isn’t “being himself” on the court. An embarrassing loss to the Milwaukee Bucks a few nights ago certainly told an interesting story. Embiid’s body language just wasn’t there, and it showed on the stat sheet. He played just 29 minutes, scored just 17 points and shot a dismal 29.4 percent from the field.
Monday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks was a completely different outcome. Embiid brought the personality to the floor that has made him a fan favorite in Philadelphia. In turn, he shot 70.8 percent from the field, had an impressive three steals on the defensive end and scored a career-high 49 points.
As much as the X’s and O’s on the court matter, it’s not what’s truly stopping Joel Embiid from being great on a consistent basis. He can work around the shortcomings of Ben Simmons. As an organization, the 76ers still need to provide a supporting cast of shooters. But if Philadelphia allows the personality of Embiid to shine, his accolades on the court will certainly follow.