October 05, 2016
As promised, Brett Brown spent his money quickly on Tuesday night, so much so that he went a little over the 12 minutes that Joel Embiid was supposed to be limited to his first time on an NBA court.
In 13 minutes of action, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft finished 2-6 from the field for six points, while chipping in with four rebounds, two blocks, two turnovers, and one funny self-aware tweet:
Felt great being back out there... Now we don't have the same amounts of points and minutes ha #TrustTheProcess pic.twitter.com/xhrSEgjAVO
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) October 5, 2016
The numbers aren’t particularly important. Above all else, it was nice to see Embiid make it up and down the floor a few times. It’s understandable to feel that any analysis of his first game should begin and end with health, but we’re going to take a look at a few on-court things we saw from Embiid in his debut:
For a few years, Sixers fans could only watch highlights of Embiid at Kansas. Heck, Embiid even admitted at media day that all he could do was watch highlights of himself at Kansas. His Dream Shake against New Mexico probably topped the list of his greatest hits, and we got a taste of the low-post ability on his first basket.
Even with all of the rust, Embiid’s moves still seem to be there:
Celtics TV analyst Brian Scalabrine (“SCALLLLLL”), who was front and center for Embiid’s famous pre-draft workout, did a nice job describing his post repertoire. Specifically, Embiid doesn’t predetermine anything, taking what the defense ultimately gives him. On this play, Tyler Zeller latched onto his left shoulder. So Embiid faked that way, spun back to the middle, and shot the little fadeaway over his right. Beautiful move.
Embiid’s footwork also impressed on missed shots. Look at this jab step to get a good defender in Amir Johnson away from him, creating a ton of space:
Embiid knocked down a shot from the top of the key, so he earned Johnson’s attention all the way out to the three-point line. At the end of the half, Embiid got two free throws by popping out, pump faking, and driving by Johnson when the closeout was too aggressive. This is very advanced stuff for a seven-footer:
This block on Jaylen Brown will get a lot of attention, and rightfully so:
But I want to look at a few other bang-bang plays:
(Vine might not be the best platform for these videos, but hey, it’s the preseason over here and NBA.com, too.)
Al Horford gets an offensive board on one of those plays, and Jae Crowder finishes the other. So what’s the big deal? They were both extremely hard layups to finish, because Embiid is a gigantic human being that doesn’t move off his spot easily.
Roy Hibbert, who is also 7’2”, was an incredible defensive force for a few years because of the rule of verticality. Embiid might struggle a bit against shooting bigs (partially due to the Sixers predictably have him playing conservatively on pick-and-rolls), but he has the ability to more than make up for that around the rim.
It’s worth noting that the Celtics had their full complement of players, and their starters can really, really defend. Boston finished fourth in defensive efficiency last year and massively upgraded at center with the addition of Horford. They good.
So when Embiid got doubled in the post, things didn’t go well:
In total, Embiid was doubled three times and they all went more or less like that. It’s nice that he was drawing double teams early on, but I also think it was defensive strategy more than Brad Stevens saying, “We can’t stop this guy.”
Embiid certainly didn’t handle the doubles well, but the Sixers’ spacing on the weak side of the floor was very poor. On one possession after his man doubled Embiid, Dario Saric stood at the foul line instead of cutting to the rim. These things can be fixed, but the Sixers will have their work cut out from them in that department.
Embiid made it through the game just fine, but this was a scary moment:
It appeared only to be a momentary tweak (Embiid finished the half and will play tomorrow night in Philly), but moments like that are going to terrify Sixers fans throughout Embiid’s career. Hopefully as he gets back on the floor, those scares become less frequent.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
