Joel Embiid Is the Ultimate Test For the Philadelphia 76ers

Nov 2, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie (far left) watches as center

Joel Embiid

(21) walks out of the tunnel on crutches prior to a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Joel Embiid Is the Ultimate Test For the Philadelphia 76ers

A 7’0″ 250 pound center from the University of Kansas Jayhawks had put up an impressive freshman season. He averaged 11.2 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, while blocking 72 shots to earn Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors. His success masked the fact that he was just in his fourth season of playing organized basketball. Just four years of it.   Through the first 14 games of the season, Embiid allowed 0.88 points per play and 50.0 FG% when he was defending the post. However, during the last 15 games, he allowed 0.55 points per play on 28.6% from the floor.

His success on the basketball court had come at a price, which was paid by his body.  He had struggled with back issues, and is now in his second full season of recuperation from a second surgery to his right foot.  Embiid, born in Yaounde Cameroon to Thomas and Christine Embiid, grew up playing soccer and volleyball in Cameroon, only decided to pursue basketball at the age of 15 in response to the success of Hakeem Olajuwon.   He was discovered by former Philadelphia 76er Luc Mbah A Moute, who is himself a fellow native of Yaounde Cameroon, and moved to the US at the age of 16.    He attended The Rock School, a christian academy in Gainesville Florida, and ultimately chose to attend Kansas, where he arrived with less fanfare than fellow freshmen Wiggins and Wayne Selden.

Embiid hurt his back while landing awkwardly during a game late in his freshman season, and missed the Jayhawks’ final two regular-season games and the Big 12 tournament. He also missed a victory over Eastern Kentucky and a season-ending loss to Stanford in the NCAA tournament, after which he said that he would have been able to play had Kansas advanced to the second weekend.  Joel Embiid played a total 28 games for the Jayhawks.

After drafting Nerlens Noel in 2013, Joel Embiid found himself sandwiched between Noel and the newly draft Jahlil Okafor in 2015. His reaction was worth a follow:

Embiid recovered quickly as he realized his initial comment might be interpreted as counter productive:

Of course, Jahlil Okafor’s father hails from Nigeria, another African nation.  Sam Hinkie will search the globe for players who exhibit superior basketball skills and intelligence.

Next: Something To Get Excited About

Apr 8, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) dunks the ball before a game against the Washington Wizards at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Something To Get Excited About

Embiid appears to be a natural.  His measurables have placed him into immediate consideration as a player with a bright NBA career in his futre. At 7’0 and 250 pounds with a 7’4 wingspan, Embiid looks like he had been engineered, as though he was constructed from an “NBA superstar” blueprint in a laboratory from the best parts of lesser center prospects. He has elite size, length and athleticism. He has the ability to get down in a stance and switch on the pick-and-roll, bang with bigger players on the block and contest shots high above the rim. Embiid is the rare seven-footer who projects as both an elite defensive and offensive player. But in the framework of having so little exposure to the actual game of basketball, he still has plenty to be excited about:

Embiid averaged a mere 22 minutes a night in college because he flirted with foul trouble. He plays aggressively, since he hadn’t determined that a better path was not to block every shot, grab every rebound and go after every steal. He is still a novice at one year of college coupled with only a couple years of secondary education basketball, and he remains unaware of the fact that his mere presence in the middle of the lane is more than enough to impact the game. He averaged 11 points, eight rebounds, one assist, one steal and 2.5 blocks a game on 62 percent shooting in that time, good for a 26.8 PER. He brings a good game.

His situation certainly helped him out, of course. Under Bill Self, the Jayhawks have always been one of the premier post teams in the country, running an inside-out attack that features a lot of high-low action and back-door cuts.   Coach Self’s offense was the perfectly suited to teach Embiid the game.  The Jayhawks maintained proper floor spacing and the perimeter players must be responsible to play off a big man. Most college teams aren’t committed to playing inside-out, with guards who don’t know how to feed the post and who stand around and watch when they do, making it easy to double-team the block. In that respect, Embiid may have benefited by not picking up the game until he was 16. Unlike most young big men, he didn’t learn any bad habits. Embiid is not trying to run point, move the ball all over the court. He has no problem getting into the post, fighting for position and demanding the ball. He learned the value of real estate on the basketball court. His height gives him the deed to the high-rise district immediately around and under the basket.

But, he played center for one season for one college team. Then, he was injured. After learning to love the game of basketball in a wild and torrid four-year romance, he has literally been divorced from the game due to his foot injury.  That made him ripe for Sam Hinkie’s process.  High upside with a dented outlook.

Next: Convalescence or Lack Of Commitment?

Oct 30, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Injured Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid leans on his crutches while watching warm ups against the Utah Jazz at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Convalescence or Lack Of Commitment?

Nothing has been more representative of the elements of Sam Hinkie’s strategy in patiently assembling an NBA championship roster than the case study of Joel Embiid. No other draft selection, no other resulting experience. No other misfortune, mishap, or misdemeanor. When the Philadelphia 76ers selected Joel Embiid with the third pick of the 2014 NBA draft, that moment was perhaps the clearest vantage point into the mind of the close vested general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers.

A top rated prospect, who was coming off foot surgery – an indication that he suffered the same crippling risks as many NBA players whose careers have ended prematurely with bad feet.  A freshman center whose upside is literally off the charts in terms of what he could translate into on both the offensive and defensive side of the basketball court, but at a position where the team had already drafted a very gifted young man in Nerlens Noel.

A powerful player with a track record of physicality, but who arrived almost off of a gurney and was delivered directly to the team’s rehab for two years running.  Why would a general manager who is trying to build a championship team subject himself and his team to a plethora of unknowns and uncalculable risks?  Because Sam Hinkie is in his natural element when playing the odds, when he looks at the rewards and the inherent risks and instantly sees the path he needs to take to optimize the wager.

But when a second surgery was announced as necessary to promote a full recovery of the bone that had not healed after a year’s time, the question of whether the bone could be healed came into play.  So did the intergrity of the first recovery plan.

Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer had a good piece on this subject.  He pointed out the fact that Joel had lost his younger brother in October of 2014, and was denied the most productive coping strategy available to the young basketball player: playing basketball.  So 6,000 miles from home, separated from family, he was relegated to anti-gravity treadmill kept his heart rate up, but did not prevent the young man from putting on an additional 50 pounds of weight.

"The Sixers are trying to address the added weight. Embiid, however, hasn’t always been a willing workout participant, according to sources. He’s even blown off conditioning drills, one source added. An altercation with Davis during the West Coast trip, coupled with Brown’s wanting him to be in “more of a structured, stable environment,” pushed the Sixers to send him home, the sources said. Because he’s not practicing, Embiid is unable to give his side of the story. Maybe that’s all for the best. Brown said Embiid “has been good trying to get back on track with his conditioning.” The Sixers don’t want to rush the third overall pick onto the court. It’s also believed they would be content if he missed the entire season, as Nerlens Noel (knee surgery) did last season. That’s understandable. Embiid was a health risk even before the Sixers drafted him. A stress fracture in his lower back kept him out of the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments last winter. Still, he was projected to go No. 1 until a stress fracture in his right foot was diagnosed the week before the draft. He had surgery June 20 and was expected to be sidelined up to eight months. – per Keith Pompey in Inside the Sixers: Questions surround Embiid’s conditioning, maturity article January 19, 2015"

We had plenty of our own discussions about Joel Embiid, and detailed out events before and during the second surgery.

Josh Wilson began the coverage in his article on An Update On Joel Embiid’s Foot Surgery. I followed up with that with Embiid Update II and Embiid Update III.  In fact, it’s become a pattern of writing and debating the player who has yet to stand on the basketball court in a Philadelphia 76er’s jersey during a game.   That is the upside, the chatter, and the power of Sam Hinkie’s strategy of finding team changing players from the recycle bin.  But once he finds them, Sam Hinkie takes ownership of the recovery process.

But for now, we find ourselves chained to status updates. So let me reassure you, the recovery is going well this time. Or better yet, I’ll let the CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers tell you himself.

"“Our doctors are saying it’s going ahead of schedule, but at the end of the day we know we have to show you and not just tell you. I will tell you that he is an elite talent, and I think he will be an elite player in this league.” – Scott O’Neil, CEO Philadelphia 76ers"

Next: Power Of Philanthropy

Mar 7, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel (left) and center Joel Embiid (right) share a laugh during warm ups before a game against the Atlanta Hawks at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

The Power Of Philanthropy

It’s never been done. You can’t do it that way. That’s not how it’s designed to be played.

Rules restrict, imagination breaks down those barriers, but the heart makes all things possible.

On one hand, there are those who see the pattern of Sam Hinkie considering each player as mere currency, with Hinkie watching each player’s value rise and fall like a stock on the New York Stock Exchange.  When the players value peaks, Hinkie is rumored to be there sitting by the phone, pulling the trigger, making the deal, and converting one more prospect into next year’s first round draft pick.  If this plays out, then as soon as Joel Embiid plays game minutes , operators will be standing by to field offers.

On the other hand, there are those who see the pattern of Sam Hinkie shopping in the recycle piles of NBA players, or even of those who never heard their name called.  They see him as an enlightened despot, a ruler of the kingdom of Philadelphia basketball who has infused the opportunity to become a professional basketball player with an almost philanthropic intent to give an opportunity to those who do not have the hope themselves.  If this scenarios plays out, the longevity and commitment of this team to foster the young Cameroon through health and family tragedy cannot be lost on the player.  As mercenary as professional sports, there is the occasional story where a team, an owner, a general manager, a head coach, or even a close friend and teammate, have stood alongside a player who must face a deeply emotional challenge.  In the case of Joel Embiid, everyone has stood behind him.  Even the city of Philadelphia, the national media punching bag over the legend of santa, snowballs, and batteries, has found the story of Joel Embiid touching.

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Despite the fact that he has never played a single minute of Philadelphia 76er basketball, there is not a fan who does not wish the young man well.  Here is a man, a pioneer, who is far from home, far from the basketball court, and far from delivering the promise of NBA draft day from 2014.  Does Philly turn their back on him?

No.

He remains a topic of interest to basketball fans, and therefor the occasional topic of sports articles.  Joel Embiid, whether by design or by accident, has revealed that Sam Hinkie does not abandon one of his own.  Patience, state of the art, all resources of the Philadelphia 76ers franchise are in motion to restore Joel Embiid to his “wow” ways of playing basketball.  In fact, Hinkie has not “cut his losses” on this one.  He’s acted more like a father who blocks all other factors out when he is trying to save his son.  Sam Hinkie is more than a general manager of a basketball team.  He is the father of this team’s rebuild.

Next: They Can't Keep Three Bigs

Oct 30, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel (left) and center Jahlil Okafor (right) watch from the bench during the final minutes of a game against the Utah Jazz at Wells Fargo Center. The Utah Jazz won 99-71. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

They Can’t Keep Three Bigs

When the Sixers drafted injured Joel Embiid, with an injured Nerlens Noel returning from injury, nobody could anticipate the two would not play a single game together more than a year later.  In fact, when the Sixers drafted a third center in Jahlil Okafor, the perception was such that many expected someone to be traded before the season began.

But no trade happened.

When the 2016 season happens upon us, there will be many decisions to be made.   I won’t consider vacating spots to make way for the arrival of three collegiate centers on the same team, but simply the compatibility of three bigs on this team.  Can it be done?

If anyone can do it, Brett Brown can.

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There are several ways to run this trio – either allow three of them to man two positions (in this scenario, center and power forward) and run them in alternating schedules .  In a second scenario, they can let Jahlil Okafor play the post, and rotate Embiid or Noel as the second big.  In either case, they have very good passing skills and can develop a style of opening the middle by passing to one another down low in the post.

But there are other ways to engage all three.  At 7′, Joel Embiid would be almost impossible to block if he set up outside the perimeter and drained treys throughout the game.  The expectation of what Embiid can do will be just that… his style, much like that of Nerlens Noel, is versatile enough to allow the team to graft three bigs into two positions on the floor.  And with three large bodies who are strong on defense and can play the post, the team evolves.

Next: Ranking Philadelphia Range Shooters

But evolution is NOT revolution.  Sports casters and writers seem to confuse the two. Evolution is a slow methodical process which advances progress.  Revolution is a violent change which simply changes a direction.  Evolution improves.  Revolution can go from bad to worse.  Ultimately the Philadelphia 76ers must win games.  Ultimately the player moves must pan out.  But Sam Hinkie has set up the Sixers like a game of gin rummy.   When you see what he really held in his hand, it’s too late to do anything about it.

Now, back to the Lakers game.  We are playing for their first round draft pick.