What Happens If Joel Embiid Is Better Than His Reputation?
By Bret Stuter
Similar to Hakeem Olajuwon
In his NBA analysis, the writer projects Joel Embiid as a player similar to Hakeem Olajuwon. If that analysis holds true, then a good optimistic view would be to follow the first year of the renowned Houston center. But the problem with projecting a player in the shadow of an NBA great is that if the prospect has a bad game or even stretch, the nay-sayers will be quick to discount it. But knowing that Embiid is young, has been away from the game for a long period of time, and is joining the roster of the worst NBA team record wise this season, let’s run with it.
Hakeem Olajuwon joined center Ralph Sampson to become an incredibly dominant pair at the post. Much like the Sixers dilemma, those Houston Rockets moved previous 7’4″ center Ralph Sampson to power forward to make room for the 7’0″ Olajuwon. In that first season, Olajuwon proved he was special – scoring 20.9 points per game, hauling in 12 rebounds per game, blocking 2.7 shots and stealing 1.2 times per game. His partner Sampson would score 22.1 points per game alongside Hakeem. Much of the success of Olajuwon was the ability of Sampson to move to the four spot. It was Sampson’s ability to play heads-up at the four that gave Olajuwon the opportunity to excel for the Rockets.
If Joel Embiid is to enjoy an Olajuwon-like career, either Jahlil Okafor or Nerlens Noel will need to slide to the power forward position and divert some of the stress from the new rookie. But that need to divert won’t last long. It would have been much better for Joel Embiid to have arrived first, and then slid to the four spot to make room for Jahlil Okafor. But the order has reversed, and that places all the more pressure on already taxed head coach Brett Brown to place his young skyscrapers at the proper address.
Based on Sampson’s success at the four, I’m wagering that Brown will give the intelligent basketball player a look at power forward. If he succeeds there, he will likely pair with Jahlil Okafor and the pair will generate in the low 40 points per game between them. With Embiid kicking in the rim protection, Okafor can use his big body to pull in rebounds on both ends. But if the team settles in on Embiid at the five, then the more likely pairing would be Nerlens Noel at the four. While this would place the pair in the mid 30’s to low 40’s scoring, the defense would be that much better, with both feeding off one another and becoming extremely difficult to work inside.
Next: Pieces Needed to Augment Joel Embiid