The Philadelphia 76ers have a lot resting on Joel Embiid. Luckily he’s been training hard to add things to his game, as he showed us in his recent video.
Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers has been working hard over the last few years to get his body and his foot back to full strength in order to start working on his game. He is ready to debut himself to the NBA this season, and after not playing competitive basketball for over two years, there’s reason to believe he may be at a disadvantage.
Embiid put up a Twitter video that clipped together some highlights from different workout sessions with Drew Hanlen, who is a strategic skills coach for a large array of high-level basketball players. Hanlen is just one of the many people that has been working closely with Embiid over the last few seasons to ensure that when he sees the court this year, he’s ready to attack. This video showed that he has certainly made progress, although unable to have played a competitive meaningful game yet.
Through this video, it’s a lot of hype, big plays, and explosiveness. But there are five specific things Sixers fans can take from the video and find hope in for this season.
Next: Post-up ability
Post-up
One of the biggest things Embiid showed off in the video was his ability to get in the paint in the lower block and put a hurting on his defender with his huge body. Not many physiques can step up to Embiid’s size, and if he has the right technique to body defenders without fouling, he’s going to be unstoppable in the paint.
Of course, in this video, he’s bodying up Drew Hanlen, who is just 5-11 and 180 pounds, which is over a foot shooter and nearly 100 pounds lighter than Embiid, so it’s not all that impressive that Embiid can body him up in the paint, but his technique is solid.
Embiid goes into his post-up with solid form, it doesn’t appear sloppy in any sense. He’s tight, controlled, and has a handle on the ball. Some other players with his size can body up players, but lose concentration on the ball or their center of balance in the process. The form that Embiid is demonstrating shows that this is unlikely to happen to him.
Hanlen, several times in this video, preaches to Embiid, “get low.” This keeps the ball out of the air as much as possible, making it hard for defenders to sneak in and poke the ball out. He needs to keep his center of gravity small for that balance to stay on point as well, which he seems to be doing well.
Next: Finishing power
Power
After the post-up, Embiid has a couple of different options given his skill set. Once he’s drawn the defender in and bodied them up, he could force his way to the hoop as one of his options. Since he’s so big, a lot of defenders will be at a huge disadvantage if he takes this route.
Decent length, however, has allowed some players to counter that. They could get a hand on the ball, and counter Embiid’s attempt to get the ball in the hoop. But if Embiid is strong with his finish, a hand on the ball won’t stop him.
Embiid showed off a couple flashy finishes throughout the video, and the thing about them is they’re truly flashy, not just in looks, but in speed as well. The dunks are so quick that you hardly see him move the ball towards the rim before it’s in the hoop. This is largely due to a strong finishing power on Embiid’s part.
Embiid has a tendency to dunk quickly, and strongly, and those two things combined will make it incredibly difficult for defenders to get a hand on the ball. Even if they do, the strength that Embiid puts into the action will call for a pretty big block to stop Embiid, or even deter his dunk just a little bit.
Next: Spin moves for days
Spin move
Another option Embiid can try after he’s initiated a properly formed post up against his opponent is to hit them with a spin move. A spin move is an incredibly hard thing to cover. Many players have mastered the art of guarding players who have simple post up skills because it’s very simple. Players are moving in one direction, with not much variability. But as soon as they spin, it’s a deterrent and makes things more varied, thus giving the defense more to think about.
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When the defense has more to think about, they spend all this time trying to figure out how to combat, and before they know it, the ball is in the hoop. Players of Embiid’s size often don’t have the best spin moves, but Embiid’s spins are pretty graceful.
In several of the post up videos, Hanlen tells Embiid to “stay low.” This keeps the ball down and harder to slap at, something Embiid seems to be good at based on the videos. He dribbles the ball once, spins gracefully to the hoop, and with a few steps that aren’t enough to constitute for a travel, he’s at the rim.
Spin moves can be solid ways to get Embiid near the rim when he’s not right on it already, but he can also utilize them to get himself solid fadeaway shots, too.
Next: Side-step and step-back shot
Step-back shot
Shortly after Embiid put up his video of footage taken by Hanlen, Hanlen himself put up a clip of Embiid working out on his Instagram page. This one was of spin moves ending with fadeaway shots. It just goes to show how dangerous and multitalented Embiid can be.
As discussed in the previous slide, spin moves can be dangerous because they can lead to him getting to the hoop easily and with only having to put the ball on the floor once. But he can also finish away from the rim as well.
Again, in this video, Hanlen preaches, “stay low,” to Embiid, keeping that form tight and the ball away from getting knocked loose. Embiid puts the ball on the floor twice, takes once step in, one step out, brings his inner foot out to get set with the outer foot, and nails a fadeaway shot.
These are called spin step-backs, something Embiid clearly has a handle on. So, if the Sixers are able to get the ball to Embiid in the post, he can go for a dunk right away, or add a spin move. Using that spin move, he can get himself close to the rim with just one dribble for a lay-in or dunk, or he can set himself up nicely for a step-back jumper. That makes him deadly in the paint.
Next: Flashiness
Flashiness
Lastly, and probably least importantly, is the flashiness that Embiid showed off in the video. The video, first off, is well captured, and gives a nice flashy feel for Embiid’s game in what could be shown as a simple run-down of training clips.
Embiid, in these clips, finishes at the rim in some flashy ways, once doing a fancy layup that one wouldn’t expect from a big man. Another time, he gets a nice pass off of a roll, puts the ball on the ground like a guard, and elevates for a solid dunk, practically throwing it through with a satisfying snap of the nylon to be heard by the viewer.
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One of his spin moves ends in a dunk that seems to rattle the whole gym. Another time, he steps around his trainer and extends his arm all the way for a nice pull-back dunk.
The video concludes with the flashiest dunk of them all, Embiid takes two steps, puts the rock through his legs, and throws it down for a great dunk. Embiid isn’t just doing things with technique leading up to the season, he’s getting ready to be one of the team’s most solid entertainers.
Next: Sixers Can Run Small Ball
Embiid showed us that he’s got solid skills. His form with his post-up game is clearly solid, and that allows him to utilize a spin move that can lead to many different hard-to-guard offensive options. The flashiness is just a cherry on top.