Embiid’s Competition Will Be His Teammates
In a Utopian world, everyone plays a known role and all roles work in harmony. But this is not Utopia, and the Philadelphia 76ers must scrap, claw, and gnash on every play. That mean that the team cannot count on Joel Embiid delivering those type of goods in his debut.
It required Hakeem Olajuwon six NBA season before he was able to deliver a quad double. It cannot be expected to happen anywhere earlier for any player in the NBA.
But the competition for the quad double will come from Embiid’s teammates. In any given game, the limiting factor will be the number of opportunities in that game. For the Philadelphia 76ers, each rebound hauled in by Ben Simmons is a rebound not pulled down by Joel Embiid. You get the point. Delivering a quad double requires a player to excel at all aspects of the game.
For a true “jack of all trades”, the team need look no further than Ben Simmons. The rookie Simmons gives new meaning to positionless basketball, as he can play virtually any position. And he can play well at each. A player of Simmons strengths can challenge for double double on any given night, and not just points scored and rebounds.
His basketball acumen is significant enough to elevate the play of his teammates as well – potentially with a solid showing in assists this year. In fact, if this were a candidate for a triple quad, I would likely be writing this article about Ben Simmons. But for the life of me, I simply see Simmons as less of a shot blocker than Embiid.
But the reality is that Simmons will be dropping the dimes. In fact, it would need a game where Simmons is resting for the potential for Embiid to distribute ten or mores assists.
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It will take time, but the skillset of Joel Embiid leaves plenty of room for speculative optimism. Can he be that player who delivers a quad double? Right now, there’s hope. If patience wins out, there could be much more.