Could Joel Embiid be the Most Efficient Stretch Four for Sixers?

Joel Embiid, despite being well over 7 feet tall, may just be the Philadelphia 76ers most efficient stretch four, should he be placed there.

The Philadelphia 76ers came home triumphantly to their training facility in Camden, New Jersey on Tuesday after winning in a big way over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. It was one of the best team effort wins of the season, and the Sixers did it without Joel Embiid, who has been the superstar of the season for the Sixers thus far.

Two interesting things happened at the practice held on Tuesday. For one, Ben Simmons suited up without a boot on his foot and the medical staff and coaching staff permitted him to take free-throws. This is big for Sixers fans to hear since the team has been secretive about his injury recovery. This proves that the recovery is going well, and at the very least, it’s progressing. We don’t know a lot about the pace of the progression just yet, but it’s important to see that Simmons and the team have transitioned through multiple stages of the recovery.

The second interesting thing was Joel Embiid played the power forward position. According to Basketball Reference, Embiid has spent 100 percent of his time so far in his NBA career as a center, so that transition all of a sudden is a bit odd, drastic, and to be frank, a bold move by Brett Brown.

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“I was more of a four today, offensively and defensively,” Embiid told Tom Moore after practice.

This does a few things. For one, Brett Brown indicated that this “ripples” and moves Dario Saric to the small forward position, which was something we saw coming. He should do fine as a small forward, not having shown many signs yet that he has the muscle to be a true power forward in the NBA (although defensively, he will need to lock down wings a bit better).

Brett Brown also talked to Tom Moore about how Nerlens Noel (likely at the center) and Embiid as the power forward makes for a great combination defensively at the rim. There has been some discrepancy there, however, because Noel spoke after practice and said he felt like he was a better defensive player out on the perimeter than both Embiid and Okafor.

But at the same time, it brings up a curious question with running Joel Embiid, the center who has been rumored to be a legitamite 7-foot-3 center, as a power forward on offense. Could he potentially be somewhat of a stretch four?

Naturally, by running Embiid as a power forward, he’s going to take 3-pointers, and possibly even more 3-pointers per game by placing him in the power forward slot. The indication when you move a player from center to power forward is that they will play less at the rim, and more away from it. With Embiid already taking nearly 3 shots per game beyond the arc, it will be intriguing to see how that number is impacted with him running the occasional set as a power forward.

Ersan Ilyasova has taken over the title of stretch four of the Sixers so far this season, and has done so with decency. The Sixers trading for him early in the season for Jerami Grant has, so far, looked like a great move. Ersan has shot 45.8 percent from the field and 38.0 percent from beyond the arc.

Embiid has technically shot at a higher success rate from beyond the arc than Ersan, indicating he could be a better stretch four. He is shooting 44.2 percent from beyond the arc, but that can likely be attributed to the fact that Embiid takes less 3-pointers than Ersan, and really only has taken 3-pointers when he’s wide open.

That portion of his shot — the fact that he usually won’t take long shots unless they’re really good looks for him — might hinder him an ineffective “stretch four” to start, but over time, the mystery that is Joel Embiid and the new age of centers in the NBA could make him more confusing to defenders. The opposition has to try to defend Embiid, and that has already been troubling to some of the league’s best defenders.

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For instance, after the Sixers beat the Miami Heat earlier this year, the media asked Hassan Whiteside why the Heat left Embiid open on plenty of 3-pointers. Whiteside said he — and the team — were okay with him taking those shots as a 7-footer. Whiteside is a great defensive player, but he was thrown off by Embiid and how he should approach his defense with him.

Putting Embiid in as a power forward only adds to that confusion. There’s a massive difference in preparation when going up against a team that has a stretch four such has Ilyasova versus going up against a team with a stretch four like Embiid. Do you defend him tight on the 3-point line and risk getting blown by? Or do you leave him space and risk him hitting long shots?

These are questions that are asked when going up against any stretch four (that’s the whole advantage of obtaining that type of player) but the questions are magnified and more convoluted for defenders to figure out when it’s something they haven’t seen before such as Embiid.

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When this year is said and done, we probably won’t see Embiid’s zero percent at power forward this year go up much higher than 10 percent by the end of the season, but with so many big men on the edge of being healthy enough to play in Noel and Jahlil Okafor, it’s likely that Embiid will have to be a power forward in some instances. It might not be that bad of an idea.