Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid’s willing to adjust for Ben Simmons

The Philadelphia 76ers have two stars that don’t fit together, but it appears one is now willing to sacrifice for the team’s greater good.

This season, more than ever before, one thing has become abundantly clear, the Philadelphia 76ers dynamic duo aren’t a good fit. The fit of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons on offense has been terrible this year. Not all of it’s on them, but a good portion of the reason why they don’t fit is do to their skillsets.

Embiid’s easily the most dominant center in the NBA and arguably the best overall at the position. He’s an elite defensive anchor, low post bully on offense who has just enough shooting touch to be somewhat of a threat from the 3-point line.

Simmons is one of the most unique players in the league. He’s a 6-foot-10 point guard that can guard ever position and his making a case to be the best defender in the NBA. His offensive game is much more limited. Besides being a great passing, he essentially scores all his point inside the paint. He’s a poor free throw shooter and lacks either the confidence or the incentive to take outside shots.

In today’s NBA, an offense won’t function well if two players clog up the paint. The Philadelphia 76ers made it work in the past by having high volume 3-point shooters on the team, like J.J. Redick. Sadly, they don’t have anyone like that on the roster this year and their poor fit has been even more prevalent as a result.

However, during Embiid’s recent absence due to injury, Simmons has been playing phenomenal. It apparently has made Embiid reconsider his approach to the game once he returns to action.

There’s several things that need to evaluated and dissected from Embiid’s statements on ESPN’s The Jump.

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In the last nine games that Embiid hasn’t played in, the Sixers have a record of 6-3. More importantly, during that same stretch Simmons has been averaging 21.6 points, 9.3 rebounds, 7.9 assists and 2.3 steals, while converting 65.3 percent of his field goals.

His numbers (especially points per game) are much higher than his season averages and he’s just been more aggressive getting to the paint during this stretch too. Based on the team’s good play and Simmons’ improved output, it’s more than understandable that Embiid is willing to become more of an outside shooter moving forward.

Currently, Embiid is averaging 3.8 3-point attempts and is shooting 32.2 percent from deep. Not bad for a big man, but his percentage isn’t even at the NBA average. Still, if Embiid floats around the 3-point line when he and Simmons share the floor and he increases his 3-point attempts to around five per game, it should make the world of deference.

There’s no denying that if Embiid starts taking more 3-pointers it would help spacing for the Philadelphia 76ers when he and Simmons share the floor. However, it also doesn’t mean that Embiid will turn into Brook Lopez and almost abandon his post game all together.

Head coach Brett Brown usually staggers the two stars minutes throughout the course of a game, so they won’t have clog up the paint. During the time that Embiid’s out on the court by himself, he should be able to still be dominate in the post.

Embiid also made it clear in the clip above that if the 76ers aren’t winning with him being outside of the paint that he would go back in there so he can get the team to where they need to be. This is the right mindset. He’s willing to sacrifice the strongest part of his game so that Simmons can maximize his strengths, while also realizing if the team’s in trouble he has to step up and start posting up.

To be clear, it’s not fair that Embiid has to give up so much just because Simmons isn’t willing to take outside shots. However, considering that’s it’s apparent that Simmons isn’t going to change, at least not this season, Embiid taking more 3-pointers is the best way to make these two stars fit for the time being.

This isn’t a long-term answer, but Embiid taking more 3-pointers may help fix the Philadelphia 76ers spacing issues at the moment. It also shows maturity from Embiid as he’s willing to sacrifice for the team’s success.