Can the Philadelphia 76ers duo of centers really play well together?
In the last couple of days, the Philadelphia 76ers players have spoken with media and of course, Joel Embiid proved some good commentary when he spoke to the media recently. Paul Hudrick of NBCSPhilly captured a particularly interesting comment from the Sixers All-Star big man.
Joel Embiid on playing with Al Horford: “I don’t see any problems.” Said that they need to be surrounded by players that want to shoot the ball.
— Paul Hudrick (@PaulHudrick) July 7, 2020
On the surface, it makes sense for Embiid to say this. Obviously it shows trust in Al Horford as a teammate and trust in the front office’s idea of having the two big men play together. However, there might be some genuine truth behind Ebiid’s statement.
The season, the 76ers are 22-15 in games that feature the starting lineup of both Embiid and Horford. However, Embiid and Horford and a Net Rating per 100 possessions of negative-1.6 points. While this stat appears to disprove Embiid’s belief, there are stats that seem to support it.
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In Hudrick’s tweet, he relays that Embiid believes he and Horford can be effective if surrounded by willing 3-point shooters. Working under that premise, the stats are a bit kinder to the duo of big men.
The Sixers are 3-2 with both centers starting and non-shooter Ben Simmons out of the lineup. The trio of Simmons, Embiid, and Horford has a Net Rating per 100 possessions of negative-1.0 points, but the trio of Embiid, Horford, and Josh Richardson has a Net Rating per 100 possessions of positive-2.2 points.
While Richardson hasn’t had a great season shooting from deep (32.7 percent), he’s a willing shooter attempting 4.5 per game. This, of course, all goes back to Simmons’ unwillingness to shoot being the core of most of the Sixers’ offensive woes. If he did start taking 3-pointers once play resumes, then he, Embiid, and Horford could potentially be an effective duo.
Until that happens, it’s totally possible that Embiid and Horford could work well together as a duo. There are other big frontcourts in the NBA that have two players that can play at center, like Serge Ibaka’ and Marc Gasol do or Anthony Davis and JaVale McGee/Dwight Howard for example. It doesn’t appear completely impossible to make Philly’s two big men co-exist if surrounded by complimentary personal.
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Bown needs to take the eight seeding games before the playoffs and see just how effective Horford and Embiid can be as a duo. Embiid could very well be right and the two big men just need some court time to prove his statement true.