The Philadelphia 76ers are going to be one of the most interesting teams in the NBA to follow this year. They have an unbelievable amount of talent on their roster. LeBron James. Jaylen Brown. Tyrese Maxey. And then, there’s Joel Embiid. He’s going to have to lean into a lot of his best role-player skills this year to best help his teammates.
In his prime, Embiid was one of the best big men in NBA history. And if he can stay healthy this year, perhaps there’s a chance he could return to that form. Or at least close to it. But he definitely won’t get the same number of touches. There are too many mouths to feed in Philly now. That’s why he needs to lean into some other skills outside of his elite scoring, post moves, and foul-drawing.
Embiid needs to be an elite screener this season. He needs to nail his threes when they come his way. And he needs to get back to the version of himself that was a legitimate Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
Joel Embiid needs to focus on his best role-player traits
The Sixers are going to need to get a lot of talented players a lot of touches this year. If they want to be the best verion of themselves, they need to be able to get everyone going.
James needs to run the offense at a high level. Brown needs his mid-range shots and driving lanes. Maxey needs to get his shots all over the court and push the pace. Even VJ Edgecombe will need on-ball reps.
Obviously, Embiid is part of that group. He’s inevitably going to get his chances to be the team’s leading scorer. He’ll get the ball in the post plenty of times every night.
But if he can lean into some of his best off-ball skills, the 76ers will be better off for it. That needs to be one of Embiid’s top focuses heading into the upcoming season.
Embiid has the build to be one of the best screeners in the league, especially considering how much individual gravity he has. Teams won’t be able to just leave him if he screens an opponent out of a play.
The pick-and-pop could be a perfect weapon for the Sixers, too. If Embiid hits a good amount of his threes this season, then that’s one more tool in the 76ers’ arsenal.
Then, there’s the defense. Embiid has been one of the best defenders throughout large portions of his career. He needs to do that for the 76ers this year.
Philly doesn’t have a ton of great perimeter defenders. If they can have the best defensive version of Embiid holding down the paint, it would at least give them a great back line.
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