Embiid earned my respect after this series. No one should question his toughness

[CS707]

Yeah he's clearly been playing through something. Good on him, but I can't believe he's injured again. It seems like Joel and the team have been mismanaging him partly, with him coming back eaely from injuries he shouldnt have, or the games theyve played with hia game day status. I don't know what the answer is for him. Just sit out the first 2/3rds of the season and just ramp up for playoffs?

I've wondered about the merits of resting a player for the first month or so of the season as a load management strategy. Shorten the season entirely instead of sitting the player every several games. Or maybe a month from the All-star break to early-mid March. For someone old or injury-prone it doesn't seem like a terrible idea.

The Lakers used to do it with Shaq. It works as long as the rest of the team is good enough to keep things afloat.

[NyKnicks1714]

Yeah he's clearly been playing through something. Good on him, but I can't believe he's injured again. It seems like Joel and the team have been mismanaging him partly, with him coming back eaely from injuries he shouldnt have, or the games theyve played with hia game day status. I don't know what the answer is for him. Just sit out the first 2/3rds of the season and just ramp up for playoffs?

I've wondered about the merits of resting a player for the first month or so of the season as a load management strategy. Shorten the season entirely instead of sitting the player every several games. Or maybe a month from the All-star break to early-mid March. For someone old or injury-prone it doesn't seem like a terrible idea.

The Lakers used to do it with Shaq. It works as long as the rest of the team is good enough to keep things afloat.

That's right, good call. I can see something off that nature happening next year with both Embiid and LeBron.

[QingJames]

With every passing game, Embiid is apparently playing at less and less of his full capacity. First it was 80%, then 60%, and now 50%. Soon people will be saying that Embiid didn’t play in this series at all…

[QingJames]

His defensive effort has been weak,injury or not. Stop making excuses for this guy.

But his defensive impact has been dramatic. The 6ers can't stop anybody when he's on the bench.

They can’t stop anybody when he’s on the court, either. He’s posting a 120 defensive rating in the series so far. Putrid.

[Capn'O]

I think one of the key issues with Embiid is that he lack basketball IQ. He is not a great student of the game and does not understand the complexities of the game. And before any idiot raises the race card, the poster above shows how a similar player adjusted and developed his game understanding later in his career.

Embiid is top 5 percent in the league in athletic ability but I would rate him as bottom 50% in BB IQ.

You're not wrong but i don't think BBIQ is nearly subtle or specific enough here. Embiid's very smart with his angles and with how to attack guys one on one, and he has excellent timing on defense and often outsmarts guys on that end. In some ways he understands the game as well as any big, and he really is a total maestro at picking apart individual defenders.

There's two general things I think he's lagging in, might be repeating some of above but what the hell. One is that he lacks the ability to map defenders and plan his moves around that. He's particularly bad at anticipating doubles and help defense-- he not only doesn't have a precise plan for what to do when help comes, but also often either dribbles right into doubles or flips out as soon as he sees one coming and panics. He seems surprised every single time when a defender who's not his guy shows up, is left without a way to calmly make them pay.

The other thing is related but distinct: he lacks the ability to manage himself and make quick decisions about the best play. Like I said above, he's often too casual or too aggressive dealing with doubles, but he's also often too casual or too aggressive with his own help defense, passing, rebounding, shotblocking, finishing at the rim, etc. He needs to be able to process right away 'okay how hard do I need to go on this particualr play to make the play I want to' and he's just not good at it. He'll let players out-hustle him for rebounding positioning on 4 plays in a row, and then rebound like a mad man for the next 4--and if he just calmly did his fundamental box-outs on most plays the results would be better. Shotblocking is most obvious--he lets some super easy buckets get psased him sometimes and sometimes is insanely locked in--but it's sort of everywhere. Even in his one on one offense (which he's sick at) he's often either challenging someone and going for broke, or else doing his lazy dribble-dribble-fadeaway thing (or dribble-dribble-lean-in-and-hope-for-whistle). Often doesn't look like he's reading the defense and deciding based on that, more just following random impulses.

IQ isn't bad for him.

Feel is. He can run Nurses system and he's skilled enough to be a competent playmaker.

He just lacks the feel for the game other great players do. Giannis is similar.

This all checks with what I've seen so far. I keep thinking... if the Sixers somehow also had Josh Hart this series wouldn't be close right now in the other direction.

[DreamTeam09]

[youtube]https://youtu.be/pgXNuo3H7yw?si=RVk_8_TeNmntBlUl[/youtube]

https://youtu.be/pgXNuo3H7yw?si=RVk_8_TeNmntBlUl

Possible Embiid eye injury

[Special_Puppy]

I really hope that Embiid has a 2011 Dirk like Title Run to shake off the Playoff Choker Allegations.

[Pelly24]

Could you imagine if Tobias Harris could average 18 ppg on league average efficiency in the playoffs? Would go such a long way. With Embiid, it's just injuries at this point. Just terrible luck.

[Roy T]

I‘d rather risk tryna win the first round without him, than lose him for the rest of the playoffs by playing him at 50%

[Persi]

I really hope that Embiid has a 2011 Dirk like Title Run to shake off the Playoff Choker Allegations.

Dirk is a wonderful human being and deserved every bit of that run.

Embiid is an awful leader, crybaby, one of the worst floppers in NBA history and, let's not forget, that he played the race card last year to win MVP.

See the difference?

[LaLover11]

Embiid needs to just play minimum minutes in the season and just Load Manage for the Playoffs

[rapstarter]

If he's playing, that means he's healthy enough to play (like most other players who are not at their 100% by this time of the year). Playing through injuries is commendable but this "he's playing at his 50%" narrative is stupid. It's not quantifiable, and we should do that for every player if we want to do it for one.

[Lockdown504090]

Embiid milks the extent of his injuries to give himself a get out of jail free card for his inevitable massive decline in efficiency and production.

Even when fully healthy his conditioning and the change in how he’s officiated are big reasons why he stinks it up come playoff time.

He can’t blink with left eye right now. This unless he has help from the training staff to de activate his face, this is an absurd comment.

[Lockdown504090]

I really hope that Embiid has a 2011 Dirk like Title Run to shake off the Playoff Choker Allegations.

Dirk is a wonderful human being and deserved every bit of that run.

Embiid is an awful leader, crybaby, one of the worst floppers in NBA history and, let's not forget, that he played the race card last year to win MVP.

See the difference?

How did embiid play a race card?

[Nuntius]

If he's playing, that means he's healthy enough to play (like most other players who are not at their 100% by this time of the year). Playing through injuries is commendable but this "he's playing at his 50%" narrative is stupid. It's not quantifiable, and we should do that for every player if we want to do it for one.

We can definitely do this for other players as well (Kawhi, Haliburton et cetera) but Embiid does look much more limited health-wise than others.

Most players are indeed not 100% this year but there's a difference in the gradients of un-health (to create my own neologism here).

[cgf]

His defensive effort has been weak,injury or not. Stop making excuses for this guy.

But his defensive impact has been dramatic. The 6ers can't stop anybody when he's on the bench.

They can’t stop anybody when he’s on the court, either. He’s posting a 120 defensive rating in the series so far. Putrid.

What's their defensive rating with him on the bench? Because the big fella's On-Off is an insane +84.1 and Philly is +11.1 with him on the court through two games. So it seems silly to blame him instead of the guys who are losing by 73 pts per 100 possessions when he's on the bench.

[cgf]

If he's playing, that means he's healthy enough to play (like most other players who are not at their 100% by this time of the year). Playing through injuries is commendable but this "he's playing at his 50%" narrative is stupid. It's not quantifiable, and we should do that for every player if we want to do it for one.

...I mean we should always consider the context of a player's production, whether they are Embiid or not.

[QingJames]

But his defensive impact has been dramatic. The 6ers can't stop anybody when he's on the bench.

They can’t stop anybody when he’s on the court, either. He’s posting a 120 defensive rating in the series so far. Putrid.

What's their defensive rating with him on the bench? Because the big fella's On-Off is an insane +84.1 and Philly is +11.1 with him on the court through two games. So it seems silly to blame him instead of the guys who are losing by 73 pts per 100 possessions when he's on the bench.

Philly's roster is extremely bad, yes. It can simultaneously be true that Embiid's defense is overrated AND the team is worse with him on the bench.

[cgf]

They can’t stop anybody when he’s on the court, either. He’s posting a 120 defensive rating in the series so far. Putrid.

What's their defensive rating with him on the bench? Because the big fella's On-Off is an insane +84.1 and Philly is +11.1 with him on the court through two games. So it seems silly to blame him instead of the guys who are losing by 73 pts per 100 possessions when he's on the bench.

Philly's roster is extremely bad, yes. It can simultaneously be true that Embiid's defense is overrated AND the team is worse with him on the bench.

True, but I guess that depends on how you think he's rated. Given the impact he's making even though he's hobbled, it's hard to argue he's not a massive difference maker. But whether a massive difference maker is better, worse, or about where his defense is typically rate, depends on what that consensus is.

Not many guys are able to deter Brunson from going to the rim the way Embiid has been. Wemby and AD are the only two others that I can think off of the top of my head...Brunson went right at Gobert when we played them and aggressively attacks most of other top rim protectors.

[QingJames]

What's their defensive rating with him on the bench? Because the big fella's On-Off is an insane +84.1 and Philly is +11.1 with him on the court through two games. So it seems silly to blame him instead of the guys who are losing by 73 pts per 100 possessions when he's on the bench.

Philly's roster is extremely bad, yes. It can simultaneously be true that Embiid's defense is overrated AND the team is worse with him on the bench.

True, but I guess that depends on how you think he's rated. Given the impact he's making even though he's hobbled, it's hard to argue he's not a massive difference maker. But whether a massive difference maker is better, worse, or about where his defense is typically rate, depends on what that consensus is.

Not many guys are able to deter Brunson from going to the rim the way Embiid has been. Wemby and AD are the only two others that I can think off of the top of my head...Brunson went right at Gobert when we played them and aggressively attacks most of other top rim protectors.

I will grant you that Embiid is a rim deterrent, but he consistently shrinks on defense in the playoffs compared to the regular season (much like his offense does). People are well aware that his offense drops off a cliff in the postseason, but less aware that his defense does too. This is because he's great at the highlight blocks, and offensive players don't test him as much in the regular season. His lateral movement on defense is not special, he doesn't seem to want to block out for defensive rebounds in the playoffs (1 rebound in the entire second half last night), and he gets roasted when smaller players switch onto him closer to the perimeter. It's funny, because bad perimeter defense was always the criticism of Gobert, and yet Embiid is a much, much worse perimeter defender than Gobert ever has been.

Embiid is posting a -0.3 DBPM this postseason, compared to the 3.1 he put up in the regular season. This is a pattern every year for him, where his DBPM drops off anywhere between 1-3 points. It's because when he's really tested as a defender, he is not this Gobert or Duncan-esque defender that his stans make him out to be. He doesn't do the unglamorous dirty work that being a truly elite defender entails. Good block rate =/= good defense.