So how about Joel Embiid

[QRich3]

Eh nothing too dramatic, I don't doubt they like the kid and want him to dominate. But both got in his ear yesterday after a couple of plays he wanted to do everything and ended up turning it over at the top of the key once, and giving a wide open layup in another. As they should. Henderson too after a couple missing rotations. Again, nothing too dramatic that you don't see in every team, just saying I bet they (like me) are hoping he calms down already and plays normal basketball.

Not sure what those pass numbers are supposed to tell me, but he's certainly not beginning to calm down yet, he gets overexcited and that leads to the classic gamble plays that don't pay off in the long run. Yesterday he tried to trap Payton like 4 times when he shouldn't be doing that, twice it went well, and another two it led to defensive breakdowns. He left his man open under the basket a few times because he was over eager helping, and on the other end turned it over a few times because of not having patience. Basically, the usual stuff you see in a rookie, only he does it pretty much every possession. And because he is so good, it works half of the time, but he needs to learn it doesn't work in the long run.

I get that you're excited about the kid, I'd be too, but there's no need to defend every little thing like it's an attack on him. He's a rookie and makes rookie mistakes, and that's ok. And because of all the excitement surrounding him, he gets infected and tries to do everything. It will go away and he'll be the awesome basketball player he is meant to be, but so far it's a bit frustrating to watch.

[Last Guardian]

Very impressive. If he stays healthy he could have best C in league title wrapped up by end of the year and for many years after. On offense he is like Vucevic, has post moves and a great touch/jumper. But he is much bigger and more athletic than Vuc. And on defense, he is like Whiteside. In small ball era he is a great C to have. He'll protect the rim against those driving guards and has the offensive ability to punish any team that tries to go small on him.

[CoreyGallagher]

Not sure what those pass numbers are supposed to tell me

That he's already passing more, getting others involved, and not wanting to simply 'end every possession' himself - which he was doing in preseason and his first game. I edited to include his declining usage as well.

Eh nothing too dramatic, I don't doubt they like the kid and want him to dominate. But both got in his ear yesterday after a couple of plays he wanted to do everything and ended up turning it over at the top of the key once, and giving a wide open layup in another. As they should. Henderson too after a couple missing rotations. Again, nothing too dramatic that you don't see in every team, just saying I bet they (like me) are hoping he calms down already and plays normal basketball.

but he's certainly not beginning to calm down yet, he gets overexcited and that leads to the classic gamble plays that don't pay off in the long run. Yesterday he tried to trap Payton like 4 times when he shouldn't be doing that, twice it went well, and another two it led to defensive breakdowns. He left his man open under the basket a few times because he was over eager helping, and on the other end turned it over a few times because of not having patience. Basically, the usual stuff you see in a rookie, only he does it pretty much every possession. And because he is so good, it works half of the time, but he needs to learn it doesn't work in the long run. I get that you're excited about the kid, I'd be too, but there's no need to defend every little thing like it's an attack on him. He's a rookie and makes rookie mistakes, and that's ok. And because of all the excitement surrounding him, he gets infected and tries to do everything. It will go away and he'll be the awesome basketball player he is meant to be, but so far it's a bit frustrating to watch.

I'm not defending every little thing, your criticisms are fair when they're applicable, he does attempt to do too much and in those specific instances that you cited, he did, but I think that you're exaggerating (everything that he does, every possession) to rationalize for some of what he is doing that is impressive in and of itself. Also, I disagree about his teammates' frustrations with him, that seems to be projection.

[ItsThatEasy]

I hate hyperbole but I haven't seen a big get the ball on the block and look this physically imposing AND coordinated since Shaq.

Every analytic debunking the value of the post up should be thrown away for Embiid, he looks that good down there.

[24istheLAW]

I hate hyperbole but I haven't seen a big get the ball on the block and look this physically imposing AND coordinated since Shaq.

Every analytic debunking the value of the post up should be thrown away for Embiid, he looks that good down there.

It's not that post-ups are devalued in the NBA right now. It's that posting up without the ability to pass/create offense out of the post is frowned upon, and there are few players in the league who can do it.

As a prospect I thought Embiid could be a turbocharged version of Marc Gasol. Scoring, shooting, passing, handling the ball a bit, and quarterbacking his team at the other end of the floor on top of it. If he stays healthy I really think that is going to happen.

[cksdayoff]

there was a couple of possessions where he got called for traveling last night where he shuffled his feet before shooting the ball in the post, in both instances he made both shots. could've had a much bigger game on the offensive end if it wasn't for those silly mistakes.

[dc]

I hate hyperbole but I haven't seen a big get the ball on the block and look this physically imposing AND coordinated since Shaq.

Every analytic debunking the value of the post up should be thrown away for Embiid, he looks that good down there.

Definitely the most physically gifted bigman prospect since Shaq. If he stays healthy, he likely becomes what people thought a healthy Oden should've been, and probably better than that.

Other than health, it's hard to find anything about him that would prevent you from thinking he'll dominate. The skills, the size, athleticism and physicality. It's all there.

[Marcus]

haven't been able to watch a complete game since OKC, but his highlight packages seem to show him slowing down and using a lot more patience in the post and with his touches in general. Still has some balancing issues to iron out when he feels contact at times but there's been game to game progress which was a signature of his at Kansas.

I understand being cautious with his health at this stage but once he's unleashed I expect to see even more improvement just as his track record has shown. I am very curious to see how well he does with the 30 plus minute grind of the game. I want to see if his energy level stays the same or he properly conserves it and I don't know what his foul totals are looking like when he's on the floor but that's my other question when the minutes start to come. Will his aggression turn into frequent whistles or can he make the adjustment knowing he'll have more minutes on the floor.

[kodo]

there was a couple of possessions where he got called for traveling last night where he shuffled his feet before shooting the ball in the post, in both instances he made both shots. could've had a much bigger game on the offensive end if it wasn't for those silly mistakes.

As he gains star power & recognition...the officials simply won't call them anymore.
NBA stars even on the perimeter shuffle their feet before dribbling (travel) non-stop.

[76ciology]

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[cksdayoff]

I understand being cautious with his health at this stage but once he's unleashed I expect to see even more improvement just as his track record has shown. I am very curious to see how well he does with the 30 plus minute grind of the game. I want to see if his energy level stays the same or he properly conserves it and I don't know what his foul totals are looking like when he's on the floor but that's my other question when the minutes start to come. Will his aggression turn into frequent whistles or can he make the adjustment knowing he'll have more minutes on the floor.

In the second half last night, he looked noticeably gassed. Good idea to give him that rest tonight.

[QRich3]

I'm not defending every little thing, your criticisms are fair when they're applicable, he does attempt to do too much and in those specific instances that you cited, he did, but I think that you're exaggerating (everything that he does, every possession) to rationalize for some of what he is doing that is impressive in and of itself. Also, I disagree about his teammates' frustrations with him, that seems to be projection.

That's fine, I'm not gonna sit here and argue body language with you like I'm Bill Simmons or something lol take it as my opinion and go from there.

As for your passes/usage numbers, trying to give assists is still trying to finish possessions, but the point of all this is, we've seen he has an innate scoring ability and he sees the floor well, I wanna watch him more in a normal setting, working from the elbows while Sergio and Saric run a pick'n'pop, setting off ball screens for a Hendo curl, etc. etc. Right now he just screams for a block isolation or a pick'n'roll every possession (understand 'every' is a manner of speaking, I don't mean literally every one lol), and whenever the PG goes away from him you can tell he uncomfortable and trying to get into the play. I just want to see what he's gonna be like in a normal setting.

[HotelVitale]

there was a couple of possessions where he got called for traveling last night where he shuffled his feet before shooting the ball in the post, in both instances he made both shots. could've had a much bigger game on the offensive end if it wasn't for those silly mistakes.

As he gains star power & recognition...the officials simply won't call them anymore.
NBA stars even on the perimeter shuffle their feet before dribbling (travel) non-stop.

The officials last night we're calling a lot of weird on-ball violations too. There were multiple traveling calls on what looked like pretty regular plays, and a carry on Sergio for dribbling more or less like Rajon Rondo has done every trip down the court for 8 years.

Either way, I'm encouraged by the fact that he can make those moves so quickly and fluidly (unlike Okafor, who often takes 4-5 seconds to get a move off), and that the travels seemed incidental to the post moves. He'll be fine once he settles in, and he'll be able to take guys to work immediately and effectively in the post.

[Ballerhogger]

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now if they can just figure out the guard play and not give him the ball so out of position from the hoop.

[90sgoat]

there was a couple of possessions where he got called for traveling last night where he shuffled his feet before shooting the ball in the post, in both instances he made both shots. could've had a much bigger game on the offensive end if it wasn't for those silly mistakes.

As he gains star power & recognition...the officials simply won't call them anymore.
NBA stars even on the perimeter shuffle their feet before dribbling (travel) non-stop.

The officials last night we're calling a lot of weird on-ball violations too. There were multiple traveling calls on what looked like pretty regular plays, and a carry on Sergio for dribbling more or less like Rajon Rondo has done every trip down the court for 8 years.

Either way, I'm encouraged by the fact that he can make those moves so quickly and fluidly (unlike Okafor, who often takes 4-5 seconds to get a move off), and that the travels seemed incidental to the post moves. He'll be fine once he settles in, and he'll be able to take guys to work immediately and effectively in the post.

Lets hope the NBA finally decided to cut down on blatant travel and carry.

[HotelVitale]

As he gains star power & recognition...the officials simply won't call them anymore.NBA stars even on the perimeter shuffle their feet before dribbling (travel) non-stop.

The officials last night we're calling a lot of weird on-ball violations too. There were multiple traveling calls on what looked like pretty regular plays, and a carry on Sergio for dribbling more or less like Rajon Rondo has done every trip down the court for 8 years. Either way, I'm encouraged by the fact that he can make those moves so quickly and fluidly (unlike Okafor, who often takes 4-5 seconds to get a move off), and that the travels seemed incidental to the post moves. He'll be fine once he settles in, and he'll be able to take guys to work immediately and effectively in the post.

Lets hope the NBA finally decided to cut down on blatant travel and carry.

Eh, I don't care too much one way or the other as long as it's consistent for both teams. It's pretty arbitrary whether or not they let you get away with 2 steps rather than 1.5--the game's still almost entirely the same either way, and both teams can take equal advantage of the extra leeway.

To be clear, though, Embiid traveled on the last call (can't remember the earlier one clearly); it wasn't extremely blatant and that wasn't the reason why he was able to score, but it was obvious enough that I have no problem with the call. I'm less cool with calling a point guard for palming when he's just sort of dribbling around and not on his way to the basket. If they're gonna start doing that, they need to send a memo out that they'll be enforcing it regularly, instead of just arbitrarily deciding how much palming is too much palming for that moment. I think last night the officials noticed because the 76ers rookies and younger guys were f'in up pretty obviously, which forced the refs to pay more attention to footwork and maybe call some things they wouldn't normally call.

[lorak]

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[76ciology]

Patrick Ewing watched Joel Embiid film this preseason, walked right into Coach Steve Clifford's office and said: "Woah. This guy? He might be the most talented center in the game." Clifford says he's "glad" Embiid played last night, giving the big man the night off tonight.

Tom Haberstroh, ESPN Staff Writer

http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=21-0585582192571194524-4

[eagereyez]

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He's going to be a Gobert level defender in time. That length and foot speed is unreal.

[sims]

you know your prospect is well on his way as soon as the fake, revisionist celtics rumours start coming out of the woodwork...