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Embiid is triggered by Olajuwon's comments about him and Jokic. So he's responding back to him, even insinuating that Hakeem has low iq. What are your thoughts on this people???

https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/2023/01/20/sixers-joel-embiid-fires-back-at-hakeem-olajuwon-over-critical-comments/?taid=63cb00f066853e0001d0c3a6&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

“It’s funny when you’ve got these old guys always talking about posting up, ‘you need to spend time in the paint,’ and all that stuff,” Embiid continued. “You can’t win this way anymore. It’s not the fricking 90s or 80s like it used to be. So, they must not have any basketball IQ.”

I don't think Embiid's the one that's qualified to say how you can and can't win...

I wasn't aware of this beef but apparently Hakeem criticized Joel for settling for too many 3's.

I think Joel made a good point in his reply but saying Dream has no basketball IQ is not going to win a lot of people over to your side of the argument.

This is the original Hakeem quote.

On Embiid:

"He's got all the moves, but leveraging the moves is different. Why would he be shooting threes? He has the advantage every night, and if I have the advantage, I'm going to wear you out.

"[Shooting threes is] settling! When I'm tired, I settle. You don't settle when you're trying to win. You don’t start the game settling!"

On Jokic:

"He's playing the game, and you think he's not serious, but he's so effective. He doesn't look strong, but I see he gets such deep post position. I think maybe it's the mismatch, but then he does the same thing against bigger guys. His shot, his fakes, they are very difficult to time. You don't know when he's faking and when it's real. He has tricks!"

I don't think Hakeem's criticism of Embiid sounds particularly thoughtful. I do think that Embiid still leaves something to be desired as a decision maker, but he's improved in this area so much the past 2 seasons. I think Embiid's scoring game is super aggressive, very smart (he's correct about how he describes attacking the nail), and he's not attempting too many 3s. There are things to critique about Joel's game, but Hakeem doesn't do a good job of it purely in this quote.

Doesn’t Hakeem realize that with Joel’s constant flopping and foul baiting, if he played more in the paint he would spend literally 40% of the game sprawled out on the floor. Just not sustainable for his style of play.

Imagine how unwatchable Embiid’s game is from someone like Hakeem or Duncan’s perspective. Biggest guy on the court but spends the game jacking shots, ref bating, and flopping.

I feel like the defense is happy every time that Embiid, Giannis, Lebron, or AD takes a 3 instead of attacking the basket.

I agree with Hakeem, but then the flopping would become a joke

Frank Dux wrote:Imagine how unwatchable Embiid’s game is from someone like Hakeem or Duncan’s perspective. Biggest guy on the court but spends the game jacking shots, ref bating, and flopping.

it would be as unwatchable as people thought duncan's game was back in the day.

Big man in the post has indirect benefits for a team.
Players/Stars are all about the direct benefits of their work (box score stats).

Hakeem is 100% correct. Embiid is soft. And lazy. He would rather jack up threes and flop his way to the line than stay in the post, where he has a big advantage most nights.

Kiss of Death wrote:Hakeem is 100% correct. Embiid is soft. And lazy. He would rather jack up threes and flop his way to the line than stay in the post, where he has a big advantage most nights.

embiid takes 3 3 pointers and has posted up more than anyone in the nba over the last 5 years.

Everything Hakeem said was correct. Jokic is better than Embiid and has a more diverse offensive repertoire.

Remember when Embiid developed the Dream’s Shake move and identified it as such? Felt like he was paying max respect.
The game has been restructured in ways that no longer rewards a pure center. But Embiid has grown a little reactive of late.
Not surprising considering the stress of the past two years. Still, we would welcome a return of the familiar Biid humor.

bisme37 wrote:I wasn't aware of this beef but apparently Hakeem criticized Joel for settling for too many 3's.

I think Joel made a good point in his reply but saying Dream has no basketball IQ is not going to win a lot of people over to your side of the argument.

True that you can't win just posting up the same way you did in the 90s but Hakeem is also right that Joel isn't trying to wear anyone out/down. He lets people off the hook with his jumpers. In the playoffs there is a big plus from wearing the other guy down -- think of Curry running all over the court, it just wears defenders out. Same with games where LeBron or Wade relentlessly drove to the hoop, the opposing defense begins to wear down. If Embiid played more inside in the playoffs I think it would help his teammates a lot. I don't mind the occasional 3 but I do think some big guys are letting teams off the hook when they aren't relentlessly taking it to the cup or stressing the defense to their maximum.

I've always felt one of the Warriors' big advantages historically has been tiring the other team out with pace/space. Joel might be able to find his own unique spin on wearing the other teams out, and it doesn't have to copy Hakeem or others.

rzzzzz wrote:Remember when Embiid developed the Dream’s Shake move and identified it as such? Felt like he was paying max respect.
The game has been restructured in ways that no longer rewards a pure center. But Embiid has grown a little reactive of late.
Not surprising considering the stress of the past two years. Still, we would welcome a return of the familiar Biid humor.

I understand both Hakeem and Duncan, why they like Jokic's game more. Because his post up game is more diverse than Embiid's, he has more tricks like Olajuwon have stated, it reminds them of the old school basketball. And when you take to account his unreal soft touch, he rarely dunks the ball, but his hooks and floaters are money ,he makes them with the high percentages. I don't think Embiid is so mad about criticism of his shot selection. It was Olajuwon praise of Jokic that is really bothers him. I think he will be extra motivated next Sunday against Jokic.

33.6 PPG on 64.4% TS, doesn't get more elite than that, Embiid is doing more than fine in the scoring department, it's more about passing with him that he still needs to fine tune.
Embiid has between 6-7% higher TS% compared to league average, Hakeem was just 1-2% higher most of the time.

Mickey8 wrote:

rzzzzz wrote:Remember when Embiid developed the Dream’s Shake move and identified it as such? Felt like he was paying max respect.
The game has been restructured in ways that no longer rewards a pure center. But Embiid has grown a little reactive of late.
Not surprising considering the stress of the past two years. Still, we would welcome a return of the familiar Biid humor.

I understand both Hakeem and Duncan, why they like Jokic's game more. Because his post up game is more diverse than Embiid's, he has more tricks like Olajuwon have stated, it reminds them of the old school basketball. And when you take to account his unreal soft touch, he rarely dunks the ball, but his hooks and floaters are money ,he makes them with the high percentages. I don't think Embiid is so mad about criticism of his shot selection. It was Olajuwon praise of Jokic that is really bothers him. I think he will be extra motivated next Sunday against Jokic.

Naw that's your biased reaction lol
It has nothing to do with Jokic, this has been a talking point since forever with Embiid about why he doesn't post up more, he is probably fed up of it.

Bum Adebayo wrote:36.6 PPG on 64.4% TS, doesn't get more elite than that, Embiid is doing more than fine in the scoring department, it's more about passing with him that he still needs to fine tune.
Embiid has between 6-7% higher TS% compared to league average, Hakeem was just 1-2% higher most of the time.

33.6*

Was about to say that's pretty absurd, although near 34ppg is still very impressive.

Champ and mvp over flopper and playoff failure