Post#168 » by 76ciology » Thu Nov 21, 2024 2:23 am
Do you think EVERYTHING is catching up with Jojo?
Every year seems to follow the same script—getting eliminated in the second round after what often feels like a meaningless regular season. We’ve seen it all from Embiid: 50 point games, 60 point games, an MVP, All-NBA honors, All-Star appearances, and even earning the first seed. It’s like the regular season has become a formality where the team’s talent alone secures wins, much like playoff first-round matchups where we’re expected to breeze through due to being the superior team. Except for last season, when it felt like the team was punting for an offseason overhaul and maybe Embiid wants to rest to get ready for the Olympics. The media refuses to evaluate this team anything before the playoffs. Even the fans seem disengaged, treating the regular season as a countdown clock to the postseason, where the real challenges begin.
Joel Embiid has essentially been on load management EVEN before his rookie year, and now we’re 10 seasons into this approach. Don’t get me wrong, it was the right approach given his health conditions but I find this made him not build any endurance or grit to fight through pressure. It’s as if every NBA season has become routine—like playing a video game where you’re stuck in the same cycle, replaying the early stages over and over until they feel mundane and uninspiring. The regular season is a chore, and the playoffs are the only thing that matters to him.
Embiid’s own words reflect this mindset: “I may never play another back-to-back for the rest of my career.” It’s clear he prioritizes the playoffs over the regular season. His approach now seems to be letting others take the reins— calling Maxey as “The Franchise”, calling Drummond and asking him to fill in, and the addition of a star wing in Paul George to make sure everything’s alright. It mirrors what he sees from his “big brother” Jimmy Butler in Miami, where seeding isn’t the priority, regular season is worthless and it’s all just playoff readiness.
But maybe he’s pushed this too far. It’s not just about his personal mindset anymore; it’s about how this affects the team where most guys are vets who are fighting to stay in the league. If he’s “sleepwalking” through the regular season, not participating or being late in team activies and asking then to do the regular season work for him, it might feel to them like they’re doing all the cooking in the regular season while he’s waiting for the playoffs to feast. That could make them feel disrespected in the process.
It’s not just that Jojo seems uninspired during the regular season (maybe its the awards that only inspires him)—he’s never truly built the endurance to sustain a high level of play across an entire year. From the beginning of his NBA career, he’s been managed with extreme caution, almost to a fault. The early seasons of strict load management were understandable due to his injuries, but over the years, this approach may have prevented him from developing the physical and mental toughness required to push through fatigue and adversity consistently.
There’s never been a time in history when we look back and say that the people who were censoring free speech were the good guys.