Peak Brunson wrote:ExplosionsInDaSky wrote:Peak Brunson wrote:
But here is the thing. If we didn't win with him as our best player before, when he was in his prime, why would we win with him as our best player now that he should be past his prime? he would be 32 years old going into 2026 playoffs. I am assuming he is somehow healthy again here, let's go with that.
The only thing that would allow us to win a championship with him is us finding another franchise player and him contributing in a reduced role. That's about the only path there is to him winning a championship. He was never a first option in a championship team in his prime, he will not be one at 32+ years old.
Joel has been injured in six of the seven years he played in the postseason. The only year that he wasn't injured was 2020 when we were swept by Boston in the bubble. His injuries or being injured in the postseason have always been the reason why we haven't advance. The day you get a healthy Embiid for a postseason run is the day we make a finals appearance.
Nah, I've seen him enough times to know it doesn't work that way. Often times, his injuries were minor enough and his issues were him struggling against the good defenses set by Raptors, Celtics, Heat, etc, smart double teams + strategically tiring him out were major issues with him, very evident to see.
The reality is that Embiid didn't develop the correct fundamentals, basketball IQ on offense, etc. That's why he has struggled so much in Playoffs against many teams. People pretending his main issue in Playoffs was health is also part of why we are here in the first place.
Is it only his fault? no, the organization failed him by not guiding and mentoring him properly, a player that came very late from Cameroon and had very little basket basketball experience. He clearly needed the guidance and didn't get it.
I don't completely disagree with you, but you're not going to tell me for one second that the injuries he sustained in the postseason OR prior to the postseason didn't have a debilitating effect on him. Did you not read the story? Nic Batum (during the Knicks series) was completely dumbfounded by the fact that Embiid could even walk given the amount of swelling he had going on in his knee. That sounds like anything but minor to me. In fact, it sounds pretty fkin serious!
You're a New York Knicks fan coming here speaking in absolutes about a player on a team that you don't root for. There's no way his injuries didn't change the outcome for us. Had he been 100% in the Knicks series a year ago, Philly would have sent them home in no more than six games. Two years prior to that, he was absolutely crushing Toronto all by himself, and he tore a ligament in his thumb and then followed that up by taking an elbow to his eye from Siakam. He was never the same after that happened, and it showed in the following Miami series. Fractured eye sockets are not minor issues. Torn meniscus's are not minor issues. Ligaments that have been torn in the hand or fingers hurt like hell and are not minor issues. Bells Palsy is not a minor issue. I'd love to see how well you do on a basketball court with a torn meniscus.
He hurt his knee on two separate occasions in the playoffs as well. Once again, in Brooklyn, while he was getting into a pissing match with Nic Claxton. That injury lingered for the remainder of the postseason and caused him to miss a few games. He missed game one against Boston that year in the second round. Despite sitting out for that game, he came back for the series and simply wasn't the same player. In 2021, He tore his meniscus once again while having yet another pissing match. This time it was with Daniel Gafford of the Wizards. I specifically remember the play that it happened (same **** with Claxton). Go even further back to 2019 when the Toronto series went 7 games (the year Kawhi sank us). He was injured in the first round of the playoffs against Brooklyn for yet again...Doing stupid ****. In 2018, he took another shot to the eye. This time it was friendly fire from Markelle Fultz. That injury also limited him, and it showed once again in the following series against Boston.
Embiids injuries (90% of them) have been self-inflicted and, for the most part, were easily avoidable. You can talk about how defenses properly schemed him, or doubled him at the right time, and there is some truth to that. But Embiid was still out there putting up 50 against the Knicks on a bad knee and some Bells Palsy for insult. Again, yes...Embiid has had playoff struggles, but so did SGA this past season. He put up a few bad games in every round he played in. You can't make that argument for Embiid and then ignore when other players (like Brunson, who had a few rough outings this year) do it. Doesn't make SGA or Brunson any less great. Both are still probably at the top in regards to the position they play in the league.
I do think there is plenty of blame to go around. Think of it as a pie chart. Some of it IS on the front office/coaching, some of it is credited to him getting injured, and some of the playoff failures are credited to Embiid being defended really well. Doesn't mean he couldn't have figured it out. We'll never know because he was always injured every time we made a playoff run.
In the end, other than the reckless play that led to the injuries, along with the pouting. The main issues I have had with Embiid have always been his stamina in the later stages of the games, and his propensity to get into mental wars with other bigs in the postseason. It's never ended well for him when he's done that. That stamina has always been an issue, and fairly enough, you did mention that. However, suggesting that his injuries were merely minor annoyances is a bit uninformed on your part.
