The Philadelphia 76ers have had a lot of ups and downs throughout their 2019-20 season. This is mainly because there is a lot of changes to their roster that included losing important pieces JJ Redick and Jimmy Butler and replacing them with Al Horford and Josh Richardson.
The two guys brought in are fine players, but they are not the greatest fits in the world to Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. The Sixers struggled on offense and it was tough for them to find any real spacing on the offensive end of the floor and that can be frustrating for any player, but for a guy as emotional as Embiid, it can be something that can cause a lot of issues.
Embiid joined Redick on his new podcast called “The Old Man and the Three” to discuss his relationship with Redick and how tough the changes on offense were for him.
Embiid told Redick:
This year, it was different. Defensively, we’ve been pretty good. We’re big, we’re fast, we can switch a lot, but offensively, it just wasn’t there. We had our offense, but at times, it was not the right offense. The offense we’ve been using the past 4-5 years, that wasn’t the offense for this team like it was completely different. You don’t have a JJ Redick. You don’t have a Jimmy Butler who’s going to go to the pick-and-rolls, it was different, but I think we’re getting it. I think the last month that we’ve spent in the bubble has helped us a lot. I think we’ve come closer. I won’t lie during the season, I was not there. I wasn’t comfortable. The offense wasn’t the same. Basketball was not the same to me and the way things happened last summer, it was so frustrating. I was kind of mad at the whole world and was just like ‘Ehh, whatever’ like I’m just coming to work and I’m going to do my best, but I wasn’t playing up to my standards. It was hard. It was a big change, but you adjust like every year it’s going to be different and this year was different, but I still believe we got a big chance to make it happen. We can win the whole thing.
The offense in the past was centered on a lot of DHOs–dribble handoffs–where Embiid and Redick would work well out on the perimeter. With the current version of the Sixers, they don’t have that sharpshooter despite the talents of Richardson, Shake Milton, and Furkan Korkmaz, they are certainly not on Redick’s level.
Embiid added:
A lot. You can see with the numbers and I don’t care about the stats because I feel like if I really cared about the stats and I really wanted to score a lot every single night, I could just be a black hole and shoot whenever I want to and not to pass it anybody. It was such a difference maker, because last year when they were doubling me, I was either inciting it or I’d be like ‘OK, I’m not going to post up anymore and I’m just going to go to that two-man game’ because I know I’m going to get you a shot and once you make two or three, they’re going to come up and they’re going to come up anyways, but if you make two or three it’s like ‘Oh, they’re just going to change everything’ and that’s going to leave me open and that was another way for me to either help my teammate or help myself.
The big fella did add that he believes the guys on the current roster that could possibly fill the Redick role at some point as he told the former Sixers guard:
Shake doesn’t have the same gravity that you have as a shooter because he’s just getting started and people got to respect you, but I think Shake has the potential to make it happen. Furkan to a certain level, but you kind of have to teach him and coach him and make sure that he gets it.
At this current moment in time, Philadelphia still needs to figure out how they’re going to move forward with Embiid’s injury as they take on the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday. [lawrence-related id=36627,36617,36609]