Joel Embiid, Josh Richardson still working on chemistry for Sixers

The Philadelphia 76ers pairing of Joel Embiid and Josh Richardson are still growing chemistry as teammates.

As with all things, they take time in order to smooth out the rough edges to achieve perfection. For the Philadelphia 76ers, they will need more time to figure out their offense completely, but there’s one aspect that is beginning to show something real.

The pick-and-roll combination of Josh Richardson and Joel Embiid flashed some potential in their Christmas Day win over the Milwaukee Bucks. There was one specific play where Richardson came off the screen and was able to throw the perfect lob to a rolling Embiid for a one-handed slam that ignited the passionate fans of Philadelphia.

Richardson says he’s learning some new things about his superstar teammate.

“That he’s a great player,” said a smiling Richardson. “He can make plays from anywhere so with me, when I’m handling and I’m coming off, I’m looking to see if he rolls, flares so that kind of determines where I go with it and then he has it, just try to find space. If they’re guarding him one-on-one, he’s going to pretty much get whatever shot he wants, but if they double, then we’ve got to find space around him.”

Embiid, who played a different type of game with JJ Redick over the previous two seasons, is still learning some new things about how Richardson wants to run things.

“We’re still learning,” said the big man. “I’m still learning how to play with him, especially out of the pick-and-roll. He’s a guy that likes to cross back a lot and sometimes I’m caught off guard and he does it quite often so I’m still getting used to playing with him. It’s been great for us and he needs to keep doing whatever he’s been doing.”

While Embid and Redick’s two-man game was focused more on dribble hand-offs and reacting to that, Richardson likes to have the ball in his hands and being able to run that pick-and-roll action. It allows him to get to the basket or set Embiid up for the lob.

As with almost everything with this team, it will take time to perfect the play and the chemistry as teammates. The Sixers will next try to grow as a team on Friday when they hit the road to face the Orlando Magic. [lawrence-related id=22164,22156,22146]