When it comes to Philadelphia 76es big man Joel Embiid, there are two main concerns. One is his body and his conditioning. The other is his ability to correctly make reads out of the double teams and not turn the ball over.
So far, he is doing both at a pretty solid level, and his passing out of double teams has been much improved to begin the season. On Monday against the Charlotte Hornets, Embiid had four assists and one turnover despite all of the aggressive doubles coming his way.
The Sixers have helped him get better in that area thanks not only to their offseason acquisitions of shooters, but also coach Doc Rivers getting guys like Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris and others to buy into moving without the ball to give him open passing lanes.
“He’s a great player,” said Rivers of Embiid. “All great players are gonna get trapped whether they’re bigs or guards. I’ve always made it my job to make sure when they get trapped, we’re in the right spot. We have this attitude, when you trap us, we will score. That’s gotta be our attitude. You can feel our guys believing that.”
Simmons spoke earlier on being able to have the freedom from Rivers to either make a play by himself or be able to cut and move without the basketball to help the team on offense. It has been an adjustment so far, but Simmons is making the right reads and that excites Embiid.
“He’s done a great job, especially when he’s cutting, taking two men with him, and then it just makes it easier for all the shooters to go wide open and knock down shots,” said Embiid. “We got to keep working on it. We got to keep on trying to do better. A couple of times, one is in a dunker, and then he ducks in, I can either pass it or post up on the other side if they end up not recovering.”
Most of the time in the past, Simmons would stand in the dunker spot near the basket and try to play off Embiid that way, but the Sixers have been using flare screens to create open space as well. A flare screen is a screen set away from the basketball where the player being screened for fades out to open space on the perimeter instead of cutting to the basket.
“A flare screen and going to the corner, which we’ve done a couple of times this year, and it has been working,” Embiid continued of Simmons. “That’s where I think he’s gotta get better, but he’s been doing a fantastic job playing off of it. Sometimes, he can also duck in when I have the ball in the post and we’ve done that in the past, but it’s been great. Getting the offense going and moving the ball and then especially defensively doing what he does best.”
A lot of talk about Joel Embiid's hockey assists, so here are the 12 baskets I'd classify as hockey assists that stem from his scoring gravity this season. pic.twitter.com/hJCrIVkPq6
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) January 5, 2021
“It only doesn’t help me, but it helps the whole team,” the big fella continued. “On the back end of it, most of the time, I might not get a lot of assists, but what I do and what I’ve kind of figured out passing out of the post, and why I’ve been doing such a good job this season is just getting rid of it.”
Embiid’s willingness to invite double teams and pass the ball sets the tone for the rest of the team at that point. The Sixers will want to continue to move the ball and keep things going on the offensive end of the floor. They have come so far in that aspect of their game.
“The hope is that the next guy, if he doesn’t have the shot, keep moving the ball,” Embiid finished. “At the end of the day there’s gonna be a 2-on-1 either in the corner or in the slot, and that’s where it comes in. You either got a flare screen or a duck in.”
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