The Philadelphia 76ers made a point of emphasis to help Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons on the offensive end in the 2020-21 season. The task was simple: go out and get some shooters to space the floor.
They did just that in the offseason by acquiring Seth Curry and Danny Green in draft night trades back in November. Those moves have given the star duo some space on the offensive end of the floor to operate and it also is making Joel Embiid’s job a lot easier when it comes to passing out of double teams.
Embiid handled them pretty well on Tuesday night when he led the team to a 100-93 win over the Toronto Raptors. It’s a team that Embiid has struggled with in his career when it comes to the aggressive double teams they send at him, but with the shooters, it makes it easier to pass out.
“Yeah, I have fun,” said Embiid. “We got to make shots, but I love doing that. I love sharing the ball. I love getting my teammates involved, especially if we’re making shots. It just makes my job easier now.”
Embiid did have three turnovers in the win, but it is one of those things where Toronto is just a team that bothers him. They are aggressive with their defense against him and that causes a ton of issues. Normally, Embiid would have somewhere around six or seven turnovers, but not on this night.
“It’s definitely tough to double him now,” said Simmons. “If you’re doing that, then we got three perimeter guys out there and they’re slashers. If they’re not reading it the right way, we have endless options that are open. He’s done a good job of finding those guys.”
The thing with Embiid is, the double teams are not going to stop. He can show improvement in that area, but that won’t deter teams from sending double teams his way entirely. Teams will still send them his way and he has to continue this improved play.
“Joel Embiid is a dominant basketball player and the other teams are going to send people,” coach Doc Rivers added. “We work on it every day, everyone getting into the right spots. So Joel doesn’t have to think. He can just pass it and he did that tonight.”
Of course, it helps that guys like Curry and Green are on this team now to attract attention. They had a tough night shooting the ball, but their mere presence makes life easier for the big fella to go to work.
“You got to think about doubling me like a night like tonight (Tuesday), the way that they double and triple me is like, if we would have made the first, let’s say if you would have went 4-for-5 to start the game, now they got to kind of adjust and now I’m on single coverage, where it’s kind of hard to stop me one-on-one,” Embiid added. “We all work together, but I got to give my teammates and the coaches a lot of credit.”
The Sixers will now move on to face the undefeated Orlando Magic on Thursday to finish up the 2020 portion of their schedule.
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