For the Philadelphia 76ers to do anything this season, they will need their superstar big man to be in great shape physically in order to be consistently available.
Joel Embiid finished as the MVP runner-up in 2021 after putting together an impressive season. He averaged 28.5 points and 10.6 rebounds, and he played in 51 games. He missed 21 due, mostly, to a freak accident in Washington D.C. in March.
As he enters training camp for the 2021-22 season, Embiid is apparently in great shape, and coach Doc Rivers sees an even more motivated big fella.
“He is in great shape,” Rivers told reporters on Wednesday. “He’s in much better shape, which is great because last year, he took a big step in conditioning, and then this year, he comes and he’s in even better shape.”
In the early part of training camp, Rivers wants to get the Sixers on the same page with Embiid when it comes to late-game situations. They need to be able to execute enough to get the job done and get the shots that they want.
“Early on, Joel does what he does,” he continued. “He’s kind of trying to keep everybody involved. We’re working on end of the game stuff. I thought you know it’s funny I record a lot of close games. I didn’t think under 40 seconds, we necessarily got the shots we wanted every time. So we’re really working on that this year. We want to make sure we get the shot we want every single time down the stretch. So we put a lot of work in there.”
As long as Embiid is in great condition, the Sixers will be in a position to succeed regardless of what’s going on with Ben Simmons.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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