Sixers' Joel Embiid Vows to Expand His Game Next Season

Joel Embiid wants to win a championship for the Philadelphia 76ers. Ever since a Game 7 defeat occurred in Toronto a couple of years back, Embiid made it his goal to bring a championship back to the city of Philadelphia.

The following season, Embiid and the Sixers underwhelmed as they clinched the sixth-seed in the Eastern Conference and got swept in the first round of the playoffs. After new front office personnel brought in a new coaching staff and made key changes to the roster, Embiid and the 76ers felt they were championship ready.

When the regular season concluded, the Sixers locked in the first seed. Playing the Washington Wizards in the first round, the 76ers defeated them in five games. Embiid had himself a dominant series, but he suffered a setback as he was diagnosed with a torn meniscus after Game 4.

Despite being injured, Embiid battle through it in the second-round series against the Atlanta Hawks. As he played in every game throughout the seven-game series, Embiid admittedly gave it all he had. Unfortunately, the Sixers fell short as they lost Game 7.

Following the Sixers' 2019 second-round exit against the Raptors, Embiid left the court in tears, feeling disappointed and defeated. This season, the All-Star center was far from down on himself. In fact, he used defeat as motivation moving forward.

“I gotta be better," Embiid said on Sunday night after the loss. "I gotta take another step when it comes to taking care of my body and my game as a whole because I still feel like I have a lot of untapped potential that people haven’t really seen.”

Following last year's playoff run, Embiid turned the negatives into positives. As he was criticized for being out of shape, Embiid got in the best condition of his career. Knowing he needed to become more consistent away from the block if he wanted to be a true three-level scorer, Embiid took another positive step with his shooting.

"A lot of people get mad when I play away from the basket, but in today’s NBA, you got to be able to do everything on the basketball court, especially if you’re the best player on the team and a lot of people look up to you when it comes to creating your own offense," he explained. "I got to be able to do everything, and I still feel like I have another part of my potential, whether it’s ball-handling or playing off the dribble and all that stuff and I’m gonna be me.”

Although Embiid's string of absences throughout the regular season affected his status as the league's MVP, he still put on an MVP-caliber season in 2020-2021 as he was considered the runner-up. If he were to settle for being the player he is today, Embiid would still be recognized as one of the most dominant players in the game.

But that's not the case.

“I’m going to take that next step and come back even better as a complete basketball player and just do what I do,” Embiid explained. “I love playing on the block. I love playing like a guard. I want to do both, and I’m gonna do both.”

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.