Is Joel Embiid the Wild Card on the Sixers Mega Roster?

All right, I wanna ask you about your time in Philadelphia.

You popped into Seventy-Sixers Media Day.

A lot of hoopla there.

I'm sure all the media that, you know, was tailing LeBron James all those years in, um, Los Angeles.

They're probably around there in Philly, plus some Boston media, some national media, everybody is, uh, is there for that show, um.

What's the vibe like there?

Like, what, what's kind of, what's kind of your, your takeaways from being around the Sixers?

Cause we've, we've heard them this week, whether it's Jalen Brown or Nick Nurse or others talk about how it is gonna be a work in progress, that there are a lot of things that they're going to figure out.

Um, is this the kind of team that, I mean, I guess that's the question, go with the, what's the vibe?

What's the vibe being around that team when you were there?

Well, the vibe is good because it's usually good, right?

Everyone has, every baseball team has hope on opening day, even though we know that, that the baseball does not work like that.

Um, and so everyone was saying all the right things, right?

And that's great to hear because we've been to media days, Chris, where people don't say the right things.

So at least you got to start there.

Um, and guys are, we see the videos and the pictures of them all getting along and doing everything.

But yes, it will take, when the metal, pedal to the metal goes down and all of that happens in the first month or two of the season, there will be growing pains.

There's always been growing pains with new LeBron James teams.

You and I talked about this a lot over the last month or so since he made his decision that there is always a bit of a rough start as everyone figures out what they're doing.

And I think the media day there had so much sort of power and so many people were there, because it wasn't just LeBron James.

Jalen Brown going from Boston to Philadelphia would have drawn a huge crowd in its own right.

Tyrese Maxey, one of The brightest young stars in the league, Joel Embiid, who lost a bunch of weight and is a former MVP.

So there's just a lot of factors on this team for Nick Nurse to figure out.

I think it is going to be a work in progress.

And I, I was just, when you, when you asked me for my takeaways, the only other thing that I want to put there was how the other takeaway I had was how much Tyrese Maxey played a role in LeBron's decision.

I don't think until we heard LeBron talk about it both on his podcast and then at media day.

It was quite clear that Tyrese was his sounding board, really in coming to the Sixers and obviously a lot of other people were involved, but he said, and again I have the quote in front of me, he said, I have a great relationship.

I don't want to say good, great relationship with Tyrese.

He said, we talked about it a lot.

I picked his brain a lot.

Not only where he sees his career going, how he sees the franchise, how much he believes in the franchise, and if I was to come here, how does he see me fitting in?

Does he think that I would be a plus, or do we think it would be a negative?

Because I understand my personality and what comes with me.

Sometimes it can be a negative.

I will tell you I have rarely heard LeBron James articulate that idea, that sort of, uh.

Outwardly, that clearly.

He's alluded to it before, but he has not come out and said in the same way, hey man, I can be a lot.

I'm the planet that, that a lot of, I get a lot of gravity here.

And the fact that he was asking Tyrese, do you think this is gonna work?

That really stuck with me for media days.

Well.

So those are the two things I would say to answer your question.

The first one is, it's going to be a work in progress, and the second one is, man, that's interesting to hear that LeBron James, who has always sort of been the planet, felt that he had to kind of ask Tyrese Maxey if he thought that he would fit into the Sixers universe.

Yeah, I've, I've come around to the feeling this week that LeBron adjusting is not gonna be a big issue because I think he's coming into this situation with his eyes wide open.

Like I, I think he knows that he's point forward LeBron here.

Like he's operating as a playmaker.

His assist numbers need to go up.

His shots, his points, they're probably gonna go down.

Uh, not need to go down.

Minutes need to go down.

Maybe games played need to go down.

He's been historically resistant to that.

But I think he's going into the situation with his eyes wide open.

I'm also not overly concerned about Jalen Brown either.

Like Jalen Brown, beyond already having his money, he's on a max deal.

Um, he knows how to fit into a particular situation.

Like he knows how to be a 1A or a 2 or whatever it may be, um, that he was in Boston that he now is in Philadelphia.

He obviously has a lot of confidence after what he did last season, but Even though he didn't choose the seventy-Sixers, I, I think he's going to find a way to make it work.

There may be some bumps along the way cause, I mean, I look at the Sixers, you got a lot of guys that are kind of mid-post types of players, um, you know, Embiid, who I'm gonna get to in a moment, Brown, LeBron too, um, you know, that, that's something that I think that could be a little clunky early on, but I think Jalen Brown will find a way to make it work.

The, the wild card to me is Embiid, um, because when he's healthy and he's out there, um.

I don't know, I think he's still gonna expect to be the center of the universe.

Like maybe I'm overstating it, but like, When Joel Embiid's out there, he's still the process.

He's still the guy that has been there the longest.

He's still, you know, 3 years removed from being named the MVP.

So his body's broken down a lot since then.

Things have changed a lot since then, but like, what is Joel Embiid bracing for?

Like what kind of role is he expecting with this group?

I think Edgecombe is a problem too.

I know LeBron kind of downplayed this, like, you know, you guys think BJ Edgecombe is gonna disappear.

I think that's a real concern.

Like VJ Edgecombe was on like the, was ascendant and now he's like the 5th option on that team.

So I think that's , you know, getting him his touches is probably a legitimate uh question or concern to have.

But to me, it's Embiid.

Like, how do you see Embiid?

Like is he You think he's gonna embrace, kind of, you know, cogging the wheel here, um, seeing his numbers kind of decline because we both, I think we both agree, sacrifice is gonna be needed in Philadelphia.

You've gotta, everyone's gonna have to take a bit of a step back for this thing to work.

Yeah, I mean, I, I, seeing him as slim as he was, uh, a few days ago, told me a lot about his willingness to sacrifice and fit in on this team because he's gonna need to move up and down the court in a way that we haven't seen him move up and down the court.

A while.

Look, I, I've covered Joel pretty closely most of his career.

He, he definitely wants to win.

If you know the circumstances he came from, what he endured early in his career, both with his family and then obviously with the injuries, this is a guy who had a lot of excuses to just quit and go home, and instead has just stuck with it and stuck with it and stuck with it.

And I know the money helps.

I get it.

But I think that he is grateful for a better chance to win than he has had thus far.

And I think that at least at the onset, he is going to welcome the help.

And I think the thing that we have to remember about the Sixers team as we talk about is Joel Embiid gonna be OK with less touches, or is this one ball gonna be enough for everyone in Philadelphia?

You have to think about how often a lot of these guys are gonna play.

You cannot assume perfect health with this team, especially with LeBron, especially with Joel.

Both of them have had injuries that have knocked them out for, you know, 6 weeks at a time, that kind of thing in recent years.

And so there's going to be times that BJ Edgecombe is going to be flying up and down the court and is going to be the leading scorer because neither of those guys are going to be there.

Um, I think that Jalen Brown is one of the most durable players I've seen.

I was looking up his games, 71 games last year, 63, 77, 66.

I mean, this guy plays and when he doesn't play a lot of times it's because someone's making him sit down.

So he's going to be out there, you know, I'm knocking on all the wood.

The young players, Tyrese, VJ, hopefully they'll be out there, um, but You're gonna have guys in and out of the lineup.

I think the Eastern Conference in general, this year and the NBA sort of even in the bigger picture, there's just more and more of a divide between the regular season teams and the playoff teams.

And this to me just screams of being a playoff team.

If they are healthy when the playoffs come around, even if they've had an up and down regular season, even if guys like Joel or LeBron or whoever has been out for 23 months at a time, even if it gets that bad.

I think if this team is whole when they go into the playoffs, they are going to be extremely dangerous.

And I think the regular season is not necessarily going to be an indication of what they do in the postseason.

It might be, I've, you know, I, we live in Los Angeles, and I don't know how close you follow football.

The LA Rams were considered an all-star team, went into this season.

Everybody thought they were the breakaway favorites to win the Super Bowl.

Well, they went in today's Sunday's game 2 and 1, and only scraped out a win over Philadelphia in literally the closing minutes.

So it could be that the Sixers, the NBA's version of that this year, has that kind of trouble.

But unlike in football, you have more chances in basketball to make your way through the postseason.

It's not a one and done in a weekend situation, and I, I, I feel like this team, if they're healthy, can be very dangerous when it counts.

Um, the only thing I know about football is Drake May is awesome again.

That's, um, this week.

No, I like Drake May actually.

This week he's awesome.

Um, last week, not so much, um.

With MB, like, uh, the weight loss doesn't really do much for me, um.

I need to see how he moves laterally.

That, that to me is the big thing because beyond.

He's needing him to be the offensive force that he's been.

He's, he, he's one of the best defensive players in the league when he's healthy.

And that's what they need as much as anything.

I think there's gonna be a lot of, yeah, I mean, like Jalen's a good defender, um, LeBron, when he dials it up can still be, but consistently, maybe not.

They, they're gonna, I think they're gonna have some issues at times on the perimeter and you're gonna need Joel Embiid backstopping that defense.

I, I think I wanna see if those, if the slimdown frame.

Leads to better lateral movement and if his wheels look healthy out there.

I also, I, I like, I know his shots will go down.

I don't wanna see him be on the three-point line at a higher percentage.

Uh, he's, he's a post guy.

Like, he's one of the most dominant post players in the NBA.

Like, I don't want him drifting on the perimeter for spacing reasons.

I don't want him drifting on the perimeter because there's too many guys playing at the mid-post or at the elbow.

Like this guy's gotta be in the post, drawing fouls, getting to the free throw line.

You know, just doing what he does best and three-point shooting is not what he does best.

It is playing in the paint.

So I, like, these are all things like I, I just wanna see it for him cause I think he is the linchpin to all this.

If he is bought in and able to play at, you know, 85, 90% of what he was a few years ago, um, and able to keep himself at the 60-ish game threshold, 55, 60 games and healthy going to the playoff.

This team is gonna be the favorite to win the East.

If he's less than that, if there are problems there, it just opens the door up for everybody else, I think, because he to me is the, the, just really the key to their success.

I, I just think the East is one of the, the, the way I look at these teams this year, it really feels as if more than ever, we're just not gonna know until the beginning of the postseason, and the Knicks this past year were a great example of that.

I cannot tell you how many times.

I wish I could go back and count.

Maybe I will at some point.

How many times over the course of last season, Chris, you and I had a segment of, man, the Knicks are looking pretty good lately.

And then two weeks later, man, the Knicks have lost 4 or 5 in a row lately, and there's panic and look at the tabloid headline.

It was a very up and down season.

There was adjustment to Mike Brown.

There was adjustment to Kat's role.

I believe it was, I get me here on this, Were they down 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs, Hawks, yeah.

To the Hawks, like, I, I just, then they figured it out.

Like I, I just think if you look at the East, if you look at the teams that look great on paper, I, I, I, I feel like we are dealing with teams that have, is Jayson Tatum gonna be really healthy, then I'd be worried about Boston in the playoffs.

If he has health issues like he's had, you know, unfortunately, the past couple of seasons, then, yeah, they're gonna be a great regular season team because it's Joe Missoula and the way that they tear through the regular season, but then the playoffs.

Could be a very different animal.

What is gonna happen to Miami?

Are Bam and Giannis going to be able to power that team?

And is someone gonna meet up with them in the bracket that just doesn't have the depth upfront to deal with them and gets knocked out early when we don't expect it?

I, I just think that there are so many variables in the East this year that we are not gonna know, and that we should just kind of enjoy the regular season for the regular season as opposed to looking ahead the whole time because I, I just don't think we're gonna know for sure till we get to the beginning of the playoffs.

Yeah, on Philly, I'm gonna try to hold myself to this and not react to any 4 to 5 game losing streaks that they might have because I do think they're gonna come.

I think the dog days of January, February are gonna get them.

I think early on, they're gonna have some games where it's like, Why didn't you pass it over there and who took that shot and you know there'll be pressure on Nick Nurse I think throughout the course of the season, but I think March 1st is when you make a, a real assessment of where the 76ers are at.

When you're at 6 weeks to go in the regular season, that's when you kind of are able to really assess.

I think all throughout the season though, I'll be watching Joel Embiid, how he's playing, how he's reacting, how he's moving, um, that to me is, is fair game and seeing where he's, uh, where he's at with the Sixers.