Philadelphia 76ers: Ghosting Joel Embiid in the fourth is criminal

The Philadelphia 76ers are doing Joel Embiid dirty

Joel Embiid is the best center in basketball.

He’s a top-3 offensive center, a top-2 defensive center, and one of the most explosive players in the league one-on-one under the net. Embiid ranks 16th in the league in points per game, sixth in rebounds, 19th in blocks, and takes an average of 8.5 free throws-per-game, seventh behind only James Harden, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Trae Young, Luka Doncic, Jimmy Butler, and Anthony Davis. In pretty much any other era of NBA history, the Philadelphia 76ers could easily ride a player like Embiid to championship gold, but for some reason, such ease hasn’t come, well, easy for this current, probably cursed basketball team.

Seriously, Brett Brown: Why do you make things so hard for your team?

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As things presently stand, the Boston Celtics probably have the worst collection of centers in the entire playoff bubble, let alone the NBA. Boston is so bad in the paint they literally deploy a platoon with only one player, 28-year-old third-year center Daniel Theis, averaging more than 20 minutes a night. Normally, you couldn’t draw up a better matchup for Embiid even if you tried, but for some reason, Coach Brown doesn’t want to take advantage of it.

No, as evidenced by his comments to The Ringer’ Kevin O’Connor about never wanting to deploy an Embiid-plus-four-shooters lineup, the seventh-year head coach doesn’t seem too interested in changing up his core philosophy even if it costs him everything.

Do you remember the 2020 NBA All-Star game? I know, it feels like a decade ago thanks to the last six or so months, but if you can venture back that far, you may recall that Team Giannis, coached by Nick Nurse, almost exclusively ran their fourth-quarter offense through ‘The Process’ in an ultimately losing effort against Team LeBron. If Embiid can drive the offense of a team that also featured Kemba Walker, Pascal Siakam, Trae Young, and the reigning league MVP, why won’t Brown allow him to do the same with a motley crew of underachievers like Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson, and Al Horford, (who you can’t convince me isn’t a Boston double-agent)?

It’s not like the Raptors are particularly known for their reliance on exceptional center play either, so if Nurse, arguably the brightest young head coach in the NBA, showed an ego-less effort to completely change up his offensive philosophy to try to win a meaningless All-Star game, why won’t a coach like Brown, literally fighting for his job, do the same?

Look, it’s no secret that Embiid isn’t an ideal fit in Brown’s scheme. As you may recall from the mid-Process-era, Pop’s former lead assistant likes to run his offense fast and loose, with a ton of passing, a reliance on fast breaks, and a rim-running center more focused on positioning himself for a well-placed ally-oop than methodically working his man in a five-step post-up. If he was being honest, I imagine Brown would pick Ben Simmons over Embiid as the player he’d like to build around seven days a week but unfortunately, you don’t land a player of Embiid’s caliber every season; by trying to pander to some hypothetical ideal, Brown has exactly limited his best player’s potency.

Okay, fine, maybe I’m making things overly simplistic or generalizing too much, but how on earth else can Embiid lead the bubble in first-quarter points at a little over 13 while averaging less than five shots from the field in the fourth? Not points mind you, shots.

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Look, everyone has their own opinions on how to fix the Philadelphia 76ers. Some want to fire Brett Brown, others want to fire Elton Brand, or even force the Harris-Blitzer Group to sell the team to a Sam Hinkie-empathetic buyer. Heck, I even mockingly suggested a series of moves that culminated in launching the Wells Fargo Center into the sun. But before going all-in on a franchise-altering facelift, why not just give Embiid the keys to the offense Jimmy Butler-style in what could be their final game of the 2019-20 season? I mean really, what’s the worst thing that could happen? Another loss? If that’s the case, why not go down swinging behind the team’s best player?