Philadelphia 76ers: The work-in-progress reinvention of Joel Embiid

As situations change, Embiid remains constant for the Philadelphia 76ers.

After an abbreviated offseason capped off with a flurry of both on the court and in the front office changes, the City of Brotherly Love’s faithful watched in awe as their players took the court at the Wells Fargo Center sans fans to officially begin the Doc Rivers-era of Philadelphia 76ers basketball.

The game was fun. The atmosphere was weird. And the dynamic bench scoring duo of Tyrese Maxey and Shake Milton gave glimpses of a hyperdynamic backcourt of the future with a current average age of 22.

But one aspect of the contest that didn’t receive nearly as much attention as it should have was Rivers’ on-the-fly reinvention of Joel Embiid‘s game in this his fifth professional season.

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Playing alongside new starting wingers Seth Curry and Danny Green, Embiid found himself locked into a weird in-between of what worked in the past and his new expectations.

Unlike in 2019-20, where Brett Brown developed a seeming aversion for the pick and roll well into his 50s, Rivers firmly views his franchise player as a dynamic screen setter. He locked things up for Ben Simmons – who had a fairly up and down game highlighted by an aggressive start but bogged down by some third-quarter ineffectiveness – opened up looks for Curry, and formed a familiar one-two punch with his bubble buddy Shake Milton.

Embiid also seemingly took a page out of his old teammate Ersan Ilyasova‘s playbook and suddenly transformed himself into a flopping fiend, taking charges and generating turnovers at a feverish clip.

But when the Sixers needed him most, down a dozen-plus after failing to score a point for the majority of the third quarter, Embiid reverted back to the team’s first, second, and only offensive side opinion.

From his reinsertion into the game 30 seconds into the fourth through the end of regulation, Embiid scored 15 of the team’s 40 points. ‘The Processed One’ was electric, dynamic, and dominant. It didn’t matter who Scott Brooks threw at him, whether it be 23-year-old Thomas Bryant or 32-year-old Robin Lopez, or even half of the darn team, Embiid found a way to get to the rim and either pick up a quick two or earn them at the line a few moments later.

At one point, Embiid was literally triple-teamed and still found a way to get a quick two, in a clip I wish I could share but alas may be lost to the infinite void of my DVR.

Rivers must have been taking notes during the 2020 NBA All-Star game, because his fourth-quarter strategy was effectively identical to that of Team Giannis: Give Embiid the darn ball.

In theory, it makes sense, right? Embiid is one of the most dominant post players in the NBA with an uncanny ability to seemingly score at will. Without an elite post defender like Rudy Gobert to neutralize his offensive gusto, why not just feed him like Weird Al at the beginning of the ‘Eat It!‘ music video – especially when he’s dishing out dimes to Curry and Furkan Korkmaz when a shot isn’t there.

Now granted, some of Embiid’s longstanding problems persisted into opening night. He still looks a tad out of shape, especially when compared to the newly leaned down Dwight Howard, and he took some bad shots that probably wouldn’t grade out too well in a Christian McCaffrey Amazon Web Services commercial sort of way. But when the Sixers needed a bucket, needed a rebound, or needed a screen, who did they turn to?

That’s right, ‘The Process’.

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Despite eeking out a clean win in Russell Westbrook‘s Washington Wizards’ debut, the Philadelphia 76ers did not execute a perfect game. The starting five looked awkward, Tobias Harris played soft, and seemingly the entire offense went away for the better part of a quarter. Still, when his team needed him most, Joel Embiid delivered the dominant post performance many a fan has been desperately waiting to see for the better part of four seasons. If Doc Rivers can weaponize that look, and continue to expand out Embiid’s bag of tricks as a screener and passer paired up with Shake Milton, maybe this team’s ceiling really is as contenders for the Eastern Conference championship.