Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid is more Bret Hart than Shawn Michaels

In the mid-1990s, you were either a Shawn Michaels guy or a Bret Hart guy.

You either loved – or loved to loathe – the flashy moves, flamboyant looks, and superkicks of “the Heartbreak Kid” and his forward-facing style or appreciated the more technically sound, throwback style of submission specialist “Hitman” and his deadly sharpshooter.

Could you like both? Sure, I imagine plenty of fans of the game – though not that “The Game” – loved two of the best the WWF had to offer, but as a general rule, you fell into one camp or the other, as what is sports – or sports entertainment – without the time-honored tradition of tribalism?

Joel Embiid has always struck me as more of a Michaels guy, even before his love of DX became part of Philadelphia 76ers lore earlier this spring.

Like Michaels, Embiid is a showman. He loves to stoke the crowd, play the bad guy when appropriate, and get creative with his educated feet.

The only problem? You can’t be throwing around “Sweet Chin Music” when you’ve got a bum right meniscus. For Embiid to remain as impactful as ever, he might just have to simplify things down and approach the game with a more methodical approach instead of his typical theatrics.

Fortunately, the big fella is pretty darn good at that too.

The Philadelphia 76ers need to put Joel Embiid in the best position to succeed.

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The Atlanta Hawks are a darn good offensive basketball team.

They can score with volume, have a solid supporting cast around their star, and record an average of 24.1 assists per game.

But do you know what the Hawks have been deceptively good at since making the switch over from Lloyd Pierce to Nate McMillan this season? Interior defense.

Featuring a pair of players who rank top-40 league-wide in defensive plus/minus in Clint Capela and John Collins (more on that here), the Hawks can plug the paint better than their 21st overall defensive net rating would suggest and throw bodies after bodies at would-be scorers.

Considering Embiid is currently burdened by a small tear in his right meniscus, a lingering condition that will plague him for the remainder of the postseason, one would think this would severely impact the big fella’s ability to score, but in Game 1, that wasn’t the case. While Embiid wasn’t perfect and showed some lingering side effects from his injured knee, he still put up 39 points in 38 minutes of action.

Embiid can knock down shots from everywhere, so having to hit a few more from the midrange if the paint is clogged up really isn’t a problem.

What was a problem, however, was how Doc Rivers decided to push the pace once his team went down 15 in the first quarter, as it forced Embiid to run the length of the court and test the limitations of his physical conditioning.

Because the Sixers don’t have a reliable high-volume outside shooter who can take over a game, they aren’t a team who can run up and down the court to quickly erase a deficit in a matter of minutes. No, the Sixers win games by playing a slower, more methodical style of basketball predicated on movement, passing, and a heavy dose of Embiid possessions in the paint.

Having, say, Danny Green pull up for a moving 3 pointer three seconds into the shot clock isn’t a high-upside shot, and especially when he isn’t in his corner.

What is, however, a solid look? Getting Embiid the ball in the paint, where he can cook, score, and at worst draw a foul on an overly eager defender. I mean, Embiid is the only player in the NBA who averages double-digit free throw attempts per game; why not play up to that fact instead of shying away from it?

Next. You don’t beat the Atlanta Hawks by playing their way. dark

Believe you me, there’s no better feeling than to watch a team going fast, picking off passes, and scoring with ease, but outside of the Tyrese Maxey/Ben Simmons one-five combo that dominated Game 5 versus the Washington Wizards, that isn’t the way the Philadelphia 76ers are built to win. No, unlike the 2000-01 team, who were built around a flashy scorer by the name of Allen Iverson, this iteration of the Sixers is built to win with a more methodical, Bret Sergeant Hart-esque style of technical dominance, even if it flies in the face of their best player’s love of all things DX, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels.