All an NBA defense needs to neutralize a typical post-up is a little organization. It is quite simple to place some defenders within the reach of a giant, to attack and hit the ball when it finally makes its move. Even teams that give up their size can interfere enough to make passing the ball to the post a chore, and shuffling enough when they get there to turn the timer in their favor. When faced with efficient pick-and-roll machines that manufacture layup and open 3s opportunities, the high volume post-game – like many of its Jurassic practitioners – is too complicated to be worthwhile.
Joel Embiid is the big exception. Every game Embiid plays is a game on Embiid. He is, if not the main character, his central theme. Long before he can start punching big men outdone on the block, opposing coaches are forced to reconsider their entire defense approach. Should they double? Should you try that area that you barely had time to practice? Embiid almost pulls the card out of the lineup and adjusts his opponent’s rotation – first demanding that the largest and most robust pivot available to match him in the initial lineup and then tying up so many fouls to score the second and third string in game.
Embiid is for the post-up what Kevin Durant is for the medium-sized jumper – not a middle savior, but an anomaly that dominates math. So far this season, Embiid is hitting 70.6 percent of his pass mark shots on the left block, according to NBA.com, an ungodly figure who doesn’t even include the free throws he generates in bomb and rip fakes – throughs. This ability to take faults off the post is an aberration in itself; in a league where post and perimeter play are judged as two completely different sports, Embiid has adopted an increasingly Hardenesque playing skill as a way to force a whistle. An official cannot give Embiid a two-handed push in the back if he tries to hit a hook, but facing and struggling in the outstretched arms of a defender gave him a path to league leadership (and his career-best) 10.7 free-throw attempts in a game.
(Even Nikola Jokic, the only true post-match Embiid pair, only misses with half the frequency down.)
Some stars thrive by finding cracks in the defense. Instead, Embiid went on to crush entire defensive systems and flatten the logic that brought them into existence in the first place. It’s a profound impact – enough for the Sixers to keep their exchange offer reported by James Harden firm, even if it meant knowing that the Nets would outperform them for the former MVP. After all, Philly might as well have his own MVP; Embiid made the most compelling case for the award up to this point as the two-way anchor for the best headed team in the East. Keeping him and Ben Simmons together was the Sixers’ best chance at a championship-level defense. The key to Philly’s success, however, remains the same: whether Embiid, whose score defies the logic of modern basketball, could sustain Philadelphia’s attack without significant development from his NBA teammate or the addition of another.
Perhaps this type of framing is a debatable point, as the Sixers scored with the efficiency of any team in the league when their two stars shared the court this season – an alarming development for opponents, considering Philly’s already excellent defense. The necessary qualifier is that Philadelphia programming has been incredibly forgiving; even the few games the Sixers played against high-quality opponents were mitigated by COVID-related injuries and absences. (Wednesday’s encounter with the Lakers should be fascinating – both as a collision of MVP favorites and a more sophisticated test for Philadelphia’s attack.) The practical change, however, is that Embiid and Simmons are flanked by more snipers. respectable than ever, headed by Seth Curry (who currently ranks second in his career, 3 percentage points), three-time champion Danny Green and the recently trusted Tobias Harris. Embiid has been an unusual and effective graduate marker for years. Translating this defined skill into a stable and combat offensive can actually be as simple as giving you room to breathe.
“Nowadays, in the NBA, you need to be able to kick the ball,” said Embiid before the season, praising the new acquisitions. “You have to be able to space the floor. It is difficult to play inside out all the time. I lead the league in post-ups, either last year or the past few years. But people still want me to post more. This is understandable, but again, you need to find a balance between making sure everyone is involved and also giving me the ball. ”
There are more entry points for the attack this season with new coach Doc Rivers, although each possession still points in some way to Embiid. There are hand-offs between Embiid and Curry, kick-outs between Embiid and Harris, and even short-distance pick-and-roll, where Simmons goes down to select the Embiid defender while he is posting, an action that often develops too quickly for the defense to react. More compromised spacing also allowed Embiid enough freedom of movement to take passes around the perimeter and literally take his man to the block:
All the while, Simmons lurks along the base line on the opposite side of the track, ready to clean up the offensive abuses and rebounds that arise when a powder threat like Embiid disrupts an entire defense. “Our relationship continues to grow,” says Simmons. “We talk a lot more in terms of being on the ground and certain things we say. Knowing where he wants the ball, all the sets, getting a good flow in the game and just trying to interpret it in the right way ”. After a recent game, Embiid texted Simmons apologizing for missing his cuts – an acknowledgment, in a way, of his changing dynamics. Further establishing Embiid as an option to own everything on the block was only possible due to Simmons’ willingness to expand his responsibilities beyond those of a typical shipowner. “Little things like that,” says Simmons, “continue to help the team’s chemistry grow.”
The opponents who moved during the regular season were oppressed by Embiid and, in some cases, annulled by his death by pressure. There is an appreciable balance in his game now – first physically, while younger Joel was playing as if he were constantly swaying, and now mentally, while reading the game with increasing clarity. “I feel like he’s taking too long,” notes Simmons. Facing the challenge of the playoffs – when opponents will have more time to plan a post-heavy offense – will put these readings to the test, but the promise of Embiid’s individual advantage is not something that can be planned. Any better-designed game plan against the Sixers will, on some level, amount to resisting the storm.
Under Rivers, the Six began to repeat successful sets and actions until opponents found a way to stop them. But what if Embiid cannot be stopped? What if, at a time when the vast majority of teams have moved to big, leaner and more agile, there is no real solution to a 7-foot pressure invitation and overcome it? This is not an exercise in reflection – it was the brutal reality of the Celtics when they faced the Sixers in consecutive games last week and gave Embiid 80 points on the way to two consecutive defeats. This was their destiny, bound to repeat itself:
Things weren’t much better for Bam-less Heat, who had their own fight with Embiid the week before. In the opening game, he managed 45 points and 16 rebounds in the Sixers’ overtime victory. In the rematch, Philadelphia built enough advantage to give the pivot a break for the rest of the night. In both games, Embiid won defenses calculated with the kind of post-game patience they were designed to prevent:
In that possession, Miami had four defenders surrounding Embiid in the painting, and one running from the perimeter for a tough duo. None of that meant absolutely nothing. The novice center, Precious Achiuwa, was so concerned with playing an honest defense with his hands free that he allowed one of the most confident scorers in the game to evade a recovery jumper. The only way to combat Embiid’s physicality is with the corresponding strength, which Embiid will exploit to draw a fault. Avoiding the call, however, subjects the defender to a positional game he is destined to lose – one in which a bigger and stronger player will crush them in the paint until a basket is easy. Most of Embiid’s performances with fewer goals this season came against increasingly desperate saves. No player sees more double teams on the pole than Embiid, according to Synergy Sports, less because the strategy is effective than because it is less sure to fail.
These are the bets for each sequence in which Embiid, after testing an opponent with a necessary fake bomb on the 3-point line, gracefully leads him to the torture chamber. The terror of his game comes from how he finds a defense in a direct, combative way, exceeding his projected purpose. Even perfectly executed schemes have their limits. Embiid is showing how he can live in the crowd and still control everything. He is proving that any defense of extra help in his way is just another milestone for selling a foul. The most frightening failures usually happen after everything goes according to plan. This is where Embiid leaves an opponent: exhausted, often defeated and unsure if any of his efforts really mattered.