Here's his preseason highlights: https://youtu.be/Q7HLTPw687c
For a guy who hasn't played basketball in 2 years and has grown a few inches since then, it's actually pretty remarkable how good he looks this early. As a fan of the game, I'd like to see him stay healthy because Towns vs Embiid will be must-see TV for the next decade or two.
I see one assist. He has very little court awareness. He leaves his man way too often to paint patrol and jumps early. He is going to be exploited.
He's had a few others that ended with his teammate getting fouled or missing the shot like this one: https://vine.co/v/5XQIjZn1qpV
Embiid is raw but he has court awareness. They've mainly focused on getting him acclimated so far. They haven't done much to build a team offense around him. He'll definitely have to continue to work on his passing as I expect him to face a lot of double teams.
To me he is very rusty or he doesn't get it cause he doesn't look good in terms of team play. A black hole similar to Whiteside. We will find out soon enough if he stays healthy if it is indeed rust. For now compare him Whiteside instead of Hakeem.
Of course he's rusty. He's been out injured for two years and just started 5-on-5 practicing a couple months ago. In college, Embiid averaged 1.4 assists in 23 minutes. As I said, the Sixers haven't been focused on their team offense so far not that they've had much of a team offense these past 3 years. They're really in a holding pattern until Simmons gets back because they him to run their offense.
Holding pattern and a bunch of wishful thinking is why I said their rebuild hasn't gone well. They have nothing solid to show for it right now.
this briefly sums it up for me. the sixers have accumulated some good pieces, though they are currently quite mismatched in terms of talents and positions.
one question i have is whether the sixers can they hang on to their young players. what good does it do to acquire a talent such as noel if he simply walks away? and as we have seen, noel and okufar are not fetching top dollar from other teams.
the philly rebuild has been going for a while, but still a long way to go yet.
next, as if often the case on internet boards, rookies are frequently viewed in the best of light. saric, to me, looks good, but not a super star. but then, that may be best for the sixer team for now. they are so disfunctional as TEAM that they need someone who can be a "glue guy". maybe saric will be it.
embiid does look to be very good and should be fun to watch. but that is 100% a guess and a hope and a wing and a prayer by me and everyone else who thinks similarly. we simply dont know if he will be healthy, or greg oden II. none of us know.
will embiid turn out to be kwame brown, or akeem, or olowakandi, or duncan? or somewhere in between those extremes? we have no idea right now and saying we do know is silly.
so, if is fun to watch young potential waiting in the wings, but i am not sure why either seeming side of the "sixer debate" feel as if they have to generate final judgements before embiid or saric have played a single nba game.
much to this thread is premature conjucture by many parties. let's wait, watch the games, and see.