David Robinson is a weird inclusion, as he made the conference finals exactly once before Tim Duncan was drafted - at 29 years old in his sixth season. If anything, he's the closest contemporary to Embiid on your list.
In other words, in't it pretty easy to see Embiid on a championship team winning his first title in Robinson's situation - once the team drafted a better player and he was on the downswing of his career at 33?
Oh Embid definitely could change this narrative my making a conference finals or especially even if a finals. I’m just saying it is more than time for him to get out of second round if he wants to be a truly great player. The problem I fear for him is that he may be a better regular season player than playoff player. For one, they seem to let post play get more physical in the playoffs without as many fouls called (some argument this is why we havent seen a lot of dominant centers on championship teams recently. In addition he has definitely been worn down in seasons past by the time he reaches the playoffs.
I think that's been much more of an organizational failure than on him. You can only do so much as one player (see late 80s Jordan for example). The Process failed them. For the most part, they've been getting eliminated by teams that were just plain better than them.
The process didn't fail them. The process ended as an incomplete when Hinkie was fired after 3 seasons when the owner caved to pressure from the NBA commissioner. The process got them Embiid who led them to 4 50-win seasons and a 49-win short season in 6 seasons. That's their best performance since the mid 80s. The post process is what failed them. Lots of poor decisions and squandered resources.
There's no guarantee Hinkie would have made better decisions than Colangelo and there's absolutely no evidence at all that he could actually put together an NBA roster that would win more games than it lost. Joel Embiid didn't play a single game for Philladelphia during Hinkie's tenure as GM - a tenure that saw Philly win 47 games over three seasons. Hell, they only won 28 games in Embiid's rookie year. The team doesn't get good until 2018, when Ben Simmons finally makes his debut, a guy who Hinkie had no say in drafting.
While it's true that Embiid is essentially the only piece of Hinkie's legacy left in the league, that cuts both ways: if the only way to validate (or invalidate) The Process is by virtue of the Sixers becoming contenders with any of the pieces and assets Hinkie put into place, we're effectively always going to be talking about Schrödinger's tank job.
David Robinson is a weird inclusion, as he made the conference finals exactly once before Tim Duncan was drafted - at 29 years old in his sixth season. If anything, he's the closest contemporary to Embiid on your list.
In other words, in't it pretty easy to see Embiid on a championship team winning his first title in Robinson's situation - once the team drafted a better player and he was on the downswing of his career at 33?
Oh Embid definitely could change this narrative my making a conference finals or especially even if a finals. I’m just saying it is more than time for him to get out of second round if he wants to be a truly great player. The problem I fear for him is that he may be a better regular season player than playoff player. For one, they seem to let post play get more physical in the playoffs without as many fouls called (some argument this is why we havent seen a lot of dominant centers on championship teams recently. In addition he has definitely been worn down in seasons past by the time he reaches the playoffs.
Agree with all of this, but I think my opinion of him is the same if he loses in the 2nd round or gets swept in a Conference Final, for example.
