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.
I was all for the process I just disagree with Hinkie's draft picks. Even the Simmons selection I thought Ingram was better suited for that club.
Other than taking MCW instead of the Greek Freak, I think Hinkie's picks were solid. Colangelo, not Hinkie, selected Simmons. I love Ingram as a prospect but Simmons was the correct choice for them. Now if I were them, I'd offer the Lakers Okafor and the Laker's 1st back for Ingram. Ingram, Simmons and Embiid would be a hell of a young core with very complimentary skillsets.
I'd gone Giannis, Smart, Porzingis, Ingram. I also question their other non top picks. They missed opportunities there too. Look if they made all the right picks Hinkie would have his job still. No point in trying to debate me on it. The fact are his picks haven't done anything in the NBA of mert and he lost his job.
Noel, Embiid and Simmons were widely acknowledged as the picks almost anyone would have made at those spots in the draft. Even Okafor seemed like the right choice at #3.
The problem with Hinkie's plan was they didn't get lucky enough. Philly would look a heck of a lot better with Oladipo and Townes or Russell instead of Noel and Okafor. The other problem was Hinkie's obsession with making the team as bad as possible, which wound up hurting the value of Noel and Okafor and left them with remarkably few assets after 3+ years of tanking. They have a core of high quality assets but literally nothing outside that core to offer anyone.
Mike
Noel was acquired as the 6th pick via the Jrue Holiday trade with NOP not via tanking. Hinkie had no shot at Oladipo since he was drafted 2nd in that draft. The Embiid re-injury and then the Lakers taking Russell was what threw a monkey wrench in the equation. That made it very difficult to pass on the sure thing Okafor to take the higher upside project Porzigis.
Besides Simmons, Embiid, Okafor and Noel, they have Saric who just may end up being better than Smart. Last draft, they snagged two nice prospects: Luwawu and Kormaz. They have the Lakers 1st and Kings 1st in addition to all their own 1sts. So they have plenty of assets including the best cap space in the league.