Playoff Failures Aside, We Need To Appreciate Joel Embiid More

It has been over a week since we last saw Embiid play. He missed a couple of games with an illness, and then the whole team had 4 days off after they missed out on the In-Season Tournament. But Joel Embiid made up for all that missed time. He dropped 50 points in a win over the Wizards. And it is a reminder of something important. We are very lucky to have Joel Embiid playing in our city.

Fans have not been as behind him as they used to be. Seeing the Sixers lose in the second round for the 5th time really took its toll on the mood of the fanbase. And it was hard to find excuses for Embiid this time after how he performed in the final two games. It was not all his fault, but he played a large part in why they lost those final two games to the Celtics. And it is fair for fans to be a little upset after watching Joel Embiid, and the rest of the team, fail to step up yet again. But some of it has gone too far.

All offseason we saw fans calling for him to be traded. Many fans gave up on Embiid saying he will never win anything. They wanted to start over with Maxey as the main guy. Some people had just had enough of Embiid. They must not remember what it was like before Embiid showed up.

In the era between Allen Iverson leaving, and Embiid showing up, there was very little to watch when it came to the Sixers. I am not just talking about The Process. Those years with Iggy and Jrue Holiday had moments. Seeing them upset the Bulls in 2011 was a ton of fun. But the overall product was best described as mediocre. There was no real hope for a ring, and nothing keeping us locked in every night. But now on any given night we can witness Embiid do something special. And even his off nights are better than 90% of the NBA.

Embiid is doing historic stuff. Last night was his 6th 50-point game. In the past 25 years, every other center combined has 7. Shaq had just 3 in his career. He is scoring at a rate no center has scored at since Kareem. Embiid has the most points per minute of any player in NBA history. He won the scoring title in each of the past two seasons, and is the leader so far this season. All of this is to say, Joel Embiid is a special player.

Does he need to do it in the playoffs? Of course. But moving on from Embiid is not going to win you playoff games. All it would do is send us back to the dark ages. If you are sick of 2nd round exits, get ready for first-round exits. And get ready for there being much less to cheer for in the regular season.

When comparing this era to what came before, we only look at the playoffs. And that leads people to the conclusion that Embiid hasn't changed much for this franchise. But what that misses out is that Embiid has made basketball relevant in Philadelphia again. We have something worth watching 3-4 nights a week. And we get to watch a guy do special things in most of those games.

The Sixers didn't get a ring with Charles Barkley. But we can look back and know they were better off with him. The Sixers only had 1 run with AI. But they were better off with him. And the Sixers are better off with Embiid. Even if they will never win a single NBA Finals while he is here, they are still better with him. No matter what the past results are, he gives them their best chance to win going forward. You are not going to find another player, let alone another center, as great as he is.

So appreciate Embiid. Hold him to a high standard, criticize him when he doesn't live up to it, and demand he and this team do better in the playoffs. But appreciate what we get to watch every night. Because Joel Embiid is a special player, and we do not appreciate what he does enough.

Yesterday we looked at what the Phillies would look like if they could only sign local players. It was not pretty. They had a few superstars, but most of the team got filled out by guys who were either known for not being good or not known at all. The problem was Philly isn't exactly the best place to be a young baseball player. In Florida or California, you can play baseball all year long. But here, Baseball is mostly just a Spring and Summer sport. Basketball is different though. Philly and South Jersey know Basketball. So would a Sixers team built out of local guys end up looking better than the Phillies?

Philadelphia, and the surrounding area, have been home to some NBA legends. Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Earl Monroe, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace. Philly could build an All-Time lineup that could rival most cities. But we are not talking about All-Time rosters here. We are seeing what the current Sixers team would look like, and none of those guys are still playing today.

Can they still put together a good roster of local guys though? Are the active players hailing from East PA, South NJ, and Delaware enough to make the Sixers a competitive team? Or will we be grateful Free Agency and the Draft exist and we can have guys from Cameroon, Texas, and New York on the roster? I can at least say it turned out better than the Phillies did.

We put together the best Sixers team we could from the pool of players who grew up in the local area. Like with the Phillies roster, the criteria to qualify is just that you are closer to Philly than any other NBA City.

Lowry is not the player he once was. Several years ago you would be excited to start off with Kyle Lowry as your point guard. But not everyone is Lebron James and can continue to dominate into their late 30s. That said, Lowry is still a solid player. He is shooting over 40% from 3 to this point in the season, and can still be a facilitator.

Sixers fans have coveted him in the past. We have also hated him in the past when he was doing his usual antics against the Sixers. But if he had been a Sixer his whole career, he would likely be beloved. Not just because he is a local but because he is the type of guy you hate to play against, but love to root for when he is on your team. 

Bridges would be the star of this team. And it still hurts to think he could have actually come home and played for the Sixers. They drafted him. He was wearing a Sixers hat and talking about how happy he is to be a Sixer. Then they traded him for a package that included the draft pick they eventually used to get Tobias Harris. And for the first couple of years. Harris was the better player. But now that Bridges is on the Nets, and allowed to be the guy, we see just how good he is.

He is an All-NBA caliber defender and scores over 20 points per game. Philly fans loved him on the Suns and Nets. They would adore him had he stayed in Philly.

Another solid player to add to the starting lineup. Hunter is no star, but he is a guy you love to have on the roster. Hunter has been around a 14 ppg guy his whole career. On that end of the floor, he can make a difference. His defensive game however leaves a ton to be desired. But playing next to Mikal Bridges should help cover up some of those issues.

The Morris brothers are Philly through and through. Even after they moved on to new cities when drafted, they continue to be a big part of a community, focusing charity efforts on their hometown, doing things like making sure every student has backpacks, haircuts, school supplies, vision care, and more. Marcus finally came home this year in the Harden trade. While neither of them are the same guy anymore at 34, we can still see Marcus has something left in the tank.

Lively is currently enjoying a solid rookie season. The 12th overall pick out of Duke averages 8.6 points, 7.8 assists, and 1.5 blocks in 25.1 minutes per game. In his one year at Duke, he got All-Freshman and All-Defense honors. He has a chance to grow into a solid NBA player. Would it be nice to have a more sure thing at center and let Lively grow behind him? Sure. But the pool of active big men to pull from in the local area left a lot to be desired.

You could do a lot worse than having Lonnie Walker as your main guy off of the bench. Walker averages 14.6 points per game this season off of the bench with the Nets and has been a double-digit guy for the past several seasons. Like Hunter, he is not good defensively. And this likely will not be a good defensive team in general outside of Bridges and Lively. But they may be able to put up some points, and Walker will help with that.

Like his brother, Markieff is not the player he once was. His fall-off is even greater than his brother's. He is down to just 7 minutes per game and has only played 3 games this year with the Mavericks. But the Sixers needed a big guy off the bench, and he was the best available. So they unite the Morris brothers on one roster.

Bones Hyland loves playing in Philly. He put up 21 on the Sixers, including 4 3s, in a 114-110 Nuggets win. Maybe there is something top playing in front of his friends and family from Delaware that takes his game to another level. And maybe that would give the Sixers a big boost off the bench. He can also provide solid defense at times. Hyland is a solid player and would be a plus player off the bench for this version of the Sixers.

Cam Reddish had a lot of hype at times. But it hasn’t quite worked out anywhere he went yet. Which is why he has bounced around between 4 teams. But there is still skill there. He has the tools to be a starter. But he lacks consistency. He eventually fell out of the rotation with the Knicks for that reason. But it is definitely worth having him off the bench to hope you can pull that potential out of him.

I was expecting a huge Nova presence on this team. But so many of the guys we remember from those great Nova teams aren’t actually from Philly. Jalen Brunson is from New Brunswick. Josh Hart is from Maryland. Seddiq Bey is from North Carolina. So they end up with Lowry, Bridges, Gillespie, and Arcidiacono. Gillespie has yet to make an impact in his rookie season with the Nuggets. But he was a ton of fun, and clutch as hell, when with Nova.

Arcidiacono was a superstar at Nova. But he has yet to turn into anything in the NBA. Now in his 7th season, he has never averaged more than 6.7 points per game. But just keeping a job that long in the NBA is impressive. In this case, he would be on of the last guys off of the Sixers bench. That has been his role wherever he went so far in the NBA, so he might as well do it for the home team as well.

Dion Waiters has been out of the league for a few years. But in this case, Sixers would have a very limited pool of players to pick from. And if they were looking to round out their bench, a guy who has been a bucket at some points in his career would be hard to pass on. He is still only 31, and has been a double-digit points guy in the poast. In this case, it would be worth having him off the bench to see if he can help.