After Two And A Half Years, Joel Embiid Plays Meaningful Basketball Again

Joel Embiid’s last organized basketball game was at on March 1, 2014, when Kansas lost at Oklahoma State. If you’re doing the math at home, thats a million fucking days ago. And if you think Sixers fans aren’t fired up, consider that Embiid’s stat line was 6 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks last night and he already has a highlight tape floating around.

Embiid looked big as fuck out there but was moving like a dinosaur to start the game. Sure, it’s hard to be light on your feet when you’re nearing 300 pounds, but that boy was lumbering. Bit by bit, though, the rust seemed to fade, and we started to see the talent over which we had been salivating. Admittedly, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor both were more dominant in their first contests, though both were summer league games and neither had missed that much injury time. Joel Embiid has been out with an injury for literally a tenth of his life, so we can’t begrudge him for being a little quick on the uptake.

As far as the mechanisms of his game, the most exciting part had to be his jumper. He is not afraid to shoot out to the three point line and boy did that J look sweet. When I watched it, it was kind of reminiscent, form-wise, of Kevin Durant’s, but that might just be a product of being that big and him shooting it that smoothly. He obviously needs to improve his consistency exponentially to earn the company I just put him in with that last sentence, but tell me this shot doesn’t look pure as the driven snow.

In fact, Joel showed more as a shooter than he did as a low post presence. He was consistently double teamed on the block, and frankly, it seemed to work just about every time, as he got tied up or had to kick the ball out of the post. His post moves are certainly not Jah-level, but what about that handle?

And blocking Jaylen Brown like he did is definitely impressive, because Brown looks like an absolute stud. The dunks and layups Brown was throwing around yesterday made me simultaneously giddy and afraid. But then again, the Celtics couldn’t even win the fucking game? Celtics fans were unironically putting their team in the NBA Finals based on the start of the game, but then Sergio Rodriguez and the night shift came through and put away the Cs for good. Soooo, I guess the Sixers are going to the ‘ship now?

As far as the rest of the squad, we’ll just go rapid fire:

• It’s a good thing we still have all the big men, because it’s going to take some finagling to see who fits with who.
• The point guard play looks pretty shaky. We need someone who can find Joel when he rolls to the basket. Luckily that looks like one of Ben Simmons’ greatest talents.
• Dario Saric looks like an absolute baller. As if he can be as essential or as invisible as the squad needs at any given time. This is the kind of player that usually ends up on the Spurs and I am ecstatic that he is on the Sixers.
• Stauskas=no. He’s not shooting for us. We tried him at the point and he thought that meant whipping one handed passes like he was fucking Hot Sauce. Just no bro. I wanted it to work out too. But no.
• Saric looked more adept at running the point than Stauskas. He gelled well with Noel, which is what Nerlens needs to be an effective player, because he still can’t create his own shot.
• Spanish Chocolate really looked like he could command a team/the floor. Maybe he still had some juice from the Olympics, maybe it was because he was playing against the Celtics scrub unit, but he was spinning.
• Jaylen Brown vs. Richaun Holmes is the most electric matchup in the NBA, bar none. The two have been going at it since the Summer League and it breathtaking. Jaylen slams on Holmes. Holmes hits a three in Brown’s eye. They scream in each other’s faces. It’s just appointment TV for people who care way too much about basketball.

The biggest takeaway though? Jojo is back.