Having long before completed his night’s work, Joel Embiid stood before a clot of media types at his cubicle in the Sixers’ locker room late Wednesday. This was highly irregular. Normally the NBA scoring leader, like his teammates, confines his postgame remarks to the interview room, which is around a corner and down a short hallway from his spot.
But in this case journalists – even those like myself who had been designated “second tier” by the powers that be (not enough experience, one supposes) – were invited to visit with the big fellah in his own lair. And indeed he was in an expansive mood, leaving his iPhone on his chair (upon which he had been watching the Atlanta-Phoenix game) and addressing various topics, not the least of which was the season’s trajectory.
“When we’re right,” he said, “I feel like we have the opportunity to accomplish something big.”
Embiid, named an All-Star reserve Thursday (after somehow being denied a starting berth by voters), had contributed 28 points and 11 rebounds to a workmanlike 105-94 victory over Orlando earlier in evening. Coach Doc Rivers labeled the game a “slugfest,” which sounded about right, as Philadelphia avenged a loss to the Magic two nights earlier and earned its 21st victory in 26 games.
The Sixers, 33-17 heading into a three-game road trip that begins Friday in San Antonio, are vying with Milwaukee for the Eastern Conference’s second seed. And Embiid, despite a sore foot, is averaging a league-best 33 points a game, with one of his recent highlights a statement-making 47-point explosion last Saturday against two-time defending MVP Nikola Jokic.
But if there are no issues when Embiid is on the court, some remain when he is off it, and they were once again illustrated Wednesday. The Sixers outscored the Magic by 17 points when the veteran center played, but were outscored by six when his backups, Montrezl Harrell and Paul Reed, filled in.
This is nothing new. When Dwight Howard was Embiid’s primary backup in 2020-21 – Rivers’ first season in Philadelphia – the on-off difference was 12.4 points in the regular season, and a staggering 19.9 points in the playoffs. Last year, when first Andre Drummond and then DeAndre Jordan (or Reed) were the reserves in the middle, the difference was 11.5 during the regular season, 11.3 in the playoffs.
This really, really matters, as was shown most strikingly in the 2019 Eastern semis against Toronto, when Brett Brown was still the coach. In the series Embiid was a plus-89, while his backups were minus-108. In Game Seven, the Raptors enjoyed a nine-point advantage in the 1:41 Greg Monroe played in Embiid’s stead – which, ya know, seems impossible, and which countered Embiid’s plus-10. That proved to be decisive, since Toronto won the game (and the series) on Kawhi Leonard’s memorable buzzer-beater.
This is worth discussing now, as the league’s trade deadline is next Thursday, and the Sixers would do well to go find another big. Maybe that’s Drummond, now with Chicago, or another ex-Sixer, Nerlens Noel, now with Detroit. Neither sounded like they would be opposed to a return when they met with reporters during recent visits.
Maybe it’s somebody like Naz Reid, a live-bodied Minnesota reserve. Or maybe the answer was seated on Orlando’s bench Wednesday.
Mo Bamba, the sixth pick of the 2018 draft, did not appear in the game, and seldom sees action for the Magic. But when he does, Bamba – a 7-footer with a 7-10 wingspan – has displayed a varied skill set. He’s shooting nearly 40 percent from the arc, and blocks nearly one shot a game, while playing an average of 17 minutes on those rare occasions when he does see daylight.
The Magic has made no secret that he is available, but to date the Sixers have not been one of the teams linked to him. Rather, there was a report Wednesday from the Inquirer’s Keith Pompey that Sacramento and Golden State coveted defensive whiz Matisse Thybulle.
Just a thought, but If the Warriors are interested, maybe pump the brakes, since they would likely turn Thybulle into Andre Iguodala 2.0 (even with the original still holding a roster spot at age 39). If a smart organization like that can work around his offensive weaknesses, maybe – maybe – the Sixers should continue to try.
There are also those who believe the Sixers will divest themselves of one of their end-of-benchers – be it Furkan Korkmaz, Jaden Springer or Danuel House – in order to get under the luxury-tax threshold.
Rivers? He’s not advocating one way or another.
“I don’t touch that,” he said before Wednesday’s game, when asked about possible roster upgrades. “I would love my hair to grow out on the sides, if I can have an upgrade. That’s not going to happen.”
Asked specifically after the game about the backup center spot, he vowed to continue playing Harrell and Reed, adding that they need to “push each other.”
I would argue that that’s hardly a recipe for success – that it’s unlikely to end a drought that has seen the Sixers fail to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs since 2001, much less a championship dry spell that extends all the way back to 1983.
I would argue they need to do something bold. That they gotta go to Mo.