Six for the Sixers: Joel Embiid

For the last two days of my “Six for the Sixers” series, I spent time on the perimeter. Let’s face it. Nowadays, the NBA is played on the perimeter. This is now a guard/athletic winger driven league. Every once in a while, it’s nice to look back on the good old days where big men dominated the league. The next collegiate standout on this list is a throwback to those memories.

4. Joel Embiid, C, 7’0″, 240, University of Kansas

David Robinson.

Hakeem Olajuwon.

These are some of the people that Jayhawks’ center Joel Embiid has been compared to. Forgive my drool at the thought of having that kind of generational guy on my roster for the 2014-2015 season. Make no mistake, that’s what Embiid could potentially be if the stars align correctly.

In a league that has been dominated on the perimeter by superior athletes on the wing and at the point guard position, it’s nice to see there is still a premium placed on some high quality big men — Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, Jonas Valančiūnas (who is coming into his own in Toronto). These are some of the big men that’ve been producing at a substantial level since coming into the league.

Embiid already rebounds and is a substantial rim protector already, but here’s what sets Embiid apart from the rest mentioned above. He is ten times more polished offensively than all of them. You’d probably have to go back to 2008 with the Nets selection of Brook Lopez to find someone with a consistent offensive presence.

The Cameroon-born product’s stats at Kansas back up exactly what has been said about his offensive potential. In just one year at Kansas, Embiid shot 63.9% with his two-point shots that included lay-ups, dunks, and a developing mid-range face up jump shot. Embiid is very effective facing up and has fluid movement for a guy his size. If the jumper isn’t going well, he can get around defenders who aren’t that quick or agile and finish at the rim. His back-to-the-basket game is effective, but it could stand to receive a little polish. That’s where Brett Brown and his player developers can get the job done. If what they did with Nerlens Noel — who was horrifically offensively challenged — is any indication, drafting Embiid and pairing him with Noel would be a dream.

It was a dream that Kansas Jayhawks coach Bill Self thought he would get, but he wasn’t sure at first. When Embiid declared for the NBA Draft last month, Self told reporters from the Kansas City Star that he “knew he’d be really, really good” but “didn’t know how long it would take. He kind of exceeded our expectations.”

The dream of Embiid in the front court would be a nightmare for opposing teams in the Eastern Conference considering (technically) Roy Hibbert is the best center in the conference. (That’s my default position because Brook Lopez has been injured all season and Andre Drummond isn’t there just yet.) Embiid’s per-40 minute projections (19 ppg, 14 rpg, 62.6% FG) are astounding. At Kansas, he only averaged 11/8, but he wasn’t the focal point of the offense on most nights. Fellow freshman phoenom Andrew Wiggins was. When it was Embiid’s show, he didn’t disappoint (as evidenced by his 18/8 performance against Texas Tech back in February when Wiggins’s shooting wasn’t great).

Embiid is good enough to be the focal point of an offense because of his wide range of post moves, and he can certainly be an above average defender and rebounder. As stated above, his 14 rpg per 40 minutes is crazy, but he can also block shots and protect the rim. Embiid blocked about three shots a game during his one year at Kansas and had five games of at lest five blocks or more. Imagine trying to go to the rim. You get by Noel (somehow) only to discover Embiid is the weakside help. To quote Keith Olbermann: “HELLO!”

Any conversation about why NOT to draft Embiid begins and ends with his back. If you can live with the possibility of drafting a 19-year-old kid that already has back problems, feel free to draft him.

Embiid’s season ended with him suffering a stress fracture in his lower back. This came after dealing with back spasms for the majority of the season prior to that. He played through the spasms, but the stress fracture was the straw that broke … Yeah, you can finish the rest of that however you will.

As offensively polished as Embiid is, he still hasn’t perfected his back-to-the-basket moves. Embiid has some limited moves from that position, but right now, he’s much better facing up and using his quickness to get past defenders or putting up that mid-range jump shot that he’s put together. Again, with Brown and his developmental crew behind him, that shouldn’t be an issue for too long.

The back problems — which are a pretty decent sized red flag for a 19-year-old kid — are one issue I’ve grown to have with Embiid, but there’s something else. An underrated quality for any big man in this league is the presence of a mean streak. Embiid doesn’t really have one. It’s not a huge problem that he doesn’t have one, but someone his size with his potential to be a force in the low blocks can’t live in the same league without one. Tell him about how much Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin still gets punked by big men on a consistent basis. The “nice guy” motif does work in this league, but when you’re in the trenches, you have to be willing and able to get down and dirty with the big boys.

If the Sixers drafted Embiid, he could be the most offensively gifted center the Sixers have had since Moses Malone. He could be the most dominating presence down low since Barkley. Those are memories that would be welcomed back in this city because those were some of the best times. It would be nice to have another Sixers center to reference without having to bring up Shawn Bradley or Matt Geiger.