After leading the NBA in scoring in back-to-back seasons, Embiid said he wants to be more of a playmaker and a Defensive Player of the Year contender in 2023-24.
Sixers center Joel Embiid will try to follow up his MVP season with a campaign more focused on getting his teammates involved and anchoring the defense.Before a 76ers’ home game against the Toronto Raptors late last season, Nick Nurse outlined how challenging it had become to defend Joel Embiid.
Embiid went on to win his long-coveted NBA Most Valuable Player award, after using that extraordinary blend of force and skill to lead the league in scoring for the second consecutive season at 33.1 points per game. Still, the Sixers hit a second-round playoff ceiling — and then 2021 and 2022 MVP-winning center Nikola Jokic led his Denver Nuggets to the NBA title — diminishing the validity of Embiid’s accolade in the eyes of some outsiders.
“I never liked just being an player. I don’t think that’s the right way to play, and I don’t feel that’s the right way to win. I like this system.” That knack could be even more valuable in Nurse’s more equal-opportunity offensive system, which trusts several players to handle the ball coming off a screen. And after years of matching up against Embiid — including in an epic seven-game 2019 playoff series, and in a first-round matchup two seasons ago — Nurse found himself in position to construct a planIn their initial conversations, Embiid and Nurse talked about playing with more unpredictability.
As soon as Embiid lures that extra defender, Nurse said, “you’ve created offense.” Embiid, meanwhile, has been identifying the optimal angles and spacing to then kick the ball out of the swarm. During training camp earlier this month, Embiid slyly said that he believed that award should solely go to big men because their intimidating presence can alter an opposing offense more than the blocks and steals statistical markers. Nurse, meanwhile, has challenged Embiid to take more “swings” to inherently increase his chances of rejecting a shot — and also tasked the big man with switching and trapping on the perimeter during Friday’s preseason finale.
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