Sixers coach sees some Tim Duncan in Joel Embiid

Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid of Cameroon shoots the ball prior to the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014, in Philadelphia. The Nets won 99-91. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

One of these days, Philadelphia 7-footer Joel Embiid will bring more to the 76ers than pre-game and video-board entertainment.

After suffering a fracture in his right foot prior to the NBA Draft, the rookie out of Kansas has been on a slow and steady path to rehabilitation.

While Embiid had traveled with ever-struggling Philadelphia (4-28) on what had to be a bummer of a recent road trip, the team sent him home early to focus on his rehab and training.

Prior to that, Sixers coach Brett Brown conversed with TruehoopTV’s Henry Abbott about the injured center. The coach, obviously, wishes he had his No. 3 lottery pick on the court.

For what it’s worth, Philadelphia at least has some experience in dealing with this type of situation. The 76ers’ 2013 lottery pick, Nerlens Noel, rehabbed throughout what would have been his rookie season without playing a single game in a Philly uniform. Brown said that prepared the staff for the challenges of keeping an injured young talent completely engaged in the process of getting game-ready.

“We’re trying to go overboard,” Brown
said, “and teach (Embiid) what
leadership is, and how to grow a
program.”

With the end goal of having Embiid healthy and contributing on a permanent basis, his coach said the 20-year-old’s daily routine focuses on his health, diet and an on-going education about the game of basketball and making it in the NBA. Embiid watches video of some of the league’s best post players, and Brown — a former San Antonio assistant — even arranged for Tim Duncan to speak with the young prodigy when the Sixers played the Spurs.

In fact, Brown, who scouted Embiid as a Jayhawk, went as far as to compare him to Duncan when asked to come up with some similar players.

“You feel reckless throwing out the
names I would throw out,” Brown
admitted.

But then the coach went ahead and mentioned he saw a little of all-time Houston great Hakeem Olajuwon, some flashes of Duncan and the post skills of Charlotte big man Al Jefferson in Embiid’s game.

“Those names that I just said are
quite flattering and I have to use
them responsibly, but there are hints
of that. I think the difference with
Joel, say from Timmy, when we coached
Timmy, is Timmy had four years at Wake
Forest and then burst into the NBA and
from the get-go was arguably the best
4-man and maybe the best power forward
ever.

“So Joel’s one year of experience —
and almost three-quarters of a year —
is far shy of that four-year period
Timmy enjoyed to better prepare him
for the NBA.”

As Embiid rehabs (which at one point included him just sitting in a chair with one foot up, shooting one-handed), Brown said the big man from Cameroon by way of KU is giving himself the best chance to return as soon as possible.

Whenever he finally gets clearance to play, Philadelphia could find itself with a good problem: having two talented, young, similar interior players in Embiid and 6-foot-11 Noel (7.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.4 blocks through 29 games).

As Scott Howard-Cooper wrote for NBA.com, Brown now sees Noel, projected as a power forward, as more of a center. The coach said that would be “a challenge” for Philadelphia when Embiid joins the rotation.

Brown said Noel is a work in progress defensively, but for now he is more of a presence at the rim than when guarding stretch-forwards on the perimeter. Could that mean Embiid would play power forward?

Howard-Cooper reported Philly has plenty of time to figure this out, because Embiid very well might not make his debut until the Summer League.

Maybe Philadelphia just has two centers. The Sixers could play them both, just as San Antonio did when it had David Robinson and drafted Duncan. Had a team without a perennial all-star at center drafted Duncan, he would’ve been called a center, instead of a power forward. And we’d all talk about Duncan as one of the all-time great centers.

Whether Embiid gets labeled as a center of power forward, he still has a long way to go just to get on the court, let alone prove he should be mentioned in the same breath as Duncan or Olajuwon.

http://twitter.com/JoelEmbiid/status/547162203519205377

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