For the first time on Wednesday night, a curve was thrown at prized rookie Joel Embiid when his Philadelphia 76ers started him next to big man Jahlil Okafor in a 123-114 loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Embiid seemed frozen on the court, failing to attempt his first field goal until the second quarter — a mere spectator on the perimeter while Okafor got the majority of touches on the block.
“I think for once, since I've been a Sixer, I didn't trust the process tonight,” Embiid told Jessica Camerato of CSN Philly. “I was just standing. I wasn't moving. I was just standing on the perimeter. I wasn't active on defense.”
The 7-footer scored a season-low nine points, along with six rebounds, five assists, and two blocks.
“I was kind of beat up tonight,” Embiid said. “But I’m going to give my all and just play hard. If I have to jump into the stands to save the ball, I’m going to do that.”
Okafor had 17 points, four rebounds, and three assists during his 30 minutes on the floor. He looked energized and willing to score and share the ball just as much.
“It’s all a learning process for us,” Okafor said. “It’s our first time playing together. We’re both trying to figure it out. I think Jo did well, I did well. It’s new to both of us.”
Regardless, the 6-19 76ers will continue to try their hand at matching different combinations of players to see which is the better fit.
“I felt like there's no doubt there is an adjustment being made by a few people,” Sixers head coach Brett Brown said. “I think that he got his touches. He had the ball in his hands. We wouldn't see the end result of a high volume of shots, but he had five assists. He got to the line a few times. I think that we can probably look at that a little bit where he was involved, but he just wasn't involved to the level that we have been used to.”
Despite the results today, Brown is bound to try pairing the two big men when the matchup favors it.
“I am inclined to try that,” Brown said. “If teams present it where it's clearly, responsible is a word that keeps coming to my mind, where we're not hurting the team. This balance of developing our guys and experimenting and truly seeing what do we have. What do we have? That's my job, draped under we want to win games. So that is a slippery slope, that's a funky line to walk sometimes. I do want to do it. We want to continue to try this.”
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