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Charles Barkley gave yet another piece of inspirational advice to Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid in the wake of their tough losing skid. The Sixers have piled up two separate three-game skids in the past two weeks and lost six of their last nine games.
Now bound to face the high-octane Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center on Friday, Barkley offered some sound counsel to the often-struggling Sixers big man — noting he should stop bailing out his opponents.
Article Continues Below“When he shoots threes, I guarantee the defender is like, ‘Man, that was so easy,'” Barkley told Jackie MacMullan and Kirk Goldsberry of ESPN.
“It's so stupid not to use your big man. No. 1, if you have a guy who is great, he can't be stopped in the post one-on-one. He's going to draw a double-team and you will get wide-open threes. Or he's going to get the other team in foul trouble. I just don't think these big guys are using their brains.”
Embiid fits many of the characteristics of the modern big man: He can use both hands to pass and shoot, face-up, and even shoot it from distance. Yet he's relied on his outlier skills far more than his dominant ones, which has reduced him to a great-but-not-dominant talent at center.
The 7-footer had a better December than most observed, averaging 24.8 points and 12.6 rebounds while shooting 50% from the floor, 38% from deep, and 85.8% from the foul line. Embiid attempted six or more free throws in 11 of his 13 games last month, but also attempted five or more threes in four of his last seven games during the last two weeks, four of which resulted in losses.
Embiid could be making a living at the line and averaging 10 or more free throws a night the way Barkley sees it. If the Sixers big man is as willing to listen as he was the last time Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal had something to say about his game and his lack of aggression, he could easily fix this by asserting himself on the block and punishing opponents with an elite stroke at the foul line.
