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If you've been watching people talk about today's NBA landscape, chances are you have come across someone profess how much they hate how the league has become a glorified 3-point shooting contest. Indeed, the long shot is now the thing in basketball, but the post-up isn't dead either. Just take for example Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid, who is literally beating 27 teams not named the Sixers in the league when it comes to post-up frequency, as noted by ESPN's Kirk Goldsberry.
Joel Embiid is posting up as an individual more per game than 27 teams.
Oh, and look at that midrange https://t.co/m3TYvH946s pic.twitter.com/diQBXjsRHO
— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) May 6, 2021
On the season, Embiid's post-up frequency is at 36.2% — over 11% better than the rest of the league. Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic is far behind the Cameroonian with a 25.0% post-up frequency. Embiid's ability to break down defenders with ease from almost anywhere on the floor makes Philadelphia's offense look unstoppable in a lot of games. Aside from a bread-and-butter post-up option, Embiid can also get buckets from deep, where he is connecting on 36.3% of his shots.
Stretch bigs are no longer the unicorns they were in the past when basketball fans used to lose their minds when a seven-footer like Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki would all of a sudden pull up from a step behind the arc. These days, the script has been effectively flipped. When centers don't have an outside touch, it's almost as though it's detrimental to their overall value. They need to have a perimeter shot to survive in the NBA. Fortunately for Embiid, he's both an excellent outside shooter, relatively speaking, and a terrifying low-block presence for the Sixers.
Needless to say, the Sixers are lucky to have someone like Joel Embiid as the focal point of their offense.
