The 2023 NBA offseason has not been a very fun one for the Philadelphia 76ers so far. Daryl Morey reiterated his desire to build around both Joel Embiid and James Harden but the gravitational pull the Houston Rockets have on Harden is complicating matters. Many folks in the know expect Harden to bounce from the Sixers, so it'll take a great head-coach hire to get Sixers fans even somewhat excited again.
Embiid and the Sixers got a humble pie to the face after their sixth failed attempt to get to the conference finals in as many years. Exacerbating the failure is how Nikola Jokic led his Denver Nuggets to the 2023 NBA Finals, putting up huge performances along the way. In the new light that arose following each superstar center's playoff runs, Embiid's subtle shots at Jokic and the media members who favor him look even worse. Those who still want to argue that Embiid is the better player face a virtually unassailable hill to climb up.
While Embiid and Jokic are two different players, Embiid should take some notes about what makes his counterpart so effective — and so should the Sixers. If there's one thing the Sixers need to address in the 2023 offseason, it's crafting a more fluid offense.
Sixers' biggest need: Building an offense with more movement
After the Sixers' season-ending loss, Joel Embiid said that a lack of ball movement hurt the team. Doc Rivers talked ad nauseam about the team needing to play with more pace. The Sixers' next coach needs to have tactical actions that are louder than words and build an offense with frequent off-ball movement.
Embiid often sets up inside the arc and holds onto the ball in one place for seconds at a time, which allows defenses to sit in their base alignment and slide into driving lanes. With no ball movement, it's like turning the difficulty up to its highest setting. It's easier for defenders to double when they don't have to keep constant track of their guy.
Let's state an obvious characteristic that Embiid and Jokic share: they aren't very fast. To help offset Jokic's deficiency in foot speed, the Nuggets have built an offensive system predicated on ball and player movement, where guys use Jokic's gravity to their advantage and find openings on the perimeter, baseline, and lanes to get the ball in a cleaner window. The shooters and lob threats around him can expect a pinpoint pass when they relocate. Jamal Murray can go one-on-one with most players but is happy to let Jokic control the ball because he knows he can get it back with a great scoring opportunity.
The fuel to Denver's fiery offense is Jokic's masterful playmaking. Embiid is absolutely not the playmaker that Jokic is, but that's simply because Jokic is on a level of his own in that facet of the game. The Sixers center doesn't have to be on that level to reasonably be given more playmaking duties. While it's not one of the main strengths people point to in his game, he's a quality passer.
Embiid can make the right passes to open players and has improved over the years at reading and reacting to extra defensive pressure. While he can sometimes be inaccurate, he has a feel for where the defense leaves itself exposed when he gets doubled. He knows how to find cutters (and where to send them), run effective dribble handoffs, and use off-ball movement to seize open looks.
Watch how he senses defenders in his peripheral vision (like at 0:49) and makes a quick scan of the floor before firing to the open man. Watch how he keeps his eyes straight ahead while dishing it to someone on his side to keep the defense looking elsewhere (like at 0:57). Embiid has real playmaking instincts that the Sixers have to tap into more.
It may seem counterintuitive to build an offense with more movement featuring Harden, whom the Sixers should try to keep and has long been known to dribble the air out of the ball. While Harden isn't going to transform into a massive off-ball threat, his frequency in catch-and-shoot triples increasing suggests that he can still have a purpose when Embiid has the ball.
Last season, Philly shot itself in the foot repeatedly by taking its sweet time to get into its offensive sets. Picking up the tempo is a must. Harden was reportedly not a fan of his usage under Rivers but that doesn't mean that he and Embiid can't figure something out with a new coach. A set-up exists somewhere for Harden to have more space to work and the Sixers' offense to feature more motion. Everything should still mostly operate through Embiid, who is better than Harden at his current career stage to draw more defensive attention.
The Nuggets are not the only example of using a center-centric offense to yield great results. The Sacramento Kings just torched defenses in historic fashion thanks to Domantas Sabonis, who delivered dribble hand-offs and dished the rock around to the shooters surrounding him on his way to a per-game average of 7.3 assists, which tied for tenth-best in the league. The Miami Heat obviously have Jimmy Butler but have used Bam Adebayo as an offensive hub at the high post, too.
The Sixers' offense can still be centered mostly around Embiid getting his own shots up — and it should. The guy is still a mismatch against almost every single player and is bound to get up a high-percentage look almost every time in single coverage. But they need to have more layers than a simple kick-out to a shooter. Off-ball screens that free up shooters and occupy help defenders would add more complexity that gives Harden and Embiid more wiggle room. Using more dribble handoffs would open up the floor, which would especially benefit Harden as good drives become harder to come by.
Embiid had moments last season where his playmaking shined. Over the years, he has gotten better at sensing double-teams and understanding how to use his teammates' skills to his advantage. He spoke about how he needs the guys around him to stay ready to shoot in order for the Sixers to succeed. He has to buy more into that mindset now that his iso-heavy play style, even with the boost from Harden's playmaking, has been exposed in the playoffs again.
While the Sixers' lack of offensive flow can be partly attributed to Embiid's tendencies leaning much heavier into shooting than passing, Embiid is not a ball hog. He's more than willing to make the right play when it's open. Philly simply needs to open more of them up to give high-level defenses more to worry about.
Part of this responsibility falls on Daryl Morey to get players that are better equipped to react quickly and pinpoint holes in the defense. It's also his and the front office's responsibility to find a more creative coach. But most of all, it's up to Embiid to push for these changes and recognize how offensive stagnation has to be flushed out of the team once and for all.
If he really does admire Jokic like he claims, Embiid should be willing to learn from him and his team's success. It would benefit him and the Sixers tremendously to include more movement into the offense to unlock the version of Embiid the Sixers need him to be.
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