The Philadelphia 76ers told their superstar big man to be patient. They told Joel Embiid that they needed some time and that they would be able to add to the talent surrounding him in order to be amongst the contenders in the Eastern Conference.
The Sixers swung for the fences and they hit a home run with the additions of Paul George, Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, and Caleb Martin as they look to reach the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. Coach Nick Nurse will be the one to try and put it all together on the floor to get the job done.
Embiid sat down with Tim Bontemps of ESPN and gave his thoughts on the additions as well as the team’s plan and asking him to be patient:
“Yeah, I think as far as the fit, it looks amazing,” Embiid told ESPN. “It is great, especially when you got a big … I don’t like to call myself a big, but when you got a player that posts up and that isos quite a bit, you need to have willing shooters and guys that are not afraid to pull the trigger. PG, great shooter, 40%, 45 catch and shoot; Tyrese, we know great shooter, off the dribble, catch-and-shoot.
“On paper, and as far as the fit, it looks fantastic because you got both guys that can play off the ball, and they can play on ball and they’re great shooters and they can handle the ball, and then you also got me,” he added with a smile.
Embiid also told Bontemps that it wasn’t exactly easy to stay patient. The Sixers didn’t have much of a chance to contend in 2023-24 and the front office told him to reman patient and to believe in what they were going to do.
The big fella told ESPN:
“I’d be lying to say that patience wasn’t tested,” Embiid told ESPN. “Because I’m at the point where there’s no awards, there’s no regular season or no All-NBA or All-Stars is going to change the way my legacy is. Well, there’s a few things that can change it, but the main one is the championship. So when you start thinking about what you want to be remembered as, you want to be remembered as someone that’s won.
“When you are presented with a plan, sometimes it goes wrong, sometimes it goes right. We’ve still got long way to go. On paper it looks great. But we still got to go on the court and make it work.”
It remains to be seen if all of this will be able to work out, but on paper, the Sixers have the most talented trio in the NBA and it isn’t close. It will come down to health and chemistry as Philadelphia moves forward with its plans to win a title.
