MOST IMPORTANT offseason for Joel Embiid? 👀 ‘Take your time & GET HEALTHY’ – Shumpert | NBA Today

MOST IMPORTANT offseason for Joel Embiid? 👀 ‘Take your time & GET HEALTHY’ – Shumpert | NBA Today

Joel Embiid, his year was really filled with ups and downs here. Let’s go all the way back. After being drafted in 2014 and missing his first two seasons with various injuries, Joel Embiid would string together eight seasons where he averaged just under 28 points and 11 rebounds while also being named the 2023 NBA MVP. Now, in September of 2024, after signing a three-year max extension, Embiid had this to say about Philadelphia. He said, quote, “I want to be here for the rest of my career. I love this community and everything you’ve given me and my family. There’s a lot more work to do. You guys deserve a championship, and I think we’re just getting started here.” Now, those championship aspirations, they got off to a little bit of a rocky start in 2024. Embiid, he would miss the first nine games of the season due to injury and a suspension. When Embiid was on the floor to start the season, he did look good though. 31-point game against the Bulls after missing the previous seven games. A 27 and9 rebound performance against the defending champion Boston Celtics. That one was on Christmas Day. However, the Sixers and Joel, they would start to struggle in February after a seven-game losing streak. And then the Sixers made that decision to shut him down for the remainder of the season with a lingering knee trouble here. So, for the first time here on NBA Today, I’d like to welcome in Doun Akentoy, who just released an excellent profile that’s up right now on ESPN.com. I really encourage all of our readers to take a second to go and read it when you have an hour this afternoon, but you sat down with Joel Embiid several times throughout this story. What stood out to you the most in those conversations? Well, thanks for having me first, Malikica. Um, I think Joelle is an incredibly sensitive, incredibly complicated person and um, and I think there are some of those traits that are perhaps at odds with the role that he plays, which is a, you know, a a leader of a organization, a superstar, and I think he’s been struggling with that ever since he’s been cast in that role. trust for him is like a huge huge not a concern perhaps a fixation is maybe the better way to and you know one of the incidents of the last season was the the leak in the fall after a closed door meeting that the team had and he brought it up with me and it’s still bothering him very clearly um and it I think for him it’s a microcosm of certain fears he has and a certain history he has with the organization about people who maybe don’t have his best interest at heart and who he can’t rely on. So, it’s um it’s on his mind. It’s a huge facet of his personality. And one of the ways that I read it as he looked to sort of take back some of that control when he felt like that trust was spiraling, he talks about the behind the scenes of an interview he did this season with Lisa Salters. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, I think Joel was incredibly frustrated this last uh season and he felt like no one was listening to him and it felt again I think of an echo of an earlier part of his career where he didn’t feel listened to and he shut down and I think not a a similar thing happened this year in that you know um there was a lot of pressure on him to play and his body didn’t feel right and I think finally uh I think the conversation with Lisa happened in February he had had enough and he was going to speak his mind publicly and sort of state his position and then let the team deal with the fallout of that. And that’s when he said to Lisa, you know, I may have to have surgery. The team was caught off guard by that. But that seemed to be, as he put it, his cry for help is the way that he described it to you to sort of say, no, I need to be listened to here. And now he’s describing this as the most important off season of his career. And I think there may be some fans, just being honest out there, who may say, “Well, what about the last ones? We’ve heard this story before, right? Why does this feel different? And how does he plan on sort of wrapping his arms around this? Well, he’s he’s approaching it, I’d say, um carefully and aggressively at the same time. Okay. Okay. I saw him um shortly after his um surgery and he was already in rehab. But I think also he’s being careful in that he’s not going to allow external pressures to force him back to the court before he feels he’s ready to come back. And I think there’s a big uncertainty. He doesn’t know what body he’s going to be returning to and what kind of player he’s going to be. And um it’s difficult to ascend to the place that he’s been as a player and then be anything else. Um, so I think that’s the thing that’s on his mind and that’s why it’s so important because the next time we see Joel Embiid on the basketball court, we will be watching hopefully I think he believes the last few years of his prime. Doesn’t know what sort of body he’s going to be returning to. I imagine for an NBA superstar that’s an incredibly scary feeling in a lot of ways. Still trying to feel like yourself, as you said, in the end of your prime. Through all of these ups and downs, Joel Embiid has been really introspective and it’s rare that he gives someone such an intimate glance and he did that with you here. What has he learned about himself through this process that now he’s ready to share with the world? I think the last year of his life has been really momentous for him. Um, you know, there are there’s so many things to to talk about. I think in a way he’s learning that he needs people more. Um, but I think he’s also learning to please them less. And that’s an interesting place to be. Um, he talked to me about being in therapy and kind of, uh, you know, sort of unpacking, um, the feelings he’s been dealing with, I think, over the last year, but also over the length of his career. There’s, you know, one of his former coaches said something to me. They said, you know, Joel would would have been fine on a deserted island. I think there’s something fundamentally lonely in him, and I think he’s learning about that, too. Um, but that’s at odds with the role he has to play. As we said earlier, he has to be a leader and I think he’s learning about that side of himself and trying to explore that. You know, the the friendship that he has with Tyrese Maxi is really important. Um, it’s a real connection for him and I think it’s made him um a better teammate when he is right. There is nobody like Joel Embiid in terms of scoring, right? His 30.9 points per game the last five seasons. It leaves the entire NBA here. As we say hello to our front office insider, Bobby Marks. I want to dive into a lot of parts of this story, Bobby. But let’s start here with you because there’s so much to unpack. Do you agree, Bobby, that this is the most important off season o of Joel Embiid’s life here? I I do, Malikica, and I look at this as this partnership between Philadelphia and and Joel Embiid. There’s no turning back, right? Like, they’ve got to make this work. Certainly from the Embiid health perspective here and I remember last September when Joel Embiid had two years left on his contract and he wind up signing that three-year max extension and that drew a lot of eye across the league. Why would Philadelphia commit another three years to a player that certainly is an MVP candidate but certainly has been injury related and here you look at it there’s four years $242 million. Malikica the last year of that contract is $69 million. That is the danger zone of contracts. So for both sides, they’ve got to make it work here for better or worse. Tim, do you feel like there’s a real conflict when it comes to the messaging around the 76ers here between what Joel Embiid is saying and what the 76ers say? Who who cares what I think? Joel Embiid clearly feels like there’s a conflict and there have been a lot of issues with the Philadelphia 76ers throughout the course of his career. the constant seems to have been a lack of trust in the organization and when when trust is lost it’s really hard to uh regain really hard to rebuild and you know just listen to Joel Embiid you know read his words he clearly does not feel that his best interests are are always being looked out for I mean he he said it in the story the interview with Lisa Salters was a cry for help yeah And and that I I thought was really interesting because it it’s one thing to feel as if you aren’t being listened to. You know this, you’ve been in these locker rooms. It’s another thing to decide that I’ve been listen not listened to for so long that I need to litigate it in an interview. And then it’s another thing to feel you need to take another step and do this extensive and incredibly well done profile that feels like it’s it’s compounding on top of each other. Yeah. I when when hearing that especially when he used the word is uh sensitive. You know a lot of guys hear that word and want to run away from it. Being sensitive to a number of different energies in the league is totally natural. Uh doing dealing with the ups and downs, the injuries that happen. Uh dealing with people saying that you don’t have the heart to want to play right now and you know that this might be a worse injury than you’re willing to admit to. Um you have to deal with all that and I think it’s all part of it. I do agree with Joel Embiid though that this is a very very important offseason because one getting healthy at that size. You can’t teach size but you also can’t deal with the repercussions that come with it. Like having a knee problem, a ankle problem, and then having that weight on top of it, it’s a lot. You know what I mean? And for him to play at his dominant style of play that we like, it’s like that’s going to abuse his knees. That’s a lot of spinning. It’s a lot of attacking angles and playing angles and, you know, getting to the foul line, doing the little stuff that we like him to do, but it’s like to do that, he does have to beat his body up. So, take your time, get healthy, make sure you’re all the way healthy before you come back and make sure that you play balls out. And when you talk about trust issues with Joel Embiid, it’s not just about other people in the organization. It’s not just about his bosses. He has trust issues with his body, which has betrayed him repeatedly over the years. And we are 18 months removed from Joel Embiid playing as well as we’ve seen a big man play, right? I mean, literally averaging more points than minutes, absolutely dominant, and his body just has not allowed him to do that since. And you can understand the frustration. And that’s what we just heard hearing hearing to me that Joel doesn’t know what type of body he’s going to return to. Feeling that sort of almost self- betrayal. That’s really interesting. that that would be really really hard to deal with especially because we talked about this before the show. This team was ostensively put around Joel Embiid after he won the MVP. They were very honest. The 76ers said, “You know what? We know and Joel Embiid was honest. He said, “I’m not really built to play 82 games. I’ve won MVP. I’m not even sure I’m built to play 65 games. So, we’re going to go out and we’re going to put a team around Joel, the the focal point of this of this franchise that is meant to help him to not have to carry that load. Tyrese Maxi, bringing in Paul George, drafting Jared McCain in different ways, in different degrees, those players all got hurt and this roster proved not to be able to to help them achieve that one goal. And so now it sort of feels like we’re having the same conversation about the same roster in an east that’s wide open and the 76ers should be able to capitalize on. Um I I get what you’re saying and I I know that it probably feels like for Joelle it’s like y’all aren’t giving me like y’all aren’t doing enough for me. Like that’s the the confusion that comes right. But it’s like health is the one thing that the ownership the coaches none of us could do anything about it. We want you guys to play this way and we want you to, you know, fully commit to your bodies, but injuries are gonna happen, right? All been part of the game. We watch them be part of the playoffs and all finals runs. It’s just part of the game. So, it’s like a little bit of that. You got to take your foot off the gas and say we did have a team. You got to look at the roster and say we did have a chance to do what we plan to do. It’s just we didn’t have it that year. Which is why this off seasonason does become important. It was derailed before the season even really got underway here. I went out there to interview the 76ers during training camp. A week later, those interviews couldn’t be aired because injuries had already began to pile up for this team. But man, they’re easy to root for. You root for Joel Embiid. You want to see him out there at his best, and hopefully this is the year. But it feels like we’ve said that before. I encourage everyone to go online and read this story. But [Music]

On NBA Today, Malika Andrews welcomes Dotun Akintoye as he discusses his profile on 76ers star Joel Embiid. Then, Bobby Marks, Iman Shumpert and Tim MacMahon discuss if this is the most important offseason in Embiid’s career.

0:00 Joel Embiid profile W/ Dotun Akintoye
6:08 Bobby Marks joins
7:20 Most important offseason for Embiid?

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