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New Philadelphia 76ers teammates Joel Embiid and James Harden have quite a lot of issues in widespread.
Each are multiple-time All-Stars, do-it-all offensive weapons, and have spent the majority of their careers as the very best participant on their respective workforce. Harden and Embiid are elite ISO scorers, have savvy offensive minds, and are greater than prepared to get their teammates concerned as playmakers too.
However do you need to know what else the duo have in widespread that isn’t as universally lauded? Free throws; Embiid and Harden mix for a mean of 19.3 journeys to the charity stripe per recreation, and a few people aren’t too comfortable about their model of play.
However, like, why? Are free throws not part of the sport? Do Joel Embiid and James Harden not draw contact when attempting to shoot the ball?
The Philadelphia 76ers ought to embrace their new free throw-heavy identification.
Joel Embiid will get fouled… loads.
In keeping with NBA’s superior analytics, Embiid attracts 8.5 personal fouls per game, which is simply .1 fewer than Giannis Antetokounmpo. Whereas Embiid averages .2 extra makes an attempt and 1.2 extra makes than “The Greek Freak” in any given contest, if video games had been officiated to the letter of the foundations, he would common much more journeys to the road.
Why? As a result of Embiid attracts contact mainly each time he touches the ball and typically earlier than it even comes his approach by overly aggressive coaches trying to blitz essentially the most dominant paint scorer since Shaq.
In keeping with NBA Court Optix, Embiid is double-teamed on 14.5 possessions per recreation, which ranks seventh association-wide behind Luka Doncic, James Harden, Ja Morant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and, weirdly sufficient, Fred VanVleet. Embiid is double-teamed on roughly 32.5 p.c of his offensive possessions, and when you ask me, that quantity appears fairly low when in comparison with the gold old school eye check.
If it’s onerous sufficient for one participant to reflect Embiid with out making contact whereas he’s within the act of capturing, think about how onerous it’s for 2 defenders to take action, particularly when going through off towards a savvy scorer who is aware of a factor or two about drawing contact.
Now certain, does Embiid ham it up now and again for the Zebras? Oh, you guess, Embiid’ll throw up some rubbish when he is aware of a whistle is coming to get some factors the simple approach, however when you can examine the junky fouls he attracts versus the calls he ought to draw, his common free throw makes an attempt would seemingly be even larger.
And as for Harden? Effectively, the identical may very well be mentioned for him too.
Whereas Harden solely attracts double-teams on 28.4 p.c of his offensive possessions, as a result of he solely touches the ball 9.2 more times than Embiid in any given recreation, his 17.3 double-teams per recreation rank second association-wide behind solely Luka Doncic. Regardless of being a 6-foot-5 slasher, Harden attracts a mean of 5.9 fouls per recreation and averages the eighth-most free throws per recreation, which is tied for third association-wide alongside DeMar DeRozan.
If it wasn’t for Harden’s signature stepback 3, a transfer that has been considerably declawed by the affiliation’s new officiating guidelines, “The Beard” can be universally lauded for his calculated model of play and for having one of many greatest baggage of methods the NBA has to supply.
However as a substitute, the dynamic duo now affectionately generally known as “Embeard” will draw ire from followers the affiliation over for his or her foul-drawing methods collectively Voltron-style on the Philadelphia 76ers.
I don’t learn about you, however I’m all for it.
Name them whistle hunters, name them villains, heck, even name them the “Millennial Dangerous Boys;” it actually doesn’t matter. If the NBA desires to make it even more durable to attract fouls subsequent season than they did this season, that’s one factor, however for now, the Philadelphia 76ers’ two finest gamers are going to do their factor and put main factors on the board, even when a wholesome share of them come not from the sphere however from the road.
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