Be Excited Philly, The Process is Almost Complete

Shayne Williamson
Jul 20, 2017 · 14 min read

It’s been a long 4 years, Philadelphia. The 2013 offseason marked the beginning of The Process, with GM Sam Hinkie deciding to avoid mediocrity and dive right into full blown tanking by trading All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday for Nerlens Noel during the 2013 NBA Draft. During that time, Philly suffered through the 2nd worst 82 game season ever, going 10–72 during the 2015–16 season, and only 19, 18, and 28 wins in the other 3 seasons. Watching Ish Smith, Isaiah Canaan, Carl Landry, Hollis Thompson, and even still Jahlil Okafor play basketball for the Sixers has been an excruciating ordeal for all Sixers fans including myself to suffer through. Luckily for Sixers fans, the end is finally in sight. The Process is almost complete.

Philly finally saw returns on The Process during the 2016–17 season in the form of The Process himself, Joel Embiid. Embiid only played in 31 games and was on a strict minutes restriction for all 31, but those were some of the most exciting, meaningful games the Sixers have had in a while. Embiid posted 20.2/7.8/2.5 blocks per game on 47% shooting from the field, 37% from three in only 25.4 minutes per game. Per 36 minutes, those numbers leap to 28.7/11.1/3.5 blocks per game. Embiid surprised everyone with his dazzling post moves, impressive three point stroke, and world class rim protection. A game that encapsulates the entire Joel Embiid Experience is his game vs the Brooklyn Nets. He posted 33 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks.

On their first possession, the Sixers give the ball straight to Embiid and let him work. Embiid catches the ball in good position and quickly bullies his way left and buries a left handed post hook. Easy money.

On defense, Joel does a great job tracking the movement of the ball and never getting flat footed. As Hollis-Jefferson drives to the paint, Joel shuffles over and emphatically denies his layup attempt. If he didn’t trust it before, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson definitely trusts the process now.

If you sleep on Joel’s pull up jumper, he’ll make you pay. Brook Lopez gives Embiid way too much space, and Joel effortlessly stepped into a mid range J and knocked it down.

Brook plays him a bit tighter here but still it’s too much space. Also, you can’t allow Joel to flow into his jumper. When Joel can get his right to left crossover into a clean gather, you already lost the battle, he’s going to make the shot.

Embiid does an amazing job moving his feet on defense here. Embiid stepped up to the driving Brook Lopez and effortlessly opened up his hips and keep up and give a great contest on the layup attempt.

Embiid’s light was so green when he played that he was allowed to do this and not get benched immediately. Embiid dribbled the air out of the ball in the low post, opting to patiently wait for a look for himself to open up instead of simply passing the rock. Eventually, a look did open up, as Brook Lopez was distracted by a rolling Jahlil Okafor, taking away the defensive threat at the rim. From there, Embiid easily uses his tremendous size advantage and banks a layup home.

Embiid’s man is in the corner, but Embiid is never far away from the paint. Embiid sees the entire pick and roll develop, then once he sees the entry pass made, he shuffles over and denies the shot at the rim. Once again, great rim protection from Embiid.

And on the very next possession, the Sixers decide to show the Nets how the pick and roll actually goes down. Rodriguez with the lob, Embiid with the finish, easy 2 points for Philadelphia.

Embiid ruthlessly bullied his much smaller defender to get into perfect position. He uses his hip to push the defender out of the paint whilst Joel himself stayed in the paint, all while creating a perfect passing lane for Gerald Henderson. After catching the ball, Embiid wisely waits for the help defender to try to block his shot, then finishes the wide open layup.

This is a hilarious, near disastrous play that ended up working out in the end, thankfully for the Sixers. On the defensive end, Embiid does a great job staying active, stepping up and snatching the errant pass out of the air. From there, shenanigans happen, as Embiid attempts a silly behind the back pass that doesn’t hit Rob Covington, then attempts a dunk and gets rejected by the rim. When I saw this play on SportsCenter, I started dying laughing. Luckily for Embiid, he rebounded his missed dunk and lays it in for 2.

Work, young man, work. Embiid catches the ball in the low post and proceeded to put Brook Lopez in a blender. Embiid uses a false step to his right and set up a spin to his left, creating a window to finish at the rim. When Embiid digs into his bag of tricks down low, not many people on Planet Earth can stop him.

At this point there’s nothing you can do. He’s just gonna make that mid range no matter how you play him.

Not only can Joel Embiid perfectly execute pick and rolls, but his pick and pops are also lethal. Brook Lopez doesn’t step up to Embiid after he spotted up for 3, and Embiid knocks it down with ease.

Another hilarious, lowkey almost disastrous moment from Joel that turned out good in the end. Joel attempts to ISO with Luis Scola but he slips, zips the pass to Dario Saric, then sneaks his way back into the paint for a wide open layup. You can’t ever take your eyes off of Embiid, even when he’s tripping over himself.

Brook Lopez didn’t learn his lesson, huh? Embiid is trailing the play and spots up for three and Lopez doesn’t even bother to step up. You know the rules, hand down, man down. Sixers take the lead. Do you Trust the Process yet? No?

If not, let me introduce you to Ben Simmons. The 2016 #1 draft pick is a 6'10" point guard, who shows exemplary vision and passing ability and uses his size and athleticism to create easy buckets for both himself and his teammates. During his lone college season, Simmons dominated all challengers to the tune of 19.2 ppg, 11.2 rpg, and 4.8 apg on 56% shooting. Just look at some individual game stat lines he had during his freshman season,

21/20/7 vs Marquette

43/14/7/5/3 vs North Florida

36/14/4 vs Vanderbilt

28/17/4 vs Florida

absolutely ridiculous. Despite missing his entire rookie season, 76ers and even casual NBA fans across the country are still excited for his role in Philly’s young core. After watching him bludgeon North Florida, you should be too.

Admittingly, Ben Simmons doesn’t have the most diverse offensive repertoire , but luckily for him he doesn’t need to have one to score. Simmons gets his defender off balance with a simple crossover and let’s his athleticism do the rest, as he blows by his man and finishes a nifty layup.

This is an example of Ben using his size and athleticism to create easy buckets for his teammates and his crazy passing ability. In transition, Simmons barrels his way to the paint to draws all five North Florida defenders, then dishes an amazing no look pass to a wide open shooter.

Simmons does a great job on defense here. He does a good job forcing his assignment baseline where he has two help defenders (his center and the baseline itself), then when his man dishes it to the center, Simmons peels off and rejects the shot.

Vision and passing ability. Spots his center unchecked under the rim, throws a great lob.

Ben just decided to be nuisance on this play. Ben effectively presses and knocks the ball away from the point guard thanks to his 7 foot wingspan, then finishes an easy layup in transition.

Here’s an example of Simmons’ size getting him buckets despite his limited scoring repertoire. Ben’s move gets absolutely stuffed in the paint, but since he’s being guarded by a smaller defender, he simply floats it over him and makes the shot. When all else fails, go back to your basic advantage, and for Ben, it’s his superior size.

There’s one little nuisance that makes this play great for Simmons. While posted up, Ben knows his teammate on the wing is going to cut. To keep the cutting lane clear, Ben looks towards the other wing, drawing the defense’s focus away from his cutting teammate. Once his teammate reaches the paint, Ben zips a perfect pass for an and-1 layup.

There’s no need for Ben to get fancy down low here. Ben easily turns the corner and slams home a nasty two handed jam.

In Philadelphia, Ben isn’t always gonna be on the ball, especially with presence of Markelle Fultz. It’s good to know that he knows how to move without the ball into open spaces for easy buckets, like he did in these two plays.

How, sway? How did Simmons fit that bounce pass in??

Again, how? LeBron James would be proud.

The Ben Simmons Passing Experience continues. This time, Ben does a little mental math in transition. Fastbreak + open paint + cutting teammate = lob.

Ben commits a huge basketball sin here. He pulls up for a jumper but mid-air he suddenly decides he no longer wants to shoot and opts to pass. That’s a no-no, mostly because 93.4% of the time the pass goes awry. For people who can pass like Ben, however, that isn’t a problem. He jumps, realizes the jumper was a dead mission, quickly looked for help, found help, and zipped a perfect pass.

Still on the fence about Trusting the Process? I’m not quite sure why you would be, but it’s fine. I still have one more thing to try to convince you.

Allow me to introduce you to the 2017 #1 draft pick Markelle Fultz. The 6'4" point guard from Washington exploded into the scene as the top prospect in the draft before the 2016–17 college basketball season and hasn’t relinquished his position since. Fultz’ amazing scoring prowess from all three levels of the floor, advanced ball-handling ability, and underrated passing all make Fultz one of the most dangerous, if not the most dangerous offensive weapon in the draft. Fultz’ massive wingspan (6'10") and extraordinary athleticism also show potential for Fultz to become a good defender if he applies himself on that end. One game that encapsulates Fultz’ abilities is his 37/5/8/3/3 effort against the Colorado Buffaloes.

Fultz’ pull up jumper is one of the most dangerous moves he has in his arsenal. His ability to stop on a dime and nail a jumper, even when it’s contested like it was here, will be very useful at the next level.

Markelle does a great job improvising on the fly here. He initially goes to a spin move, but half way through the move he realizes his wide open teammate and dishes it for a wide open jumper.

Fultz uses his change of speed to manipulate both his man and the help defender perfectly. After his big sets the screen, Fultz slightly hesitates, causing Colorado’s center to get flat footed. This allows Fultz to blow by him around the corner and finish an easy layup.

GET OVER HERE. Fultz is apparently a disciple of the LeBron James School for Chasedown Blocks.

Probably the most underrated part of Markelle’s game is his passing, and that’s really because his scoring’s reputation precedes everything. But here, Markelle spots that his center has inside leverage and a clear passing lane, so he squeezes a bounce pass for an easy dunk.

Nutmeg.

Colorado is running a 2–3 zone on this play, and one prominent weak spot is the free throw line, and Markelle knows that. After giving up the rock, Fultz moves to the weak spot, then hits a tough turnaround jumper + the foul.

Good lord, Markelle. I just viewed this play as one long flex, with Markelle just saying I’m better than everyone on this court. In transition, Fultz bodies the defender next to him (for no particular reason), then lifts off from half way through the paint and throws down a vicious slam. No one even tried to stop him, probably because they knew they couldn’t.

Again with the pull up jumper for Fultz. Unpredictable, unguardable. Also not to be overlooked, Fultz used a savvy slight hesitation to get his defender off balanced and get to his spot easily.

A floater has become a crucial element for every point guard to have in their repertoire, and it comes in handy here for Fultz. As the Buffaloes’ big man steps up on the baseline, Fultz lofts a floater right over him, finishing it with some help from the rim.

Fultz uses yet another nifty move to get a bucket here. Fultz looked as though he was going to dribble along the three point line, but he suddenly splits the two Colorado defenders and blasted into the lane. Once there, he once again uses a clean floater to finish.

Fultz catches both the Colorado defense and the cameraman sleeping here. No one for the Buffs came to stop the ball, so Fultz simply waltzed his way into the paint for an easy layup.

Here Markelle goes showing off again. Coming around the screen, Fultz surveys the floor, and finds a wide open shooter in the corner. He then delivered a perfect cross court pass, resulting in a big 3 points for the Huskies.

This is a very tough bucket for Fultz. He gets a small step past his defender, but he’s still on his hip throughout the play. At the rim, Fultz does a great job shielding off his defender with his left arm and finishing strong at the rim.

This is bullying. How is anyone supposed to play that any better? You can’t, and it still doesn’t matter.

Markelle has the potential to reach Dwyane Wade/Michael Jordan level of guards blocking shots. Fultz stalks the big man after he snags the offensive rebound, and rudely snatched his shot right as he put it up. Just nasty.

The defender plays Markelle relatively close here, but he still fails miserably because he 1.) allows Markelle to flow into the jumper and 2.) reacts too late to contest Fultz’ shot. You can’t slack on the kid.

In transition with a chance to tie, there was no chance he was giving this ball up. And much like several past clips in this article, when Markelle got a full head of steam to the rim, no one even bothered to stop him, leading to a smooth layup and a tie game.

Another near perfectly defended play all for naught, as Fultz simply absorbs the contact and throws up the floater right over his defender for 2.

In a one point game, Fultz doesn’t settle for an unnecessary jumper, instead deciding to attack the rim. Fultz beautifully weaves through 3 Colorado defenders and somehow makes a ridiculous left handed layup plus the foul to take the lead, a lead the Huskies would sustain to complete the comeback and win in overtime.

Between 2014 #3 pick Joel Embiid, 2016 #1 pick Ben Simmons, and 2017 #1 pick Markelle Fultz, the future of the Philadelphia 76ers looks bright. If these three young stars stay healthy and if the Sixers can continue to surround them with good players from the draft and free agency, the Sixers can be up next in a wide open post-LeBron James Eastern Conference.

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