Atlantic Notes: Sixers’ Deadline Approach, Embiid and other Fascinating Tidbits

The Sixers could put off acquiring another star player until the offseason, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (video link).

Speaking on the “NBA on ESPN” show, Wojnarowski stated that Philadelphia would prefer to preserve its cap space for next summer and then pursue a max salary player in a trade or free agency. As for this season, the Sixers are more likely to just seek a less splashier move.

“When (the Sixers) made the James Harden trade with the Clippers, there was a sense they may have to … at the trade deadline, find a star player to be able to keep up with Boston and Milwaukee in the East. They’re showing with this group they can do it maybe without a third star, maybe (do) something around the edges,” he said.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

• The Sixers will have to go without their superstar for at least one more game. Joel Embiid, who didn’t play against Miami on Christmas Day, won’t suit up against Orlando on Wednesday, Keith Pompey of the Philadlephia Inquirer tweets. Embiid, named the conference’s Player of the Week on Tuesday, is nursing an ankle injury he suffered on Friday against Toronto.
• The Celtics made a controversial move by trading for Kristaps Porzingis during the offseason. Jayson Tatum says the team is reaping the benefits of having his large presence in the lineup, Jared Weiss of The Athletic tweets. “We haven’t had a low post presence like that since I’ve been on the Celtics and it creates so many problems. Are you gonna switch us? Are you in drop?…I’m just happy to be on this side of it,” Tatum said.
• Kevin Ollie joined Jacque Vaughn’s Nets staff early in the summer after being one of the finalists for the Pistons’ head coaching position. The New York Daily News’ CJ Holmes details the impact Ollie has made on the staff and the players.

Further Reading:

76ers Star Joel Embiid Critiques Victor Wembanyama’s NBA Start

Over the last few seasons, Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has established himself as one of the NBA’s most prominent centers. Just last season, the Sixers’ big man collected the league’s MVP award.

In the two years prior, he was the runner-up to Denver Nuggets center, Nikola Jokic. With Embiid and Jokic being some of the league’s seasoned superstars, they have their eyes on a new wave of young and talented bigs entering the league.

This year, one of the NBA’s most-hyped prospects in recent memories has Embiid’s attention as they possess similar qualities. When French center Victor Wembanyama made it known he was headed to the big leagues in the USA, he was guaranteed a first-pick selection.

Sure enough, Wembanyama was headed to the San Antonio Spurs to play under Gregg Popovich. Like many rookies — especially ones with sky-high expectations — Wembanyama has experienced growing pains through the first stretch of his rookie season. Embiid, who’s admittedly watched enough Spurs games to form an opinion on Wembanyama’s progress, recently critiqued the big man’s performance so far in a sit-down with The Athletic’s David Aldridge.

“Not trying to be too critical. Obviously, extremely talented. Right now, there’s so much hype around him, I think he’s trying to live up to the hype. That’s what I see. And I watch a lot of games. I think, first of all, he has to figure out where he wants to play, whether he wants to be a guard or a big or whatever. It’s not necessarily whether he wants to be a guard or a big; it’s what he wants to become.

Do you want to become KD, or do you want to become me? Not KD, or like a version of those guys — you want to combine everything. Right now, I just feel like everything kind of feels a little forced, in the way that he’s playing. Which is not bad. Because the only way to get better is to play through it and learn. That’s the only way.

You make a lot of mistakes, and you learn. At this point in the season, Wembanyama has a 25-game sample size in the books. Spending an average of 30 minutes on the court, he’s averaged 19 points per game, making 44 percent of his shots from the field. Being a versatile offensive threat, Webanyama possesses the shooting skills to be a reliable stretch-five. However, he’s currently struggling to average more than 30 percent from beyond the arc on nearly five threes per game. In the mid-range, he’s hitting on just 32 percent of his shots.

Embiid sees the kinks in the Spurs center’s game, but he likes that the leash is long enough to let Wembanyama play through it. “The one thing that I’m happy about is they’re allowing him to make those mistakes and learn from it,” Embiid added, per Aldridge. “But I just think there’s a good and bad in that. The good of it is you learn through your mistakes.

But then again, the bad of it is, you know, it just feels a little forced.” With the expectations of becoming a future Hall of Famer attached to him after getting drafted, Wembanyama has a ton of pressure placed on him, which has put him under a microscope early on. There have been flashes of a great player so far, but Embiid and many others can see that the league’s first-overall pick has a lot of work to do to reach his significant expectations.