Joel Embiid's Playoff Woes Continue

  Joel Embiid has yet again failed to impress and play to his high regular season standards in the playoffs. The MVP winner has seen a substantial stats drop once again in the playoffs this year with his points per game dropping 33.1PPG to 23.7PPG and when it came down to the pressure moment in Game 7 against the Celtics once again the lights were too bright as he could only notch 15 points on 27.7% shooting from the floor. But why is this happening? Unlike other playoff chokers such as DeMar DeRozan, Embiid seems to struggle in a different sort of capacity. When we'd see DeMar come up short time and time again against LeBron and the Cavs he would seemingly fail to hit shots in the same positions and scenarios as he was making with ease in the regular season, in his case it seemed to be more a mental block and an inability to overcome the pressure and expectations placed upon his shoulders. With Embiid however, it's his whole offensive play style which just seems to not suit the postseason.

There are a multitude of factors which seem to actively hurt Embiid's and thus Philadelphia's ability to score the basketball. One of which is how long Embiid likes to hold the ball. Embiid is a player who on offence typically likes to size up the defence and evaluate his options particularly looking for gaps and players who are out of position where he can easily exploit the opposition. There are even occasions where Embiid will simply wait, he'll do basically nothing with the basketball and almost wait for an opportunity to fall into his lap rather than going out there and drawing up a play which will be a success even against the toughest and most structured defences. And this waiting and holding onto the ball for several seconds just gives postseason defences a free opportunity to set themselves and prevent a scoring or passing opportunity for Embiid. However, when in these positions in the regular season against weaker defences with rookie players with more open spaces and a more diverse rotation with less discipline these opportunities will present themselves in higher succession especially for someone like Embiid who has such a diverse range of ways he can hurt you so worse and less experienced defences won't know what to do and will make mistakes which present themself very nicely for Embiid. This is likely a core factor as to why Embiid's three point percentage has dropped off a cliff. During the regular season his three point percentage sits a respectable 33% for a big man but this postseason is a dismal 18%. Another factor which hurts Embiid's playstyle of being more patient on the ball and waiting to pounce on an opportunity that might come his way is how the whistle changes in the postseason. This has been something that has hurt his fellow teammate James Harden in the past who has also been labelled with being a playoff choker and being a player who struggles to translate his game well into the postseason. In the regular season it always feels to me at the very least that foul calling and decisions in general are much more sporadic and have far less consistency which allow players like Harden and Embiid to take advantage of this by playing for contact and looking for fouls that defences also wouldn't allow themselves to give away in the postseason but also by playing for fouls that wouldn't be given by more experienced and a smaller team of referees that can decisively together attempt to more closely and tightly match each others decisions when it matters most. This is why we see a drop in free throws made and attempted by around two shots between the postseason and regular season.

And then there's his failure in Game 7. As we saw in 2019 against Toronto and yet again this year against Boston Embiid doesn't obtain that clutch or superstar leadership quality in a Game 7 when the going gets tough. In both games his stat lines are abysmal and are actually worse this year despite coming off the back of an MVP winning campaign which just further puts a light onto his failures in this situation. And why is this happening to such a high degree in these games because of all of the factors we've just discussed being even further heightened. You can not try and play this slow, foul based sort of style in a Game 7 elimination game where the defence is going to be as disciplined and tight as you will ever encounter.

So what needs to happen next? Well defensively there are positives. Embiid is still a top-tier defender in the playoffs and that is a huge positive which needs to be focused on as if you get even 75% of Embiid's regular production to flow in the play-offs you will have a high chance of making a deep run and doing well. And what I think the 76ers should look to do next season is find a different primary ball handler for the play-offs. If you make it Harden you are just going to encounter the exact same problems and very little will change in terms of success. The 76ers needs to look for a play-off proven performer who is going to push the pace of the game and force these openings and shot opportunities for Embiid, themself and others on the team to really get some points rolling for you when it's tight and when it matters.