How Joel Embiid and the 76ers are blending at the right time

Paul George brings the ball up the right side of the floor Monday night with 7:16 remaining in the first quarter, with Brandon Ingram pestering him the entire way, in the 76ers’ 115-102 win over the Raptors.

Former MVP Joel Embiid trots to the left wing to set a screen for Tyrese Maxey to get open. It’s poetic in a sense; Embiid is literally clearing a path for Maxey here, but Maxey taking more ownership of the offense in light of Embiid’s absences — arguably becoming the new face of the franchise in the “process” — has been an important plot point of the season.

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Raptors rookie Alijah Martin works hard to prevent Maxey from using the screen altogether, much less receiving the ball after it:

Ultimately, Maxey is able to shake free, setting the stage for a drive with Paul George to his right and Embiid to his left:

In a rare occurrence, Maxey doesn’t win the drive. Martin recovers nicely, and Scottie Barnes — an All-Defense candidate this season — helps off Dominick Barlow to take away space from Maxey.

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(To that end: Per Second Spectrum, Maxey is seeing a help defender on over 81% of his drives this year. That’s the eighth-highest mark among 54 players who have logged at least 300 drives this year. Teams are, rightfully, terrified of Maxey’s speed and overall ability to pressure the rim.)

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Maxey hits Barlow with a pass, and Barlow immediately pitches it back to George near half-court. As this reset happens, Embiid moves to the middle of the floor to serve as an outlet. 

Embiid gets a touch while the Sixers to his right reconfigure their spacing. Barlow trots down to the dunker spot. George fills the right wing, with Maxey setting up shop in the right corner. VJ Edgecombe works himself deep in the left corner, maximizing the space that Embiid has to his left if he wants to attack that way:

Collin Murray-Boyles takes an initial bump from Embiid before defending a (short) isolation. Murray-Boyles flashes his hands to poke at Embiid’s dribble and throw off his rhythm, then smartly removes them before Embiid’s able to draw a rip-through foul on his gather. Embiid kicks it to Edgecombe, who immediately attacks a subpar closeout from Immanuel Quickley:

From there, it’s easy. Edgecombe drops the ball off for Embiid, and Embiid drills a short jumper to tie the game.

On its surface, it’s a mundane possession within a 48-minute game. Honestly, it’s pretty good defense from the Raptors — they rank seventh in defensive rating for a reason! — up until the closeout, and even that wasn’t the worst one I’ve ever seen.

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Even for Embiid, this is a boring possession by his standards. He’s had flashier moments during this run, one that’s seen him average a whopping 28.2 points on 61.6 true shooting over his last 11 games in which the 76ers have gone 7-4. Heck, he had a flashier finish in the first half of this very game.

But that initial possession offers a window into what the Sixers are growing into. It’s an example of the sort of blend they’re looking for.

This season has largely, and rightfully, been defined by their backcourt. Maxey has taken more ownership of the offense, leading the NBA in touches per game, but the Sixers have been intentional about moving him around the board to stress defenses.

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He’s received slightly more off-ball screens than he did last season (11.7 per game to 12.5), while nearly doubling the amount of off-ball screens he’s personally set (2.8 to 4.8). Between the off-ball work — you never know where Maxey is going when he sets or receives a screen — the pick-and-roll play and his transition exploits, Maxey has been able to take on more responsibility and explode as a scorer (30.9 points on 53/41/88 splits) while his average touch time and dribbles per touch have decreased from last season.

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Edgecombe has been a revelation this season, ranking third among rookies in scoring (16.1 points), second in assists (4.4) and first in steals (1.6). The Sixers have trusted him to initiate more offense than I expected heading into the season, and you really see that pop in the non-Maxey minutes. That, combined with the level of responsibility he’s had on the defensive end, has made him one of the best and most impactful rookies in this year’s class — and one of the most important players on the roster.

While the minute load for Maxey and Edgecombe was a bit stress-inducing earlier in the year, their impact and on-court chemistry presented obvious long-term intrigue. It was easy to be excited about what they were, and what they could be in the eventual post-Embiid Era.

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That Embiid is now slotting so easily into this, that the on-court relationship between the three appears to be mutually beneficially, is incredibly encouraging. Maxey and Edgecombe benefit from the gravity Embiid still possesses.

Empty corner (or empty side) ball screens between Maxey and Embiid continue to throw teams for a loop. There’s the natural switch-or-not dilemma that teams have to deal with. That’s now compounded with the pitch-and-catch chemistry these two continue to develop.

Second-side handoffs between Embiid and Edgecombe often inject new life into half-court possessions.

The Embiid post touches remain difficult to deal with; give him one-on-one coverage, and he can sprinkle in enough jumpers or draw enough fouls to keep pressure on you. Send double-teams toward Embiid, and you have to worry about where and how those guards are spaced.

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Spacing either of them one pass away makes it difficult for you to send quick doubles. Maxey is draining over 45% of his catch-and-shoot 3s — it’d be the third time in his career reaching that benchmark if it holds. Edgecombe doesn’t consistently get the hard closeouts that Maxey does, at least not yet, but it’s worth noting he’s converting over 40% of his catch-and-shoot 3s. Slotting either of them two (or more) passes away means either of them can be receiving a pass against a defense that’s deeper into their rotation behind the double-team. Considering both guards double as good and willing cutters on top of the shooting, you quickly reach a point where you run out of answers when the offense is humming.

On the year, the Sixers boast a solid plus-4.7 net rating in the minutes Maxey, Edgecombe and Embiid have shared together. During this 11-game run from Embiid, the Sixers have been even better: plus-8.4 in nearly 200 minutes together.

To the latter sample, they’ve scored at a top-five rate (118.5 offensive rating; OKC currently ranks 5th at 118.2) with those three on the floor. Quietly, they’ve defended at a top-three rate (110.1 defensive rating; the Spurs rank 3rd at 111.6) in those minutes.

A big part of the Embiid resurgence has been his growing comfort patrolling the lane defensively. Opponents are converting roughly 52% of their shots at the rim against Embiid during this stretch, putting him in line with top-tier defenders like Rudy Gobert (53.7%) and Jaren Jackson Jr. (53.2%). And while the split isn’t as drastic as we’ve seen in past years, teams are still less likely to even attempt shots at the rim when Embiid is on the floor.

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(As the half-joke goes, you can tell how good Embiid is feeling by how willing and often he jumps. Per Second Spectrum he’s logged 11 games with at least 40 leaps this season; nine of them have come within this 11-game stretch, including six of his last seven. You’re welcome for this very important research.)

There’s still plenty of season left, so I don’t blame anyone who may have standings or injury-related angst before we get to the postseason. Still, the Sixers being a pretty firm member of the East playoff discourse is a win in and of itself. They’re currently only a half-game out of the No. 4 seed, 2.5 games behind the second-seeded Knicks.

All I’ll say for now is keep an eye on how the Sixers are playing right now. Pay attention to how they’re trying to build things out. If it keeps trending this way, I don’t think anyone is going to enjoy dealing with them in a playoff setting.