Basketball

Joel Embiid’s Trainer Addresses ‘Ducking Smoke’ Narrative

There is a story surrounding Joel Embiid that includes him ducking sure matchups, notably ones towards Nuggets large man Nikola Jokic on his residence court docket.

The reigning MVP performed on his own residence court docket in Philly towards Denver on January 16 of this yr.

But a short while in a while January 27, missed the Sixers’ conflict with the Nuggets in Denver.

It additionally didn’t assist that Embiid mysteriously entered the damage report quarter-hour earlier than tipoff.

In truth, Embiid hasn’t performed a recreation in Denver since November 8 in 2019.

But, Embiid’s coach, Drew Hanlen, just lately mentioned the ‘ducking smoke’ principle surrounding the middle and thinks it has no legs.

“We just kind of laugh about it,” Hanlen told Sportskeeda. “He’s played Jokic two times in the last two years and he had 47, 18, and five, he had 41, 10 and seven,” Hanlen mentioned.

“I don’t know why you would duck somebody that you’re averaging 45, 13 and eight against. If you look at Joel versus other big guys, he’s just dominated them. Joel loves playing the best big guys in the world. Any time he’s healthy enough to play against them, he’s going to be out there.”

If the NBA postseason outcomes go a sure manner, it may find yourself being a 76ers-Nuggets conflict within the NBA Finals sequence.

Despite lacking the final recreation of standard season, Philly coach Nick Nurse defined that Embiid was a full participant at observe on Monday and that there isn’t any concern about his knee publish surgical procedure.

Nurse absolutely expects his highest scoring participant to take the ground on Wednesday towards the Heat within the first spherical of the playoffs.

“He was good,” Nurse mentioned. “He was in good spirits. He was highly engaged. A lot of things we were doing were super game plan-specific. He was locked in.”

READ MORE: Team USA Finalizing 2024 Olympics Roster: Report


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