Part Shaq, part Hakeem, part Kobe: Joel Embiid’s skillset could change the center position

CLEVELAND — Joel Embiid is guard-like, even at a towering 7-foot-2 and what he describes as “500 pounds.”

The 76ers center might be the most skilled big man we’ve ever seen — at least he is since Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon retired in 2002. Olajuwon had the best footwork of any 7-footer, but Embiid has more range, more size, more handle, and more court vision.

Named an All-Star starter for the fifth consecutive season, Embiid can accomplish things big men aren’t supposed to do. In fact, they aren’t things that were accepted from Embiid early in career. As recently as a couple seasons ago, he was criticized for spurning the post for jump shots.

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But to know about the Cameroonian’s approach to basketball is to know about his basketball background.

“Obviously, I didn’t start playing until I was 16 years old,” Embiid said. “So I didn’t have any bad habits. I didn’t grow up in America where I was just tall and they had to use me on the block.”

Embiid was shown tape of Olajuwon on the first day he played basketball. The tape, which featured Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Dirk Nowitzki, inspired his decision to make his first move a catch on the block that ended with him driving and spinning into a Nowitzki fadeaway.

“So from that time, that’s how I always saw myself,” Embiid said. “Obviously, getting to the States, at the beginning it was a bit different. I was more used as a big man.”

But that didn’t stop Embiid from practicing those moves — and expanding on them. Embiid actually began playing basketball because of Kobe Bryant. So he constantly practiced and perfected the Philly legend’s moves over the years.

Even during his lone season at Kansas, Embiid played strictly in the post during games. However, he still worked to add other elements to his game. There are stories about him knocking down corner three-pointers from out of bounds while messing around in Lawrence, Kansas. And there were times at practice when Kansas coach Bill Self would only allow Embiid and Andrew Wiggins to shoot the ball.

Perhaps that is why Self raved about Embiid the night the Sixers selected him third overall in the 2014 draft.

Embiid averaged 11.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks at Kansas. And at season’s end, he was regarded as college basketball’s best big man.

“He has a huge upside,” Self told The Inquirer back then. “He’s got an upside that you would think would be like Olajuwon, 7-foot tall, long athlete, [good] feet, skilled, timing, toughness. He’s got it all.”

We’ve learned all that to be true, especially as Embiid has become the MVP frontrunner this season.

He had game highs of 42 points and 14 rebounds to go with five assists in Thursday’s 123-120 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum. It was Embiid’s ninth game this season with at least 40 points and 10 rebounds. Russell Westbrook (2016-17) and new Sixers teammate James Harden (2018-19) are the only players with more 40 and 10 games over the last 30 years. Harden and Westbrook posted 12 and 10, respectively.

Embiid also joined Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in franchise history to finish with at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and five assists twice in a three-game span. Embiid has scored 30 or more points in 26 of the 46 games he’s played this season, and Thursday marked the ninth time that he’s produced at least 40 points.

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If Embiid keeps up this pace, he’ll be the first center to win the scoring title since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000. He’ll also become the first Sixer to win it since Iverson in 2005.

He leads the league in scoring at 29.6 points per game with 24 games remaining in the season, outpacing the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is second at 29.4 points per game, and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who sits at third with 29.1 points per game.

“He’s a little bit of everything,” Sacramento Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry said after Embiid had 36 points and 12 rebounds in a victory over his squad on Jan. 29. “He’s part Shaq, part Olajuwon, part whatever you want to say.”

While Embiid showed glimpses of his versatility while messing around in high school and Kansas, “The Process” enabled him to develop into the player he is.

“If I had been on a winning team, I don’t think I would have had the time to work on it, make mistakes and be allowed to make mistakes and learn from it,” he said. “So I’m just thankful that I was drafted where I can make mistake and just do it.

“But like I said, it just goes back to Kobe. I’ve always wanted to play like him.”

At times, Embiid knows how to play like a traditional big man.

But this is the new NBA, where he faces double- and triple-team defenses every single possession. That’s where players have to add something to their game.

For Embiid, that means he needs to handle the ball on the perimeter, dribble the length of the court in transition, score from every level and make plays for teammates.

“I just want to really be me when I look at the way I play,” Embiid said. “I don’t have any patent moves that you could be like, ‘I created it.’ I have a bunch of everything when it comes to all the all-time greats that we’ve added to the game. It’s good.

“I hope in the future that’s the next evolution.”