Joel Embiid expects to learn ‘nothing’ from the Olympics. The way he’s playing, he’s right.

PARIS — Late Tuesday morning here at the Palais de sports Marcel-Cerdan, the players on the U.S. men’s basketball team moseyed out of a corner entrance onto the court for practice. Joel Embiid moseyed a little slower than most of them. His first Olympic game, the U.S.’s victory over Serbia on Sunday, had not been a watershed moment for him: four points, two rebounds, three fouls, sluggish, maybe still dragging after an illness had kept him from practicing.

He positioned himself in front of a portable USA Basketball backdrop. Time to talk. Someone asked him a softball question: What about playing FIBA basketball can you take away from this experience to elevate your game next season with the 76ers?

“Nothing,” he said.

Nothing? Time to follow up. What do you mean, Joel? Why do you say that?

“He asked about FIBA,” Embiid said. “There’s nothing to take from FIBA. That’s not going to change the way I play basketball. To me, this is a different setting, and this is a great setting for me because I’m playing with a lot of great players. It’s all about finding ways to win. Whatever I can add to make sure we win, that’s all there is.

“You’re used to being the guy. Now you’ve got to be with these guys. So I’m loving it, especially going into next year, having Tyrese [Maxey] — especially Tyrese. I really want him to take that next step and be the one to do as much as he can. Then I can be there to support, do what I have to do, and still dominate. But I really want to make sure I involve my teammates next year. So this is a great experience for me.”

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid had a rough Team USA debut against Serbia. His Olympics might not get much better.

Embiid seemed to want to have it both ways there. On the one hand, the Olympics would have no effect on his style of play for the Sixers because he is the alpha and omega of the Sixers on both ends of the floor: the engine of their offense; their rim guardian on defense. He obviously cannot be both of those things at the same time for Team USA, because Team USA has LeBron James and Kevin Durant and Steph Curry and everything it needs to roll to a gold medal, even if Embiid were to sit out the rest of the tournament. So he will be content to contribute when and where he can over the next two weeks.

OK.

On the other hand, he’s enjoying not having to be the centerpiece of Team USA because with Maxey established as a foundational piece and with Paul George in the fold, Embiid won’t necessarily have to be the alpha and omega of the Sixers anymore. If there was to be any change in his game, it would be on his terms. Sure, he can still control a game when he wants — “still dominate,” in his words — but now that he has two such talented teammates, his experience playing with so many great players will make it easier for him to … contribute when and where he can for the Sixers.

Give Embiid this: There definitely is an element of truth, maybe more than an element, to the notion that playing for Team USA and playing for the Sixers are so dissimilar that it’s silly to compare his performances in those settings. He’s right: He’s not The Man here, and he doesn’t have to be, and it would be natural for him to welcome not having to bear such a burden for a change.

“For the guys on Team USA, there’s a certain amount of relief that comes with not having to bear the full responsibility of the franchise,” said U.S. coach Steve Kerr, who has enough FIBA coaching experience to know: He was an assistant under Gregg Popovich at the 2020-21 Tokyo Games and at the 2019 World Cup in China.

“These guys get to lean on each other,” Kerr said. “Every game is different. They get to throw all the other nonsense out the window because none of it matters. The only thing that matters is winning the gold medal. So there’s a beauty to it, a purity to it, and I think our guys are really embracing that.”

» READ MORE: Philly’s Maia Weintraub — Olympic fencer, NCAA champion, and scholar — is the product of the consummate ‘Tiger Mom’

Except we’re talking about Joel Embiid here, and we’re talking about Philadelphia, where there are no windows. The complaint and concerns about Embiid are not that he has been putting up meager statistics through Team USA’s five exhibition games and its win Sunday over Serbia, and it’s not that his role is and must be different. If Embiid was running crisp screen-and-roll actions with James, if he was grabbing rebounds like a demon, if he just looked healthier and quicker, even in a lesser role, no one in Philadelphia would be frustrated or worried. Or, at least, fewer people would be.

But he’s not doing that. He has been a hard watch, for reasons recognizable to those who know him best, who watch him play every night at Broad and Pattison. We’ve seen the moseying before — from the bad luck, the bad conditioning, the bad and sudden ends to so many Sixers seasons. Has he given anyone any cause to think anything has changed? What looks different now? Joel Embiid said it himself: Right now, nothing.