For Joel Embiid, the waiting is finally over

Ninety minutes before the tip-off of his first preseason game with the Philadelphia 76ers, Joel Embiid sits on the bench, arms crossed. His eyes look past and through Jerami Grant and Hollis Thompson as they run drills, dropping in jump-hooks and fading to the corner for catch-and-shoot three-pointers. More than two years after being selected with the third pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, this is as close as Embiid has gotten to an NBA game. A series of foot injuries have mostly kept him in this seat, arms crossed, staring at basketball games instead of playing them.

In a few minutes, Embiid will be up and sweating, banging bodies, learning to trust his surgically repaired foot and finally trying to put all of his talent together into something useful.

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There is no book on Joel Embiid right now, that’s one of the benefits of being an enigma. But 29 NBA teams are going to be collaborating on one, figuring out his tendencies, his weaknesses, the places in his game where two seasons-worth of accumulated rust leave him vulnerable.

In the first quarter, the Boston Celtics attacked Embiid with aggressive pressure as soon as he caught the ball. His first touch nearly resulted in a turnover as Amir Johnson swarmed him out past the three-point line. Embiid’s first two touches inside the arc were met with the same aggressive defense from Johnson, and Embiid responded with off-balance fadeaway jumpers on both occasions. Embiid lasted all of 4:16 before heading to the bench visibly winded.

When he re-entered the game, with just over a minute left in the first, things settled down. Embiid scored the first basket of his career, losing Tyler Zeller with a series of spins and then finishing the sequence with another fall-away jumper. It was an exhibition of everything that makes him so tantalizing — size, strength, agility, and touch. With 1.1 left in the quarter, Embiid nailed a pick-and-pop jumper with his foot on the three-point line.

Embiid recognized the difference between those first two stints, the build-up of nervous energy and anticipation that he carried with him to the opening tip.

“When we first started the game I think the shots I missed were pretty good, I just missed them,” he said. “So I had a different mindset, just being all over the place defensively and let the game come to me offensively. At the beginning I kind of rushed those shots.”

The second quarter was more of the same mixed bag. Embiid struggled when Boston brought help defenders, often bringing the ball to the floor, doubled-over trying to guard against an inevitable turnover. He also snared a defensive rebound and pushed the ball up court himself, changed several 76ers’ shots at the rim and, more often than not, was the most physically imposing player on the court.

“You see immediately there’s a confidence and a swagger that he carries himself with,” said Sixers head coach Brett Brown. “He wants the ball. I think that as that first half unfolded you saw something that the league is going to do to him in commanding a double team. When you have a player that commands a double team, the rest of the team can reap the benefits of that as long as we’re spaced and he’s able to pass out of it.”

Before the game, Brown acknowledged that he planned to limit Embiid to about 12 minutes. He played just over that mark, all in the first half. It was a precious sample, albeit a small one. This was the first professional return on Embiid’s incredible basketball potential. For all the uneven play and the moments where he looked totally lost, Embiid is finally in a Sixers uniform and playing basketball. That fact alone is enough for overwhelming optimism.

These few minutes also showed how much work there is still to be done. Embiid attempted six shots, just one of which was inside the paint, and attempted just two free throws (making both).

“Because of his height he’s going to be able to get off jump shots about any time he wants,” said Brown. “We want to encourage more post-ups, more getting to the rim, more getting to the line, and that balance of inside-outside ability which we see him have.”

Double-teams are also going to be a regular obstacle for Embiid — both because of his size and because of how much he struggled with them tonight in his first game. Embiid admitted that the extra defenders caught him off guard and that this is something he’ll need to be preparing for.

“You’re really going to double-team, first game, second quarter?” he said. “That kind of messed me up after that. But that’s something that I’m going to go back, watch film, learn from it and next game if it happens again I’ll be ready for it.”

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Here’s hoping there are hundreds more basketball games to be played in Embiid’s NBA career. For a player who has already overcome so many physical challenges, it would be wonderful to see a long, sloping developmental arc that allows him to fully realize all the potential of his body and skills. For now though, let’s forget about double-teams, nerves, shot selection, and whatever comes next, and just savor these 12 minutes that Embiid, the Sixers, and basketball fans have been waiting on for so long.