Sixers star Joel Embiid opens up on relationship with coach Doc Rivers
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has been having a terrific season in his first under new coach Doc Rivers. He is squarely in the MVP conversation as the All-Star break approaches and he has taken on a different level of focus in the season.
He has taken care of his body, he has been aggressive in the post, and he has not settled too often on offense. He has put the Sixers on his back more often than not and he is a big reason why Philadelphia is sitting at the 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Rivers has had a big influence as well on him, however. He has constantly been in his ear telling him to be aggressive and it has paid off.
“If I’m playing bad in some games, and I know myself, but it’s always good for somebody to remind you that ‘come on Joel, you know, you got to get back to you’,” the big fella explained. “If I’m taking a bunch of jumpers, especially depending on how the defense is guarding me, he’ll tell me just keep attacking, just attack, gotta get to the basket.”
Now granted, former coach Brett Brown would tell him the same thing. He would also push him to be as aggressive as he possibly can be and continue to punish the defense, but now he seems to be doing that more often as he continuously is shooting double-digit free throws a night.
“It’s no different than what coach Brown did in the past, but there’s an emphasis on just doing that all the time,” Embiid added. “When we have a play that works, let’s say, we’re posting me up and it works, then you got to keep going back to that until they stop it. Even if they stop it, we got to keep going back into that so that’s been the biggest adjustment he’s made.”
At the end of the day, it’s important to have that relationship and to also be able to talk to a coach. Rivers has done a good job of keeping communication with all of his players and that has made helped the transition from Brown to Rivers.
“It’s been good,” the star big man finished. “He’s been doing a great job of just making sure everybody knows their role and just talking to everybody, communicating, he’s been doing a great job.”
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