PHILADELPHIA, PA – EVENT 19: Deandre Ayton # 22 of the Phoenix Suns will take control of the ball against Joel Embiid # 21 of the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center on November 19, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton and Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid had a fun connection before Ayton even played in the NBA through some hilarious ban on social media nearly three years ago.
Since then, Ayton has made it clear that he was honoring Embiid’s game, as Embiid did after their first meeting in November 2018.
“Many people misunderstand me; I’m talking a lot of rubbish, ”Embiid said, according to Related Media. “He is talented and has a lot of potential. I enjoyed playing against him tonight. I can’t wait to see how many battles we will have in the future. I am a big fan. ”
It’s an interesting matchup as the two men share a unique combination of power, speed and skill for boys of their size. From a closer look at their skill sets and attributes, and not at the level of them, they compare to each other as much as any other big men in the league.
That is disappointing that we have only seen them twice. And those two were in Ayton’s rookie year, so yeah, they were ugly.
Embiid had 33 points and 17 rebounds at first sight compared to Ayton’s 17 points and nine rebounds. Two months later, Embiid regained control with 42 points, 18 rebounds, two assists, three leads and two blocks. Ayton did well for the first-year player again, posting 18 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Due to Ayton’s ban last season and Embiid sitting in the bubble before the start of the playoffs, they haven’t met since.
Saturday marks their first matchup in two years, and both players have come a long way.
The advances that Suns fans want to see in Ayton ‘s game are the kind of process that 76ers fans see without opening for Embiid, albeit at a much higher level. Embiid has been criticized for being aggressive at times and as he moves toward the edge, not acting as the tank that he is as big as he should be.
You will often hear talking about how involved The Embiid. Sound familiar?
This year, that version has moved on for Embiid more than ever before and perhaps its reward is because it is the league’s most iconic individual hardware.
Now that Embiid is armed with that extra piece of decisive play, he ‘s even better at drawing beams, which makes him the most undefeated player in the league.
Think of it like this as a defender: Why not start contacting Embiid so he doesn’t bother you too much, while also avoiding some of the shenanigans he can pull to get to the free throw line?
It’s very sad!
Take a look at how unhelpful it makes Anthony freaking Davis look:
And it will have power through your flexible swipe efforts for a double team:
As discussed long ago by Ayton, Embiid – sized boys earn a whistle unlike any other player in the league. Refs don’t know how to say them and often give the big boys an advantage with the doubt. Embiid has known about this for years and is taking advantage of this season even more.
In more than half of his games, Embiid has attempted a two-digit free throw. He gets an average of 11.4 ahead of the league per game, a mark that would make him just the fifth player in the last 25 years to reach at least 11, per basketball-referencing. Plus, it burns 84.9% career-best at the charity strip.
And if you can believe it, the weakest development is not even that.
Embiid takes a high 53% of its total photos from the midrange area – backed by those free throws deleting photos around the edge – and converts 54% of them, according to Cleanup the Glass. His efficiency in that area is 13% better than any other season he’s had, a staggering increase.
That includes an absurd 47-for-80 record (59%) on long midrange jerseys.
That’s the percentage of Embiid’s field goals up to 54.5%, much more around where his career number should compare to 48.6%. On the year, he handles 29.4 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. Take that along with the usual Defense level play on the other end we are used to seeing from it and you have an MVP candidate.
Ayton, four years younger, is still finding consistency in reaching his potential at each end of the floor. He has gone from spurts of games that made a huge impact near Embiid’s age to making it over four-quarters. These rounds, however, come and go.
The 22-year-old had a four-game run in mid-January of posting 22.0 points, 14.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 blocks per night, and the play was even better than the numbers . Embiid has always shown real power in his game, albeit inconsistently, but this was Ayton’s first real show with full armor and action.
But instead of being the potential major extension of Ayton ‘s career, he went back to five-point and 12-point duds against Oklahoma City and Golden State, respectively, in the his next two games.
Believe it or not, Ayton has been steady since that inspiring first performance against Memphis on Jan. 18: offensive rebounding.
Ayton in his last 13 games has averaged 4.7 offensive rebounds per game, the third-highest in the NBA, and a number with a total rebound over that time at the second-highest level of 13.7 night rebounds.
It was added to Ayton, possibly through Chris Paul, that running the floor and going for all Suns losses helps the offense a lot. He’s been doing that, and of course he’s opening up a lot of things.
At the same time, this is where Ayton can, in essence, scrape points in his own individual pattern with Embiid Saturday. Where Embiid is much stronger, Ayton is the fastest man. He can beat it up and down, which the Suns then hope to throw Embiid out over the game.
Ayton, of course, must avoid deceptive trouble to stay on the floor and accomplish that task. That is much easier said than done against Embiid.