Minnesota Sports Forum

I think Embiid is better than Okafor and Towns. He's got better size and he's a better athlete. He has multiple post moves and a mid-range game. Since Cam liked the per 40 stats for Towns I've compared the two below:

Embiid: 19.4/14/2.3/1.5/4.5 62.6/20/68.5
Towns: 19.5/12.7/2.1/0.9/4.3 56.6/25/81

Embiid is the best of both worlds in my opinion. He's slightly better than Towns defensively, on the boards, and passing while he has a much more advanced offensive skillset in the post with a mid-range game which made his overall shooting percentage 6% better than Towns and only a couple below Okafor. Embiid also had the tougher schedule at an 11.4 rating (0 is average) to Towns' 8.67 and Okafor's 9.87. He also just got a year off of difficult physical activities giving his ailments a lot of extra time to heal and get strengthened in a NBA strength and conditioning program. I think Embiid is going to be a force to be reckoned with in this league and I would easily take him over Okafor or Towns.

TheFuture wrote:Yeah Embiid was injured, but Philly did the same thing with him that they did with Noel. Keep them out for over a year and let them get completely healthy. Rather than rushing them back and increasing the chance they reinjure.

Embiid's freshman #'s at Kansas exceed both Town's and Okafor's #'s in nearly every category. He is a big time player, and id take him over Noel. I highly doubt Philly thinks about this though. Noel/Embiid has huge potential. Keep in mind Embiid does have shooting range to space an offense.

Noel had an ACL tear. Embiid has foot and back injury history. One's becoming a one season injury and after rehab it doesn't hinder the player's performance. The science and process of ACLs has grown immensely the last half decade. The others (back +foot) have a bigger probability of re-occurring, even as just a flare up. My point is that the two injuries aren't the same, especially when we're talking about a big man.

khans2k5 wrote:I think Embiid is better than Okafor and Towns. He's got better size and he's a better athlete. He has multiple post moves and a mid-range game. Since Cam liked the per 40 stats for Towns I've compared the two below:

Embiid: 19.4/14/2.3/1.5/4.5 62.6/20/68.5
Towns: 19.5/12.7/2.1/0.9/4.3 56.6/25/81

Embiid is the best of both worlds in my opinion. He's slightly better than Towns defensively, on the boards, and passing while he has a much more advanced offensive skillset in the post with a mid-range game which made his overall shooting percentage 6% better than Towns and only a couple below Okafor. Embiid also had the tougher schedule at an 11.4 rating (0 is average) to Towns' 8.67 and Okafor's 9.87. He also just got a year off of difficult physical activities giving his ailments a lot of extra time to heal and get strengthened in a NBA strength and conditioning program. I think Embiid is going to be a force to be reckoned with in this league and I would easily take him over Okafor or Towns.

This is good work and I agree with every statement in it, except for the last one. One of the two has injury issues, and ones that shouldn't be tossed aside by one year off the court. It's a back and foot injury history. Two big men killers. Towns is injury-free as far as I know. That in itself swings the pendulum in Towns' (and Okafor's) favor for me. Not to mention I still can't throw out the leaked information of Embiid being a handful to work with during team workouts. His 300-pound weight was discredited, but I buy in that there was issues with him and Philly's conditioning team.

Camden0916 wrote:

TheFuture wrote:Yeah Embiid was injured, but Philly did the same thing with him that they did with Noel. Keep them out for over a year and let them get completely healthy. Rather than rushing them back and increasing the chance they reinjure.

Embiid's freshman #'s at Kansas exceed both Town's and Okafor's #'s in nearly every category. He is a big time player, and id take him over Noel. I highly doubt Philly thinks about this though. Noel/Embiid has huge potential. Keep in mind Embiid does have shooting range to space an offense.

Noel had an ACL tear. Embiid has foot and back injury history. One's becoming a one season injury and after rehab it doesn't hinder the player's performance. The science and process of ACLs has grown immensely the last half decade. The others (back +foot) have a bigger probability of re-occurring, even as just a flare up. My point is that the two injuries aren't the same, especially when we're talking about a big man.

I agree Cam and Embiid's injury concerns are significant but I agree with the others that say he is a better prospect than either Towns or Okafor aside from the injury history. He is a better athletic prospect than either for sure. I don't see Philly doing that deal and like you said if they did you wonder if Embiid is worth acquiring. Guys that big scare me because...lots of injuries.

Obviously the wolves have done a lot of homework on guys but now it's time to do even more and flip has some time to really mull things over with the season gone and he has some closure with his father. Flip does plenty of research so I do think he keeps an open mind. That's a good thing for the most part.

You don't trade a top pick with two healthy, very good big man prospects in their own right available for another big man that is also a very good prospect, but has red flags outside of basketball ability. That's not a risk worth taking. I may be alone on this one, but so be it.

By the way, I'm not necessarily labeling Embiid as injury prone. It's that the injuries in his history have historically been detrimental to big men, even the great ones. When making close calls in terms of prospects or trades like this, everything is in play, especially causes for concerns as big as injuries.

The updates on Embiid's foot injury was a 4-6 month recovery process last July. I think it's fair to say they held him out much longer than he needed to be to ensure his foot fully heals properly. The back injury could just easily have come from not filling out yet and he looks to have put on some significant muscle in the most recent shots of him. I definitely think the risk is smaller than people make it out to be. Didn't Durant have the same foot injury and I haven't heard too many people say they'd avoid getting him if they could.

https://twitter.com/JoelEmbiid/status/583785023653937152

To put this into perspective, Joel Embiid has/had the same injury that forced Bill Walton and Yao Ming to retire. On the other side of the spectrum, Zydrunas Ilgauskas had it earlier in his career and remained pretty healthy for the rest of his career. Injuries and their lingering effects are always unpredictable, but it's a serious enough injury for me to say no thanks to Embiid. And then pile on the back issues. It's just not a logical move for us (or anyone else) to make, in my opinion.

Want a big man? Take one out of Towns and Okafor. Don't make it any more difficult by throwing a guy with significant red flags into the mix.

Flip doesn't mention Ricky when he says he wants the new guy to fit with players already here. Maybe I'm reading to much into this

Cam, its Bennett and #1 for embiid, who was the top prospect last year before injury, and #3 which could be any 3 of towns, Okafor, or Russell.

Its such a good deal for us as we still get one of the 3 guys who are neck and neck as the #1 prospect. I know you're in love with towns, but he's not a superior prospect to embiid and he may not even be superior to Okafor or Russell.

TheFuture wrote:Cam, its Bennett and #1 for embiid, who was the top prospect last year before injury, and #3 which could be any 3 of towns, Okafor, or Russell.

Its such a good deal for us as we still get one of the 3 guys who are neck and neck as the #1 prospect. I know you're in love with towns, but he's not a superior prospect to embiid and he may not even be superior to Okafor or Russell.

I think the theory would be we would not consider Okafor if we had Embiid. Philly would take Russell #1, the Lakers would take Towns. So our choice would be Mudiay or Porzingis or maybe Winslow.