What Does the Loss of 25 Pounds Mean for Joel Embiid?
Back in July, yours truly wrote some fictitious postcards from several Sixers during their summer vacations.
History
Joel Embiid’s postcard focussed entirely on his diet and conditioning. Nostradamus, eat your heart out. If at this point you are confused, let’s try to fill in the blanks. This video recently surfaced of JoJo taking the Paqui Chip “eat this very spicy chip challenge.” The clip is highly entertaining, other than the part where Sixers fans fear that Jo’s throat may close and lead to death. That feeling aside, the most potentially important portion of the clip takes place at the 3:05 mark where Embiid shares that “this summer I lost about 25 pounds”. Hence the reference to Nostradamus, and predicting the future.
So what exactly would the loss of 25 pounds be worth to Embiid and the Sixers if Jo’s proclamation is true?
1) Preservation of Jo’s lower body
Every Sixers fan is intimately familiar with Joel’s history of injuries. The laundry list starts with his lower back, works its way to his knees, and most infamously ends in his feet. When you are over 7’0” tall, weigh in the vicinity of 250 to 300 pounds and make a living by running and jumping (at times incredibly recklessly), every part of your body from your waist down takes an incredible pounding. The loss of 25 pounds means upwards of a 10% reduction in that pounding on the lower body. This, without question, incrementally decreases the risk of injury to Embiid’s lower body.
2) Increased mobility
Anyone who watches Jo play with regularity has to marvel at the mobility he displays for a man of his size. This compilation of his best blocks from the 2018-19 season is a prime example of this mobility on defense. While the blocks themselves are impressive, take note of the number of times he is able to make up ground on much smaller, quicker players. Also, notice how quickly he gets off his feet. Smaller players repeatedly feel they have him beat only to be shocked that he is still there. Missing from these clips are also the repeated times Jo is able to switch onto a smaller player, and keep that player in front of him.
Now imagine Embiid being 10% quicker defensively as a result of being lighter on his feet. Offensively, this increase in mobility might not be as noticeable. Perhaps it would lead to an increase in offensive rebounds. Especially if the arrival of Al Horford finally leads Brett Brown to design an offense where Jo doesn’t spend a relatively high amount of possessions 25 feet from the basket.
3) Increased Stamina
This is where everyone could really hit the jackpot. All players become less productive in games as they tire. This typically is even truer for big men, and in Jo’s case, the difference between him fresh and him fatigued is glaring. This seems to largely be a result of his fatigue affecting him just as much mentally as it does physically. A fatigued Jo often turns into a very poor decision-maker, especially at the offensive end of the floor. These poor decisions lead to horrendous turnovers and many ill-advised jump shots. Over the first three years of his career, Jo has averaged 4.3 three-point attempts and 4.3 turnovers per 36 minutes. The loss of 25 pounds and the resulting increase in stamina could lead to both of those numbers being reduced. This would greatly increase the efficiency of the league’s most dominant big man.
In the end, the area of Jo’s game that has the greatest potential for growth all surrounds his health and endurance. If he has in fact lost 25 pounds, then Jo has had a very productive summer. And the payoff could be huge for both him and the Sixers.
Photo Credit: billboard.com
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