Sixers head coach Brett Brown was on the 97.5 the Fanatic morning show today with Marc Farzetta, Tra Thomas, Bob Cooney, and Jamie Lynch.

Not surprisingly, the discussion began with a couple of questions about Joel Embiid’s post-Toronto comments, those fleeting couple of hours where he expressed discomfort with his role via an article from the Inquirer’s Keith Pompey. All of that was squashed rather quickly, but Brown shed a bit more light on the situation today.

Transcript:

Farzetta: We haven’t talked to you since it came out, but it feels like it was one of those stories that could have caught wildfire, Joel Embiid voicing his frustration then quickly shifting to ‘he loves everybody,’ – it seems like that story more or less blew over.

Brown: Yeah and I think that it should have. I think when people read into it , we all sort of get the passion Joel has. I think a lot of it was a reaction to us not wanting him to play and trying to force-feed a rest. It’s a snap shot of him wanting to play. We move on. I do not believe the story had the legs it needed to continue.

Farzetta: Did you have any takeaway from the story, of Joel being a perfectionist at least?

Brown: There’s always lots to take away from a story, and the following day I was with him for probably four hours on an off day. It’s just a constant reminder how you have to stay on top of things with the coach. You daily sort of fight for the soul and spirit of the team and try to keep our ecosystem balanced. There’s some subtle truth to using Joel, and part of his challenge, which is a strength and a curse, is he can score and he can be used in so many ways. He’s not Shaquille O’Neal. He can be, but he’s also able to step out and do some things. His versatility at times makes his life a little conflicted in a positive way. He’s that skilled. The point is that we all bunker in and get back on track as a team.

More after the jump:

Farzetta: One of the things I found interesting was that he’s quoted as saying he spends too much time on the perimeter, when he’s only a 29% shooter and should be down low. We’re always criticizing him and saying, ‘get under the basket!’ Where is it that you would like to see Joel more on the floor?

Brown: I think it’s based on sort of the opponent. You look at the Brooklyn game the other night. There was little doubt in our minds that they had nobody really to defend him. So we went to Joel quite a bit and they started double teaming him and fronting him and a lot of times it’s a mistake when a passionate fan would look at a stat sheet and say, ‘well he only had 2 or 3 shots (in the second half).’ It used to happen all the time with Tim Duncan, because they double team him and make him pass. He was that good in the first half. I feel like, when you ask that question, it’s based on the opponent, it’s based on time and score, is the team in the bonus. Do we want to go get cheap throws? All of that you throw into a melting pot of time, score, who’s guarding him, etc. But he is that capable all over the court.

Yeah, more or less, but there’s still gotta be a way for him to get more than a couple of shots after going 10-15 in the first half.

The interesting thing is Brown talking about being with Embiid for “probably four hours on an off day.” Keith’s story came out last Friday, so that means Joel and Brett spent a large chunk of Saturday together. I believe that was their off day following the Pistons game, then I think there was a practice on Sunday afternoon.

Point is, it seems like the all involved parties did a nice job of addressing this quickly and getting everything figured out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanna say first that the guys we have giving them every opportunity