Sixers

What’s Going On With Joel Embiid’s Terrible Shooting Numbers?

By Matt Schultz

Published: Nov 12th, 2026 · 5:25 PM EST

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The Sixers are 9-3. They’re sitting in second in the East by one game. The team boasts one of the most dangerous lineups in the NBA, they’ve racked up clutch-time win after clutch-time win, and vibes have been excellent (the Boston loss aside). On the whole, things are going very, very well. Which makes Joel Embiid’s brutal stretch of offense stand out that much more.

It pains me to have to acknowledge this, but Joel’s shooting has been terrible, and I think at almost a month in, we’re probably past the point of saying it’s too small a sample size to interrogate. Despite the perfectly respectable counting stats (17.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists in 31.8 minutes per game) at his current 27.6% usage rate (which is by far the lowest of his career; he entered the year with a 35.4% career usage rate and had never posted a mark below 32.8% in a season), his efficiency has been abysmal. He’s shooting just 37% (54-for-146) from the field and 12.1% (4-for-33) from three. And for as bad as those numbers are, the advanced stuff looks even worse.

So far this year, Joel is shooting 44.2% on 2-pointers (league average: 53.9%), 52.5% at the rim under 5 feet (league average: 63.0%), 45.9% from the elbow (league average: 43.9%), and 42.4% on all mid-range 2s of 10+ feet (matching the league average of 42.4%).

Considering those numbers, there are two big problems that jump out to me. The first, of course, are the atrocious numbers at the rim. Over the last five seasons before this one (from 2021-2022 to last year), Joel was 70.3% at the rim. That’s a drop of 17.8 percentage points. That’s a massive dip, and it matches the eye test. Just feels like Jo can’t jump all that much anymore.

The second problem that stands out — and to me, this one’s even more alarming, considering how we’d all hoped Embiid’s game would age — is that he’s shooting right around the league average from the elbow and on long twos. The mid-range is Joel’s shot. For years, his middy felt like an automatic two points. Over the previous five seasons, Joel averaged 47.3% from the elbow and 47.4% on all mid-range shots, while the rest of the league averaged 44.3% and 42.8%, respectively. He was +3 and almost +5 percentage points on these shots compared to the rest of the NBA. This was the great Jo separator, and it just isn’t there this year:

So what’s the solve here? Can anything be done to get Joel’s efficiency back up? What has to change?

During shoot around on Thursday, he suggested that the problem could be that he hasn’t been aggressive enough:

Today after Sixers morning shootaround, Joel Embiid said, “Quite frankly, I just haven’t been aggressive. And so I think it’s on me to just be aggressive about making plays, whether scoring or making plays for someone else.” Joel is questionable for Sixers-Raptors tonight because of right foot plantar fascia injury management. @SportsRadioWIP @KYWNewsradio

— Dave Uram (@MrUram) November 12, 2026

“I think we have the ultimate connectors in, you know, LeBron and me. You know, you just want to make the right plays and, you know, pass the ball. Make the game easy for VJ, Reese or JB. So, yeah, like I said you know, I put it on myself to just, um — Quite frankly, I just haven’t been aggressive. So I think it’s on me to just be aggressive about, you know, making plays, whether it’s scoring or making plays for someone else.”

If I can be honest here, I’m not sure that would’ve been my takeaway. If you’re missing a lot of shots, I don’t know if the answer is to take more shots. But maybe I’m wrong. I’m being genuine here; it is possible.

I’m not saying Joel should shoot ten more shots a game, but I can understand going through a weird adjustment period after your usage drops the way Joel’s has this season. Maybe he’s more of a rhythm shooter than we realized. Maybe he’s got to get himself going more. Maybe if Nick Nurse makes it a point to get Joel looks he likes early in games, he’ll have an easier time getting rolling, and these terrible efficiency numbers will improve. I don’t see why that couldn’t happen. Joel still has great touch. He’s still nails from the free throw line. He’s shooting a career-high 89% (65 of 73) from the charity stripe so far this year. The shot is still there. Would just be nice if it started going in more.