I have been watching a decent bit of Philly basketball lately because they surprisingly are fun. But wtf is with Joel in the playoffs (maybe in season tournaments too). I know Philly fans will come in and say he was injured but let’s take those first three Brooklyn games. Do you think that teams plan better schemes on how to defend him, do you think he’s not going to the FT line a lot so he can get into his usual rhythm. I have a theory that he’s not thriving in a dog fight type of games, he get really discouraged when there is a lot of physicality in the games. I mean his screen settings is also extremely week for a guy his size. That’s like the most shocking part you are that size and you are not using it to your advantage.
Lack of clutch gene.
Some people do better in high pressure situations, some people do worse. I guess it’s just a fact of life. If there was some way to cultivate a “clutch gene” I’m sure athletes (and rich people across all fields) would have been spending millions to do so.
He was the 2nd most clutch player in the league last year behind Fox. He’s fine in clutch situations. You just hyper focus on the times when he misses shots.
Because he’s not a good enough passer so when teams come to help or take away his spots he’s not making the right plays and he’s literally always injured. Like how many healthy playoffs has he actually had? Vs the Raptors maybe? Most players it takes a few months to return to form after injury
he was 2nd behind fox in basically all the clutch metrics last year
stop this concern trolling for hilarious 2nd round exit and mvpity posts
He’s not built for the bright lights sadly, there’s a lot of regular season MVPs like that (Russ, Harden)
Definitely half and half. I think teams do a great job scheming against him but also sometimes he’s not as aggressive
Because he’s a 300 pound Harden.
Takes too many jumpers trying to be KD instead of being 300lb Joel “the next Hakeem” Embid.
Watching him in that Celtics series he just didn’t look like he cared honestly especially in game 7, and I know sixers fans are gonna come at me but this was the general consensus I seen on their sub after that game also.
Obviously injuries don’t help but he still plays far worse in the playoffs, could be a mental thing or anything really. Hard to pinpoint exactly what it is
fatigue/injury, same story last 3 playoffs
He just can’t handle the high pressure. It takes a real trained professional and someone with experience playing at the highest levels to be able to perform at the highest levels without cracking under pressure. Someone like Bilal Coulibaly
Do you have statistical evidence or is this just vibes
He has numerous game winners and a top guard efficiency late in games based on volume and raw numbers in crunch time.
He’s just always hurt in playoffs and his play suffers.