Anthony Faraone

Joel Embiid's trainer, Drew Hanlen, says Joel Embiid isn't 'ducking' the smoke when facing elite centers and always dominates them “We just kind of laugh about it. He’s played Jokic two times in the last two years and he had 47, 18 and 5 on Jan. 28, 2023. On [Jan. 16, 2024], he had 41 , 10 and 7. I don’t know why you would duck somebody that you’re averaging 45, 13 and eight against. If you look at Joel versus other big guys, he’s just dominated them. He had 70 against Victor. You look at him versus Rudy Gobert. I don’t know his exact numbers, but he had around 51, 12, and 3 on Dec. 20, 2023. The game before that , he had 39 , 7 and 4 . Then he had a game where he had 40, 19 and three . If you look at him versus Anthony Davis, this year he had a 30-point triple double against him and didn’t play in the fourth quarter. He had 38, 12 and 5 the game before that . Joel loves playing the best big guys in the world. Any time he’s healthy enough to play against them, he’s going to be out there.” (Via @MarkG_Medina / bit.ly/3U0Z1kj)