The pressure is on Joel Embiid to CONTEND, but not to win the title – Brian Windhorst | First Take

The pressure is on Joel Embiid to CONTEND, but not to win the title – Brian Windhorst | First Take

does the Eastern Conference have the three best teams in the NBA yes the NBA is in a healthy place and I’m not saying yes to agree with Tim I just liked how he said I think that’s awesome that was super cute uh when I look about the when I look at the East there are two teams that I’m going to put in there one the Boston Celtics for sure they can run it back they are the reigning champs two I know they have not played together this new big three but the Philadelphia 76ers should be right on their heels again that big three I crunch the numbers account for 83 points per game and their defense is going to be solid now I do believe that the Knicks the Nova Knicks are better but I’m not putting them ahead of the West the West best just yet because to me OKC is going to be a force that finished number one in the West for years to come Nik yic is still defying the minds of head coaches around the association but there is something to me about those Minnesota Timberwolves I don’t know they stuck on me they made me a Believer I like how they play the play uh basketball on both sides of the ball and as much as we celebrate the Mavs and the Celtics for being the greatest volume shooting three-point teams we saw that in the NBA Finals people sleep on the fact that offense sells tickets but defense wins games teams with top two defenses typically win NBA championships that’s what the Celtics had this year that’s what the Warriors had in 2022 that’s what the Lakers had in the bubble in 2020 the Timberwolves and ant Edwards specifically ran out of gas late in the postseason but I know we’re in I think Olympic trials for track and Fields right now every year ant is is setting a personal best and in my gut the t-wolves will once again be in contention because they continue to find ways to improve they were literally built and designed to go up against a nuggets who fell short but still are in a class of their own also in the west so even though the East is better they had I think eight teams over 500 last year the West had 11 teams over 500 anyone that comes out of the West is going to be battle tested and for some reason a and those tea wolves still have a lot of real estate in my mind so the odds makers were a little behind on the Thunder uh finally yesterday after they got Isaiah hartenstein because they got a Nick all of a sudden their their odds reflectively uh improved um no the three best teams are not in the East the Oklahoma City Thunder are absolute beasts they’ve had a spectacular off season I know they got eliminated in the second round last year by the eventual West Champion um uh Mavericks if you watch that series you could see a lot of inexperience you could see where they could improve and they’ve address that now I don’t think there’s any team in the west that’s going to be able to say we’re Head and Shoulders above everybody else the West is going to be incredibly competitive um and I think that that will that will bear itself out but you can’t you can’t not pay attention what the Thunder are doing the Thunder were the number one seed in the west last year in one of the biggest gauntlets we’ve ever seen they basically traded Josh giddy who was a player who fell out of their rotation a little bit in the playoffs they traded him functionally for Alex Caruso and Isaiah hartenstein and and they have traded zero draft picks this off season um of of their stash they made some second round pick trades um to acquire an extra first round pick on draft night but they haven’t touched their stash of first round picks and by the way they own some Clipper picks coming up either through swaps or trades and the Clippers just took a step back their their stash of picks just improved in value because of what happened with the Clippers and Paul George so they have upward Mobility uh to the max so absolutely I’m watching very closely the Thunder absolutely they should be included in this top three and again look where they are in the odds they’ve moved up to number two very appropriately here’s the problem you both made excellent points and I wouldn’t disagree with anything that’s been said but we’re also forgetting about the Denver Nuggets and we’re doing it pretty quickly here and look I’ll get to kcp leaving in a second this is a team that was eliminated this year they had a bad night in blowing a 20-point lead in the postseason I don’t think that speaks to the overall composition of the Denver Nuggets a team that won a championship two years ago and sometimes sometimes you see teams that are playing that deep into the postseason run out of gas I don’t know if they ran out of gas in game seven I don’t know what happened that night but it was a nightmarish night but that’s what it was a night it was a night they still have yic who is Unstoppable in virtually everything he does and they still have all Murray and they still have Michael Porter Jr who I think has room to improve certainly but as much as they lose kcp don’t isn’t this why and Wendy I’ve heard you talk about this on the hoop Collective a lot you got to be careful with what those contracts that your third and fourth best players start to look like because when those get out of hand that’s where you really lose your opportunities to build that kind of depth I I I look at Christian Brown and think that maybe he can step into the kcp role I can’t rule out the Nuggets here absolutely not it’s reasonable and look there was only really one team that could solve the Celtics throughout this last season it was the nuggets the Nuggets went two and0 against them and we were all thinking that the Denver Boston series was going to be amazing I I I would have loved to have seen who would have been favored in that series um so Denver with joic and and Murray are incredibly formidable I just think they have really taken a step back and there’s also questions from their ownership about how much far they’re going to they’re willing to go now they’ve made a value proposition here that moving on to Christian Brown is going to be a better value than keeping to pay kavia cwell Pope they could have paid Pope it wasn’t that they weren’t they were financially constrained they just decided not to they decided to not give him the same offer he got in Orlando that is a big big moment you know that was that’s one of the things that we weren’t sure about this Denver ownership Stan koni in the past has been very careful with spending if you look at his teams across all he all he owns across all over the world from his English soccer clubs to his to his his NHL teams they have all won but he has all been very very disciplined with his spending that discipline is now arriving at the nuggets and so it’s a question they have a couple of players who need extensions this summer Jamal Murray needs an extension Aaron Gordon needs an extension if they extend those players and spread the money they were going to play kcp to those other players okay but if they’re at the beginning of a retrenchment financially that’s going to really impact their ceiling in the short and medium term so embiid is the top player on that list so do you guys believe that he is under the most pressure to win a title Chris K you start uh no I think Luca donic is I think Luca is from this I called you cany sorry Carlin oh it’s an in can I have to apologize to me listen um with Luca you look at going to the finals here and what a dynamic year he had but America got a good dose of Luca in a game that um this team absolutely had to have in game three he was whining he was complaining about everything a reputation that he had and the Casual fan of the NBA is like why is this guy complaining constantly and by the way his immaturity led to fouling out of the game by just making silly plays completely frustrated out of it and then you know cursing at his bench you better blank and challenge that on the sixth foul which was a foul it’s frustrating to see that with a guy with his talent and he is to me he’s the best player in the league one in onea with him and jic and so that’s why I put him at the top that Target though he put on himself when when he was on the biggest stage here in the postseason when his team needed it the most that immaturity is going to rub people the wrong way and they’re going to look at it like well I keep hearing about how amazing this player is why is he not winning a championship yet and why is his immaturity costing him and let’s be real he’s been playing professional basketball for 10 years like the immaturity thing even at age 25 that should have Departed the game by now I am not at all worried about Luca donic um having pressure he’s dealt as you mentioned as a professional with pressure longer than most players in the NBA to me for Luca donic yeah that was very disappointing the way he went out in the NBA Finals Luca has a long very long Runway of dominance to come in the NBA and I do think we’re seeing his team being constructed to be successful for the long-term trying to get the right pieces around him but the timeline is not the same for Philadelphia the process is over it’s now time to perform if you’re Philly this is a team that you have been waiting oh so patiently for your star even has been patient too because it’s like oh do you want to stay here if you’re jaw and beid because I don’t know if this is going to be the best circumstance for you but you know what’s crazy I feel like a surrogate Philly fan because I know what life is like under Daryl Mor I’m a Houston native and that man knows how to cycle through teams cycle through star players to give his Squad and his star his Mega star a shot at a championship we experienced this with James Harden in Houston there was a laundry list of stars that played alongside him and now there’s a long list of Stars playing alongside Joel embiid I think Daryl is going to his fifth season in constructing teams in Philly but I love this because that answers your question time is of the essence one of my favorite songs TS and whiz kid because when you have a championship window that might be tighter because it’s predicated on the health of their Mega star you’ve got to swing and you’ve got to swing big and now you have the ultimate fighter in this squad it’s getting harder and harder to build a dynasty these days in the NBA because there hasn’t been a back-to-back Champion since the Warriors in in 2017 2018 there’s pressure on this Philly Squad because their window was smaller based off of the design and construct especially bringing Paul George who has to be healthy too alongside Joel embiid versus Luca donic and what we’ve seen from him over the course of his NBA season so I think the pressure is on Philly to win they know that it’s hard to build a dynasty but they built a juggernaut that is designed to win next year I want to edit the question I I wi it’s very hard to win a title in anything and in my view even with this move I don’t think this the Philly has a top three or four team I think they’ve got a team that can get close there I who’s under the more pressure to contend to win I think I think embiid’s Under Pressure to contend to win and I say that because he’s never reached the Conference Finals and there’s been several times where he has been healthy enough to play in the playoffs and hasn’t been able to get them there I don’t expect the Sixers to get to the finals I think they’re going to need another year to still work on this team uh Luca has been there and he’s already contending Luca’s been to the Conference Finals twice the finals once by the way as a quick aside Luca has a potentially huge game this week I was pointed out I don’t expect anybody to watch it but it’s uh it’s the Slovenia is eventually going to play Greece this week for one of them is going to win a spot in the Olympics and uh that’s Giannis Giannis is going to play Luca in a huge Stakes game later this week but I sorry about the degression there but when it comes to embiid this summer there’s still some business for embiid and I’m not talking about playing for Team USA which he’ll start playing this weekend for Team USA that’s a big thing for him going to France where he’s going to face a lot of scrutiny for not playing for the French um this summer Joel embiid is eligible to sign a threeyear $190 million contract extension and I expect him to ask for it and I find a hard to believe Philly’s not going to give it to him and so if he gets that contract with his injury history there’s going to be expectation he leads with this team he leads them into contention which is at least to the Conference Finals they’ve got to make progress they’ve got to break that second round barrier I don’t think it’s it’s too hard to win one of the things that we don’t respect in media is how hard it is to win the championship but at least give yourself a real bite at the Apple he hasn’t been able to do that and part of it’s been his failings he hasn’t been able to deliver on playoff stages even when he’s been healthy enough to play so that so I say it’s under pressure for him to at least make them you know involved in it when we get to to May that hasn’t been the case very often Brian here’s the problem you’re being entirely too rational and that doesn’t work in this instance because especially when we’re dealing with Philadelphia in this too because this is a town that is all about winning championships there’s never been a better constructed player personality-wise to fit a city than well in be in Philadelphia they love him but at the same time they do have expectations and at some point we went and got your guy here in Paul George you basically told us you wanted him all right when does it pay off and get over the top [Music]

The pressure is on Joel Embiid to CONTEND, but not to win the title – Brian Windhorst | First Take

The First Take crew discusses top-tier teams in the NBA and mounting pressure on Joel Embiid.

0:00 Does the East have the three best teams?
6:45 Embiid under the most pressure?
10:35 Can the 76ers contend for a title?

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