Embiid backseat – Game 4 showed a troubling fit: when Joel Embiid is back, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe get fewer chances. The Sixers must solve the pecking order before summer.
Joel Embiid’s return didn’t hand the Sixers a loss, but it also didn’t create the kind of rhythm that makes a young team feel inevitable.
It was the latest chapter in the same postseason question that keeps surfacing for Philadelphia: how do you build a lineup that stays competitive when a ball-dominant center like Embiid is available. while also trusting two scoring guards—Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe—to take over the offense when Embiid isn’t there?. Misryoum is watching that conundrum sharpen after Game 4. a 128-96 loss to the Celtics in which the timing of Embiid’s availability felt like the difference between “the future” and “the old problem.”
When Embiid returns, the offense changes shape
In Game 4. Embiid scored 26 points in his return and played 34 minutes. but the bigger story was how the rest of the attack moved around him.. Maxey entered the game with momentum, yet he reached halftime after attempting just three shots.. Edgecombe had five.. Meanwhile, Embiid and Paul George combined for 17 attempts in the first half, and the Sixers were down 18.
That’s not automatically a sign that Embiid is doing anything wrong.. It’s also not a claim that Maxey or Edgecombe are incapable of thriving in a lineup that features a dominant center.. It’s that the presence of Embiid changes the pecking order in a way that’s hard to manage—especially when his availability is inconsistent.
The “flow” issue: stars can’t share the same rhythm
Maxey admitted what most fans felt while watching the early stretch: the offense wasn’t flowing the way it had in the series moments that looked promising.. He said the team can’t allow those starts to happen, and he took responsibility.. But in the middle of that honesty was the clearest hint of what’s going wrong—Maxey described how. with Embiid on the floor. the game’s flow isn’t the same as it is when other bigs are setting more of the table.
When Embiid is present, the ball naturally gravitates to him.. He doesn’t have to demand it—he simply ends up with it.. The problem is that “how the ball finds him” can crowd out the exact habits Maxey and Edgecombe are trying to lock in as lead scorers.. Maxey said that at halftime, Embiid and George told him to force his way into the game.. That’s a reasonable instruction in the moment.. It’s just not the kind of system instruction you want to rely on if you’re building a clear. repeatable identity.
Why Maxey’s unselfishness becomes a cost
Maxey also suggested something subtle: even if his teammates are right about what he needs to do. the circumstances aren’t ideal.. Maxey’s best version in recent games came when he felt like the engine—when he was clearly the weight-bearing part of the offense.. But he’s spent most of his career playing on a team designed around Embiid.. Those instincts don’t disappear just because Embiid sits out.
So when Embiid returns, old habits re-emerge under pressure.. Maxey becomes less of a driver and more of a passenger in the early part of games.. Misryoum’s takeaway is that this isn’t simply about effort.. It’s about how quickly Maxey must re-learn the rules of his own role when the roster’s central gravity shifts.
Edgecombe vs. George: the same crowding effect
There’s a parallel dynamic with Edgecombe and Paul George.. Edgecombe is the youngest piece chasing minutes and shot opportunities in a postseason where the margin for experimentation feels thin.. George commands attention the way a veteran icon does. and it changes how younger players get opportunities to touch the ball in scoring positions.
After Game 4. Nick Nurse acknowledged the issue plainly: it can’t go from 20 or 25 shots down to extremely low volume for VJ.. But this is the heart of the conundrum.. Players like Embiid and George aren’t interchangeable with options that primarily set screens or serve as last-ditch relief.. Their presence turns the offense into a different conversation—one where the youngest guards often have to ask for permission to participate rather than assume they’re the focal point.
The uneasy arithmetic of shot attempts
The numbers in Game 4 capture the mismatch, even if they don’t tell the whole truth about shot quality.. Embiid and George combined for nearly half the Sixers’ attempts when they shared the floor at one point. and they missed well more than half of those shots.. The Sixers still ended up with a blowout loss. but what matters for the team’s future is that the guard duo didn’t get the kind of reps that build postseason confidence.
Just two games earlier, Maxey and Edgecombe were creating moments as if Philadelphia had found a path.. In Game 4. they combined for 23 shot attempts—far less than the shots that felt like the basis of their recent promise.. Maxey was 7-for-14 for 22 points, while Edgecombe struggled, missing seven of nine shots and going 0-for-4 from three.
Those shooting outcomes can change quickly, but the allocation problem—the pecking order—doesn’t vanish when the ball bounces differently. It’s structural, and that’s why Misryoum keeps coming back to it.
The bigger question isn’t one game—it’s summer direction
Game 4 was a bad look. and at this stage of a season that’s already shaped by uncertainty. “bad look” becomes “organizational signal.” Philadelphia can’t afford to send mixed messages to fans or players every time the roster’s availability shifts.. A competitive narrative is supposed to make people buy in emotionally; without it. even good performances can start to feel like temporary escapes.
That’s why Embiid’s situation is more than an injury subplot or a single-game adjustment.. Until Philadelphia finds a practical way to keep Maxey and Edgecombe on their natural trajectories when Embiid is active—while also protecting the offense from becoming overly centered—it will keep stumbling into the same rhythm problem.
Misryoum’s view is direct: Embiid is going to be Embiid.. He’ll always have the instincts and the scoring gravity that puts the ball in his hands.. But if his presence continues to coincide with Maxey and Edgecombe losing their offensive “flow. ” then the Sixers’ summer challenge becomes less about adding talent and more about designing a usable hierarchy.
Because right now, that hierarchy only looks clean when Embiid is off the floor. And in a league where availability is never guaranteed, that can’t be the only blueprint.