The Cleveland Browns of the NBA

Joel Embiid had a point to prove to his critics when he balled out against the Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo on Christmas Day, dropping 31 points and hauling in 11 rebounds in only 28 minutes of play — against the reigning MVP. He followed that up by scoring 24 and 35 points to end the decade.

But the 2020 Embiid, unfortunately, has looked nowhere near that player, as he’s been out of shape, and has appeared to have issues with his conditioning. He’s looked slow, rather than the dominant, explosive player we’ve seen him be at times.

And his critics are taking notice.  Chances are Embiid would be better suited at the tables of Tuanpoker Situs Poker Online Terpercaya than continuing the antics he’s been after on the court.

Embiid had one of his worst performances of the season in Thursday’s 112-101 loss to the Bucks, going 6-for-26 shooting, and, for some reason, attempting 10 three-pointers (only making three of them).

The “Inside the NBA” crew went in on Embiid during the game, with Shaq teeing off on him.

“Giannis is playing with force and Embiid is playing S-O-F-capital-T,” he said. “Embiid isn’t playing with force. He’s looking for a foul, he has a little band-aid on his little hand, and he wants the ref to call a foul. When the ref doesn’t call a foul, he runs back on defense like a little baby.”

And then Charles Barkley took aim after the game, calling Embiid and the Sixers “soft.”

They’re not wrong.

The New Commander and Chief

Reports are circulating about the Knicks hiring CAA agent Leon Rose as team president, but the owner wants the public to pump the brakes on those rumors.

It’s interesting, because more than one source has reported that the Knicks plan to hire Rose, and the Knicks are known for being a leaky organization that doesn’t handle is business well from the top. That could be due to the way they’ve treated certain media members over the years, and have looked to control access, which obviously doesn’t go over well with reporters.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the media world believes Rose will be the team’s new president, while its owner, James Dolan, is stating that the Knicks is still continuing along on its search for the right candidate.

It’s hard not to trust the journo world on this one, given Dolan’s history, but we’ll find out in the coming days who was right.

Drummond Goes Off

It had become quite clear that the Pistons weren’t going to offer Andre Drummond the massive blockbuster deal he’s been seeking in the future, although he was likely going to opt into the final year of his contract next season, given the hefty price tag.

Drummond isn’t among the more athletic, rangy big men now dominating in the NBA, so a $28.7 million option probably wasn’t going to be something he could walk away from.

As such, the Pistons appeared desperate to move Drummond, and they ended up getting rid of him for next to nothing. They reportedly traded him to the Cavs for John Henson, Brandon Knight and a second-round pick, in the hour before the trade deadline.

Drummond was not happy about it, either, apparently feeling as if the rug was pulled out from under him. Check out what he had to say about it on Twitter.

The Pistons didn’t necessarily have to clear the move with Drummond, but they probably should’ve at least informed him that he was being shopped, to be fair.