November 07, 2026
Ken Blaze/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Joel Embiid had zero made field goals for only the second time in his career on Friday night in Cleveland.
CLEVELAND – Six games into his own season, Embiid twice declared to reporters postgame that he was done shooting threes. But he will never be done shooting threes – at least not as long as Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has anything to say about it.
"I'm very surprised by it," Nurse said of Embiid's shooting woes before he went 0-for-9 from the field, including two more long-range misses, in Friday's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. "I think he's a great shooter. I think he's probably, in my mind, he's almost upper 30s, even 40 percent three-point shooter, and he's certainly far away from that right now. He's a great shooter. He's got all the tools and things to be a great shooter. I would imagine that'll work itself out and level itself out as we go there."
Nurse is absolutely right that Embiid is a much better shooter than his 3-for-28 three-point shooting total so far this season indicates. He could not have become arguably the most prolific mid-range big scorer ever without elite touch. But on Friday, Embiid almost appeared to be shooting threes as a form of prayer that he could see one go down and work through his drought from there.
"It’s tough," Embiid said after Friday's game. "I mean, even some of the ones that I take, I’m just taking them because my teammates [say] I've just got to shoot it."
Embiid should not expect that encouragement to stop.
"I’m just going to be the guy that pours confidence into him," Tyrese Maxey said. "Try to get him some easy shots. I hit him in the pocket a couple times, and then just made sure he shot it. Yeah, we’ll figure out a way to get him some layups or something like that to get him going. But I think he’ll be okay. Once he finds his touch, he’ll be good."
"It just feels like everything is crowded."
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) November 7, 2026
Joel Embiid says the Sixers’ half-court offense remains a work in progress as they search for better flow and spacing. | @FultonBank pic.twitter.com/HScnUo2oeg
Embiid plans to watch videos of his recent three-point looks and focus on how he is jumping and where he is holding his hands. His hope is to find what has changed after a four-year period during which he shot 36.4 percent from beyond the arc from 2021 until 2024.
Embiid believes his lack of availability in recent years has had a direct impact on his three-point shooting.
"I would say probably the difference between the last couple years – the last two years, [compared to] the past – is probably [that] I used to be able to be in the gym every single day and just get the reps in and just work on it," Embiid said. "And that’s why it was so automatic, and now we’ve got to find a way to kind of mix it up, because you've got to manage a load, so you don’t get as much reps as possible. But it’s an adjustment. You've just got to keep working on it and hope it gets better."
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Ultimately, Embiid's three-point shooting being corrected would not just add value to this team in the form of extra points. Him playing with confidence as a trailer would make the Sixers' transition attack, already lethal, even more dangerous. Pushing the ball up the floor with purpose and conviction would become even more fruitful for the Sixers. And, as Nurse always makes a point to recognize, defenses respecting Embiid's ability to make an open three creates open driving lanes for his teammates.
Perhaps there is one non-mechanical adjustment worth making, at least for now: Embiid's threes should not come as early in possessions. Of his 28 long-range tries this season, 10 have come in the first half of the shot clock and every single one of them has been a misfire. On a team with so many players capable of generating a quality look at the end of the shot clock – starting with Embiid – there is no need to hurry into a three-point look if it is not wide open.
Embiid has made too many jumpers in his 10 NBA seasons for anybody to reasonably believe his touch has simply evaporated. Perhaps if this was a random seven-game sample, not his first seven appearances of a new season, this would merely be seen as a traditional shooting slump.
It feels like more than that for Embiid.
"I believe in myself," Embiid said, "but when you’re in these moments and nothing is going in, whether it’s threes, mid-range, everything, layups – yeah, it’s hard to just not look at yourself and be down. But you've got to keep going and stay up and keep working."
