Ja Morant, Joel Embiid named Players of the Week

Philadelphia will take on the Orlando Magic on Wednesday and coach Nick Nurse had an update on his star big man. “He’s doing OK,” said Nurse. “He’s obviously not playing and not here. The status for the next game is still up in the air so he’s just getting a lot of treatment and doing OK.” -via Sixers Wire / December 25, 2023

Joel Embiid: Not trying to be too critical. Obviously, extremely talented. Right now, there’s so much hype around him, I think he’s trying to live up to the hype. That’s what I see. And I watch a lot of games. I think, first of all, he has to figure out where he wants to play, whether he wants to be a guard or a big or whatever. It’s not necessarily whether he wants to be a guard or a big; it’s what he wants to become. Do you want to become KD, or do you want to become me? Not KD, or like a version of those guys — you want to combine everything. Right now, I just feel like everything kind of feels a little forced, in the way that he’s playing. Which is not bad. Because the only way to get better is to play through it and learn. That’s the only way. You make a lot of mistakes, and you learn. -via The Athletic / December 25, 2023

Joel Embiid: The one thing that I’m happy about is they’re allowing him to make those mistakes, and learn from it. But I just think there’s a good and bad in that. The good of it is you learn through your mistakes. But then again, the bad of it is, you know, it just feels a little forced. Like, some of the shots. He can make it easy on himself. He can make it easy for himself. Like, he’s 7-5, 7-6. Sometimes, and that’s one thing I’m learning, too. Like, sometimes, just go down there and whatever, just shoot over somebody. Sometimes, you don’t have to (work so hard). I’m still learning it. We all have the same issue. And another issue I have that I see on a lot of people, is that it’s hard to figure out. But you have so much moves and so much game, like myself, sometimes I’m like, I could just jab-step, jumper. But then again, I’m like, I just scored twice, three times in a row, using a jumper. I’ve got this other move that I want to try. Instead of just keep going back to the same thing that’s working over and over. And I struggle with it. I’ve gotten a lot better when it comes to it, but it’s a struggle. We’re all still learning. -via The Athletic / December 25, 2023

Ahead of Saturday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks, Williams was asked about the difference Ja Morant has made for the Grizzlies since returning, per team reporter Michael Williams. Ziaire Williams claims his confidence level is higher than before, as he tries his best to play at Morant’s pace. “It’s go, go, go. He’s always in attack mode. I just try to roll with him and play at his pace.” -via Clutch Points / December 23, 2023

Drew Hill: “He hit a lob to Santi and they called timeout. Ja looked at us and said, ‘We’re back having fun.’ “It’s the truth,” Bane said. “… When you’re losing, sometimes it’s hard to find that spirit. But you have to have that fight. I think we’ve got it now.”dailymemphian.com/section/sports… -via Twitter @DrewHill_DM / December 22, 2023

Drew Hill: Ja Morant said he told Taylor Jenkins he had to leave the locker room and come back after the game because he walked in clapping. “You gotta come in screaming after a win like that. We’re celebrating.” -via Twitter @DrewHill_DM / December 22, 2023