Fran Fraschilla: Embiid is “in the second inning of his game”

Fran Fraschilla has seen a lot of Kansas basketball, so it was nice to see him cover the KU basketball game on Saturday against New Mexico. While Perry Ellis was the leading scorer, Joel Embiid put up the most impressive performance of the game, scoring 18 points on 5-for-6 shooting (8-for-10 from the free throw line), six rebounds, four blocks, three steals and zero turnovers. The highlight of the game was Embiid’s “Dream Shake” move reminiscent of Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon.

Fraschilla spoke to Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com about Embiid’s performance.

“The fact that we’re starting to talk about Joel Embiid and his great promise down the road just says that as much as we have hyped this class, there’s not a LeBron or a Kevin Durant in the class,” ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla told SNY.tv Monday after doing the Kansas-New Mexico game.

“So that in my mind the first six, if they’re not fairly cemented yet, they’re close, and that there’s no consensus No. 1, in my opinion, right now. It’s way too early.”

Fraschilla is cautious not to hype Embiid too much.

Yes, he went for 18 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals vs. New Mexico, but he was also nearly invisible in the loss to Florida, managing just 6 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks against Patric Young.

“He’s going to have moments of brilliance but there are also going to be nights where he’s going to be invisible because he’s going to be in foul trouble,” Fraschilla said. “It doesn’t eliminate the amount of incredible potential he has.

“It’s just that he’s in the second inning of his game. Kansas fans will never see the Joel Embiid that NBA fans will see three or four years from now.”

Zagoria also spoke to a former NBA GM about Embiid:

“Embiid is definitely going to end up in the top 3 if he declares for the draft this year,” the former GM told SNY.tv. “He is getting better every game.”

The former GM has Wiggins and Parker at 1-2 right now, but if Embiid went in the top 3, it would give Kansas two of the top three picks, assuming Wiggins goes first or second.

“I do not think as of now that [Embiid] would go No. 1 based on all the media hype for Wiggins and Parker,” the former GM said, “because it’s still going to take some time for him to develop even when he does enter the NBA.”

Still, the larger point may be this: Embiid’s entree into this conversation may just reinforce what Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim told SNY.tv last week — that there are no transcendent players in this draft.