Team USA offers Joel Embiid an important opportunity to adapt

LAS VEGAS — If you had been sucked into a time vortex in 2014 and spilled out into UNLV's gym in the summer of 2024, you would have thought Sam Hinkie's rebuilding plan had been executed perfectly over a decade-plus.
Following a walkthrough practice with Team USA on Tuesday, Joel Embiid held court on the sideline and chatted with a few familiar faces: former Sixers head coach Brett Brown, former Sixers assistant coach Lloyd Pierce, and former Sixers PR man Mike Preston huddled around the big man and shared a few laughs. All but Embiid have moved onto new challenges — Brown as an assistant in San Antonio, while Pierce and Preston are both in prominent roles in Indiana — and have watched as Em...