Mbah a Moute emerging as a leader

The 76ers will tell that Luc Mbah a Moute is much more than Joel Embiid’s mentor.

He is their veteran leader, and the guy who holds the locker room together.

“We feed off him,” point guard Michael Carter-Williams said. “It’s good to have him back.”

Mbah a Moute returned to the Sixers’ starting lineup in a 112-96 loss to the Phoenix Suns at USAirways Arena Friday night. But the 6-foot-8, 230-pound power forward/small forward missed the last two games with a left calf strain. Scoring 10 of his 12 points in the first quarter, his return was a lift for a Sixers squad in desperate need of one.

“It’s hard to even know where to begin and you always sort of appreciate, probably [like] most things, when you don’t have him for a while,” coach Brett Brown said. “So you see really what his brings to the table and his strength.”

Brown went on to say that Mbah a Moute brings a toughness and a poise that can grab chaos adn give it some type of balance. That’s something that’s needed on a Sixers squad that’s believed to be the youngest team in the history of the NBA.

The average age of the Sixers on the opening-day roster was 23 years, 11 months and 20 days. The team has six rookies and three second-year players.

Meanwhile, Mbah a Moute is a seventh-year veteran having his best offensive season. The 28-year-old from the Cameroon averages a career bests 9.4 points. His average of nine shot attempts per game is also a career high.

“Defensively, obviously I think that’s one of my calling card,” Mbah a Moute said. “But I think offensively, I’ve improved a lot on my jump shot, making more threes, shooting a lot of threes.”

He has also shown improvement in the post and is over the knee injury that hampered him last season.

“I feel good,” Mbah a Moute said. “Everything feels good. I’m just excited.”

The Sixers acquired the forward from Minnesota along with Alexey Shved and a 2015 second-round pick in the Thaddeus Young trade in August. This is Mbah a Moute’s fourth team in 13 months.

Milwaukee traded him to Sacramento in July 2013. Four months later, the Kings sent him to the Timberwolves.

He also is advising his protégé and fellow Cameroonian, Embiid.

Embiid was selected third overall in the NBA draft in June after his freshman season at Kansas. The 7-foot center is expected to miss the entire season after foot surgery.

His journey to become a lottery pick may never have happened without Mbah a Moute’s help.

He discovered Embiid in 2011 at a basketball camp in their homeland. Mbah a Moute has advised the 20-year-old ever since.

“It’s kind of like a big-brother, younger-brother relationship,” Mbah a Moute said. “I’ve mentored him the last four years since I saw him back home and brought him over” to the United States to attend high school.

“It’s been interesting to see him grow from a young kid back home to an NBA player.”

While Embiid sits and watches, Mbah has been the veteran trying to hold the entire squad together.

“I do my job every day,” he said. “I try to do the best I can, trying to have an influence on the game, finding ways to score, making plays defensively. That’s pretty much it.”

The Sixers started their 15th different starting lineup against the Suns. Rookie K.J. McDaniels started in place of rookie JaKarr Sampson at shooting guard The other starters were point guard Michael Carter-Williams, small forward Robert Covington, Mbah a Moute and center Nerlens Noel.

Getting to the rim

Brown believes good coaches take the reality of their roster and maximize it. Well, the Sixers don’t have any shooters outside of Robert Covington and Hollis Thompson (out with an upper respiratory infection).

“We have downhill track stars,” he said. “We are trying to develop the perimeter game. But in the meantime, our best way to score is attacking the rim. We are No. 1 at the getting to the rim. We were last year. We are this year.”