Has he added "capable of staying healthy enough to play in an actual NBA game" to his game?
Do we have precedent for a player missing his first two seasons in the league and then going on to become a regular, productive player?
I can't think of a player that this has happened with in at least the last 25 years. There have been a few players the missed close to two seasons partway through their career and come back to be productive. Grant Hill for example played in 18 combined games in 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 (and 30 the next). He obviously came back as a very solid player and had a nice run as a capable starter. However, he went from top 5 player in the league to an above average starter.
Big Z missed his entire second season and the majority of his 3rd. and obviously had a nice career. At the same time both these guys had already played in NBA level competition.
I think it is also easy to forget that Embiid didn't even finish his college career healthy so hasn't played competitive basketball in over 2 years at this point.
Related to people hoping he fails, I don't really think that is the case. I don't even think it is matter of not liking Philly. At this point I think people need to realize this a Celtics forum and this guy hasn't played competitive basketball since 3/4 of the way through his one season at Kansas. Still for some reason every month to 6 weeks we get a thread about him "looking like a monster" or "dominating in practice" or in this case, adding a 3 point shot. It gets old after a while especially when we won't get to see the guy on a court until at least summer league. If he starts playing well there, I would at least be interested in it. At this point though, I think myself and other posters have just had too much of this for going on two years now.