When a team has the success that the Philadelphia 76ers had in the regular season, there are bound to be individual accolades accompanied with that. The Sixers went 49-23 on the season and they earned the No. 1 seed for the first time since 2001 thanks to the elite play of their stars.
Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid were named finalists for some individual awards on Thursday with Simmons being a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year and Embiid being a finalist for MVP. They are both deserving of the honor as Simmons has been great on the defensive end all season and Embiid has put the Sixers on his back when the time calls for it.
“It’s well deserved,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I think both of them, in my opinion, should win, but the first honor is being nominated and the second one is them winning it. They both have had fantastic years in those two departments being the MVP of the league and being the Defensive Player of the Year. I’m happy for them because their success means team success.”
It certainly does mean team success. Simmons has constantly taken on the opposition’s best scorer on a nightly basis while Embiid has been terrific on the offensive end all season. It also helps a player’s confidence when his coach campaigns for him and praises him for his work on that end.
“It means a lot to have him think that of me,” said Simmons. “I’ve got a long way to go to obviously continue to get better defensively. There’s a lot of things I want to work on and get better at for my teammates. Especially with this run we have coming up. I think I got to play a big role in being that defensive anchor so I’m looking forward to this playoff run.”
As for being named a finalist for the award, this is not something that Simmons wants. He wants the award all for his own in order to prove that he is the best defensive player in the league.
“I probably won’t be excited unless I’m winning it, to be honest,” he explained. “I don’t really care about being top 3, I want to be number 1 so until those results come out, I don’t really care.”
As for Embiid, Simmons has said in the past that he believes the big fella should win the MVP award. Now that he is a finalist for the award, he doubled down on his claim that he should win it, but the team also has bigger goals than this one as they prepare for the playoffs.
“He’s been dominant all year,” Simmons finished. “Nobody can stop him. He’s obviously a huge part of this team and I think he’s don’t everything he can this season to obviously win it. For us, our focus is the playoffs and winning a championship. Besides the individual accolades, our goal is to win.”
As for a rookie like Tyrese Maxey, this is huge for his future development to be able to play with these types of players in order to see what it takes to be successful in the NBA. There is a lot of work that has to be done.
“That’s remarkable,” he stated. “It’s a blessing. I’m pretty sure not many guys in the NBA can say they shared the floor with a Defensive Player of the Year finalist and an MVP finalist. It just goes to testimony to I’ve been saying all year. Best defense in the league, great team, great organization, hats off to those guys. They really deserve it.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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