Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is one of the best players in the game. He has the ability to take games over in the blink of an eye and carry the Sixers to wins is impressive. He was having another phenomenal season in 2023-24 before a left meniscus injury derailed his campaign.
With averages of 34.7 points, 11.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.7 blocks, Embiid would have likely won his second straight MVP award. Unfortunately, he played only 39 games and couldn’t qualify for the award.
Bleacher Report put together their top 10 players in the league as the playoffs begin to come to a close and Embiid was ranked 6th:
In the regular season, he averaged 34.7 points, 11.0 rebounds and a career-high 5.6 assists. He finished with a total of 1,353 points in 1,309 minutes, becoming the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to tally more points than minutes for a season.
But if we’re going to weight postseason performance more than the regular season in determining the NBA’s best player, that standard needs to be applied evenly across the board.
For most of his career, the 30-year-old has ducked criticism for failing to make a deep playoff run to this point. Injuries have typically played a role, but his career postseason box plus/minus of 4.1 is well shy of the 7.0 he has in the regular season. Ditto for his career scoring numbers, which go from 27.9 points with a 53.6 effective field-goal percentage in the regular season to 24.9 with a 49.1 effective field-goal percentage in the playoffs.
The point for Embiid ranking behind the likes of Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Jokic is due to the lack of playoff success.
Yes, Embiid’s playoff numbers are not up to the same level as his regular season numbers, but unfortunately for him, the big fella has dealt with a ton of injuries. All Embiid needs is one healthy playoff run and then he will be set. One has to believe that a healthy Embiid can deliver the Sixers past Round 2 and into legitimate contention status in the East.
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