#Embiid4MVP
Well, I guess I'm back? I haven't written anything since the summer, almost half a year ago. A lot has happened in my life and with the Sixers since then. We got Daryl Morey, our messiah. We saw the departure of Brett Brown as head coach (yes I know it's the right decision, but I'll always love him and appreciate what he did for this team and the city) and replaced him with Doc Rivers, which so far looks to be a pretty good move (it was time). We do not employ Al Horford anymore (I will respect him as a player in general and as a human being, but by god did he suck with us. And good riddance to his annoying sister Anna)! We have surrounded Ben Simmons and Embiid with spacing for the first time probably ever in their careers (mainly Danny Green and Seth Curry as starters, still retain Furk, Shake who hasn't been the best this year from 3, Isaiah Joe, Tobi shooting damn near 40% from three because Doc is the Tobi whisperer), and that has really made a difference. So much so, that Embiid deserves the MVP this year. You already saw the title, so you know what this article is going to be about.
Embiid's Historic Year So Far
Joel Embiid is absolutely killing it from everywhere this year. Lets compare his statistics from last year compared to this year (stats are sorted by Points/rebounds/assists/steals/blocks and shooting splits are field goal/3 point/free throw). 2020: 23.0/11.6/3.0/0.9/1.3 on shooting splits of 51.7 (lowest since rookie year)/33.1/80.7. 2021: 29.4 (career high)/10.9/2.9/1.3 (career high)/1.3 on shooting splits of 54.5 (by far career high)/38.1 (another career high by far)/84.9 (career by far AGAIN). Not only is he taking better shots this year and making them at a better clip, but it is just so smooth watching him shoot. He is absolutely lethal from mid-range if he sizes the defender up or hits a dribble pull-up right in their face. Embiid has easily become one of my favorite players I have ever watched, next to Curry and KD. It is just mind blogging how someone his size is able to do what he does. He is getting to the line at a career high of 11.4 free throws per game (yet again another career high, compared to his second best of 10.1 in 18-19). I will admit he does sell calls (not exactly flops like LeBron, Lowry, or Marcus Smart because they are fouls, he just sells them so the refs will notice it), but he still deserves all the free throws he gets. Literally no one can guard him in this league (Marvin Bagley was the closest somehow). Gone are the days where he scored 0 points when guarded by Marc Gasol (he scored 28 in the game where they played the Lakers). Also can't forget that 25 point 2nd quarter against the Trail Blazers (they ultimately lost because they had an ugly 3rd quarter due to Ben Simmons out not being able to bring his defense and his passing to Embiid). JoJo definitely deserves the MVP due to his play and because no one else is playing up to his level.
LeBUM Lames
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Taking a look at the stats, Embiid is still better in just about every statistic. LeBron: 25.6/7.9/7.9/1.1/0.5 on 49.8/39.1/71.6 shooting splits (Embiid's stats are listed above). Embiid leads in points, rebounds, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, and free throw percentage. Now this is my favorite part, MATH! LeBron leads in 3-point percentage, but lets take a look at how they compare to other players at their own position. Standard deviation is a great way to show this. Now for those who do not know the formula for standard deviation (I had to look it up again just to make sure, I still knew that this is the right formula to use), what I used to find this is: (player's three-point percentage - mean 3-point percentage for their respective position) / mean 3-point percentage for their respective percentage (god I hope this is the right formula, you may roast me if I am wrong. I haven't done math like this in 3 years or so. I'm pretty sure this formula should still get a good understanding for what I am trying to say, but is it qualified as standard deviation?).
LeBron can play just about any position, but he has mainly played Small Forward this year, so we will use that. According to ESPN, there are 48 Small Forwards who have met the criteria (have to playeds 70% of their team's games). The average 3-point percentage of these players is 36.564583%. Compared to LeBron's 39.1%, his percentage is 0.069 standard deviations above the sample mean.
Now for Embiid, ESPN shows that there are only also 30 players at the Center position who have played 70% of their team's games, and I also took out the players who shoot 0%, because they either have never taken one or have taken in the single digits and even included Karl Anthony Towns who did not make this list due to being out for a lot of time due to COVID and injury (he has played 6 games thus far), but he is a high percent and high volume 3-point shooter (5.2 attempts per game on 41.9%) (I have also discovered in my research that Bobby Portis AKA the Nikola Mirotic Assassin is shooting an absurd 46.4%). After doing the math, the average percentage for centers comes out to be 34.717% leading to a standard deviation of 0.097445. For those who aren't the best at math, what does this mean? It means that Embiid is a better 3-point shooter compared to other centers than LeBron is compared to small forwards. Embiid's three-point shooting is more of a positive anomaly as a center than LeBron's is as a small forward.
Oh boy, even more math! I really also want to do the same for free throw percentage. For small forwards, we are going to use the same sample. Their free throw percentage average is 78.56%. With LeBron shooting 71.6%, he is even shooting well below the average, being .0885947 standard deviations BELOW the average. Now for Embiid, we will use the same sample minus KAT (he's not anything special from the line like he is from three) and those who don't shoot threes (there are not any anomalies like that when it comes to centers taking free throws), so this time there will only be a sample of 48 players (please dear god appreciate all this work I am doing. This is going to be the death of me). The average free throw percentage for these centers is 69.86% (another anomaly I found is that Jakob Poeltl shoots 27.8% from the line EWW). Embiid is above the average of a center by 15.04%, which comes out to be 0.2152877 standard deviations above the mean. LeBron is a negative when it comes to free throw percentage both in general (league average is 79% taken in 2017, I was having trouble finding anything more recent) and compared to others at the same position he plays. Embiid is the exact opposite; being well above the league average and the average among other centers. Get rekt LeBum.
Everybody has said that both Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons suck. Both are supposedly severely overpaid, with people calling Tobias Harris the worst contract in the league. Ben has no offense and can't and won't shoot threes, so he is obviously a negative on the court. How can the Sixers have the number 1 seed in the East and be top 5 in the power rankings? Shouldn't it be because of Embiid then? In the five games without Embiid, the Sixers have only won one single game, mainly because Simmons and Thybulle absolutely locked up the Pacers in the fourth quarter after being down by 20. From what I've heard, not only is Anthony Davis a better big than Embiid, but he's also the best big in the league. Alex Caruso is a very integral piece to the team, they won the championship last year, and even improved upon their team by picking up Montrezl Harrel, Dennis Schroder, and Marc Gasol while basically losing no one important (losing Rondo, Avery Bradley, and Javale McGee as the most "important" losses).
The media sucks. They love to suck off LeBron with Brian Windhorst saying he should be the MVP because he deserves more. Because of this, LeBron will just about no doubt win this year. The media also doesn't follow the Sixers as much as the Lakers. It's LA, so they already are getting more attention, but add LeBron and everyone is salivating at the thought of watching the Lakers play. The Lakers have the most national television games at 16 (around 22% of their total games played over the season). compared to 9 for the Sixers (10th in the league). Of course LeBron is playing really well and he would deserve the MVP any other year with these stats, but Embiid deserves it more. Finally, I'm done complaining about LeGM.
Nikola Jokic (AKA Fat White Boi)
Jokic is famous for intentionally fouling at half court after a turnover. Dude can't even guard a pole. My 2X All-Defensive Second Team would never. Jokic also just isn't that fun to watch, which I get shouldn't mean too much when it comes to winning the MVP, but still. I really think he should be included in the discussion as a human beyblade alongside Julius Randle and Pascal Siakam. Also, the Nuggets haven't been that great so far, or at least up to the standards that they should be. They started off 6-7, but have turned it up a bit as of recently and are now 14-11, good for the 7th seed in the Western Conference. Maybe they can win even more games and get a higher seed, but who knows? Once again, Jokic is a good MVP caliber player, but not this year when LeBron and Embiid are having years like this.
Kevin Durant
I don't really have much to say about KD. He has had an amazing year coming off an achilles injury. I guess all I can really say is he is balding when he has buttloads of cash lmao (as a fellow bald boi, it sucks). The most I can say is that the Nets as a whole are very disappointing right now. They have a big three in Kyrie, Harden, and KD now (after acquiring Harden on January 14th from the Houston Rockets), but they are only 15-12 so far with a record of 7-4 with Harden (good for 3rd in the East still). The Nets have the statistics to back up that their defense is just about historically bad since the Harden trade (allowing 119 points per 100 possessions ranking 27th, losing 122-111 against the Detroit Pistons AKA the worst team in the league). The "centers" they can play are 2021 DeAndre Jordan (as compared to Jordan with the Clippers), Jeff Green, Nicolas Claxton, Noah Vonleh, and former Sixer legend Norvel Pelle (who fouled out trying to cover Embiid in 17 minutes). I am not that scared of the Nets right now. Knowing the Sixers luck, they will probably get a capable center in a trade or the buyout market.
Final Opinion
#Embiid4MVP
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