Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid’s scoring title chances are legit
Joel Embiid deserves to be the NBA’s MVP.
He has the statistics, he went through the adversity, and his ability to seemingly will his team to a top-four playoff spot is an association that very few players across the NBA can boast. When the Sixers need a clutch basket, they turn to Embiid, who ranks second in clutch points per game and total clutch points scored overall. When they need points in the post, Embiid’s ability to score over one, two, or even three defenders is elite.
Heck, as much as some folks hate it, Embiid is even a premier free throw shooter, as his shooting percentage of 81.7 ranks third among centers behind Jeff Green – who isn’t really a center – and noted Philadelphia Eagles fan Karl-Anthony Towns.
When Embiid gets cooking in the paint, he grills his defenders like his steaks: Burnt to a darn crisp.
Will Joel Embiid ultimately win the MVP award? Only time will tell; the award is subjectively decided on by a collection of voters and thus might not go to the “best” player in the NBA for one reason or another. What isn’t subjective, however, is the scoring championship, and as things presently stand, the Philadelphia 76ers‘ franchise player is .1 points per game behind LeBron James for that honor.
The Philadelphia 76ers’ center could still leave the season with some hardware.
How much can one game affect a player’s points per game total? Well, before the Philadelphia 76ers’ win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Joel Embiid sat pretty at 30.0 points per game, which ranked third in the NBA behind LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
But after turning in a dominant performance featuring 44 points, 17 rebounds, five blocks, and three steals? Well, Embiid’s points per game average rose up to 30.2, which leapfrogged Antetokounmpo and put him solely in second place behind only James.
Needless to say, King James’ .1 points per game lead isn’t as safe as it may seem in passing.
So what, you may ask, is the path for Embiid to outscore James, make up the ground, and finish out the regular season with the scoring title? Well first, let’s lay out the requisite information. As of the first Monday in April, the Lakers and Sixers both have four games left to play in the regular season. Because Embiid has somehow played nine more games than James, 65 to 56, he’s actually already outscored his Western Conference foil by 268 points, but when you divide those points by the number of games played, it gives the Lakers’ forward a slight edge, 30.267 versus 30.20
With all of that in mind, if Embiid just outscored James by two points per game over the final four games of the regular season, it will give him the requisite bump needed to overtake his foe if his scoring averages remain copasetic. Now granted, there’s some wiggle room to those numbers. Obviously, if James scores an even 120 over the final four games of the Lakers’ season, Embiid will only need to score eight more points to get his scoring total to 30.3. If, however, James somehow goes off and scores 100 in a single contest with 30s in each subsequent performance – a feat no one but Wilt Chamberlain has accomplished – Embiid would need to average darn near 54 points per game to have a chance at the scoring title.
When put into that context, Embiid’s chances at overtaking James for the scoring title are actually pretty good, especially when you consider he’s averaged 35.2 points per game over the last five games.
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If Joel Embiid somehow doesn’t win association MVP, it will be talked about in a negative light around this part of the country for years to come. The impact “The Process” has had on the season has been undeniable, and the Philadelphia 76ers wouldn’t have half as many wins if it wasn’t for their star player. If, however, the voters pick wrong and Embiid, who is the first center to average 30 points per game since Moses Malone in 1981-82, doesn’t earn that honor, he can at least follow in the footsteps of two Hall of Fame Sixers of years past and win the scoring title, the first individual award of many that should fill his mantle before his career is over.