Getty Philadelphia 76ers stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid celebrate during a 2019 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
For the second straight year, The Athletic’s Seth Partnow has attempted to identify the top 125 players in the NBA. However, rather than placing them in a traditional ranking system, he has grouped players into tiers based on similarity and overall value. Just as they did in 2020, Philadelphia 76ers stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons rated among the best ballers in the Association.
One of them inched closer to the very top tier of NBA superstars, while the other took a predictable hit on the list.
Simmons’ Slight Drop
After landing in the A-group of tier three ahead of the 2020-21 season, Simmons now finds himself in tier 3C. He was joined in that grouping by the likes of Draymond Green, Jaylen Brown, Pascal Siakam, Russell Westbrook and Zach LaVine. For further context, his spot here places him in the 31-36 range in terms of a traditional player ranking.
Some of the guards placed just ahead of him in tier 3B include Bradley Beal, Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Ja Morant.
Wrote Partnow of Simmons:
“Simmons is a bit more extreme both in terms of the positives — he is quite possibly the most versatile and valuable perimeter defender in the league — and the negatives. You may have seen, heard or read that he struggles to shoot and at times avoids even attempting to score out of apparent skittishness over getting fouled. The pairing with Joel Embiid is highly imperfect, as the same spacing ability Simmons lacks is among the skills most needed to play with and off the most dominant post scorer in the game today.
He went on to add, though, that Simmons and Embiid make a formidable defensive core and that Simmons’ ability to create in transition is at an elite level.
The latest Sixers news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on Sixers newsletter here!
Embiid Remains in Tier 2
Last year, Partnow put Embiid in tier 2B — now, he’s locked in as a top 10 player in the NBA with a tier 2A designation. He was joined in this small group by Anthony Davis and Luka Doncic, both of whom have been MVP candidates at different junctures.
The players who kept Embiid out of tier one stacked up as follows:
- 1A: Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James and Kevin Durant
- 1B: James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry
Here is how Partnow assessed Embiid’s placement in his tier list:
“Joel Embiid had a reasonable claim to be the NBA’s top performer per minute last season. While the difference in playing time rendered any debate on the point moot with respect to his MVP candidacy, he combines interior dominance on both ends of the floor as well as any other player in the league — while he’s out there and not fatigued, that is.”
In his eyes, concerns about Embiid’s durability and, in turn, questions about how many minutes he can effectively play in a given game were what kept him out of the top tier.
READ NEXT: