Getty Joel Embiid is worthy of the MVP award.
Not seeing Joel Embiid’s name anywhere on the final voting results for NBA Defensive Player of the Year was shocking. The only Philadelphia 76ers player to get a vote was Matisse Thybulle who earned one third-place vote. Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics claimed the hardware.
While no one was taking issue with Smart winning the award, it was strange that Embiid got no respect. The 7-footer was a force to be reckoned with on the defensive end this season while playing in a career-high 68 games. Embiid ranked in the top-5 in several categories, including DFGM and DFGA. Those two nerdy statistics chart an opponent’s field goal percentage on shots when the player is defending the shot.
His 11.7 rebounds per game were 6th-best in the NBA and his 1.5 blocks per game were good enough for 12th-best. More impressively, Embiid’s PER (Player Efficiency Rating) was 3rd-best at 31.24 which trailed only Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokuounmpo.
So, why wasn’t the Sixers’ big man in consideration for Defensive Player of the Year? Embiid, as always, had an intriguing theory for the snub. It seems like the NBA just doesn’t value defense anymore.
“It’s funny, I saw the Defensive Player of the Year stuff and I was nowhere to be found, which is surprising,” Embiid told reporters after Game 3. “The defense has really become underrated, I don’t know why, maybe it’s because my offensive game has taken another step but that’s really what I care about the most.”
Marcus Smart is the first guard to be named NBA Defensive Player of the Year since Gary Payton in the 1995-96 season. Smart is also the second player to win the award with the @celtics, joining Kevin Garnett (2007-08).
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Full voting results ⬇️
Embiid’s defense took a backseat to Tobias Harris in Game 3 against Toronto. Still, there were times when he matched Raptors star Pascal Siakam and locked him down. It was a point of pride for him.
“So, playing against a guy like Pascal [Siakam], obviously he’s really good at what he does,” Embiid said. “He’s the best player here [in Toronto], they run a lot of stuff through him so in that situation tonight I lock in even more, and to be able to defend the best player and make sure that nothing is easy, that he is not really able to score, is always a good recipe to win.”
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Doc Rivers Challenged Embiid at Halftime
Perhaps lost in the shuffle of Embiid’s overtime heroics in Game 3 was his putrid first half. He went into the halftime locker room with only five points while attempting just five shots. He turned the ball over too many times with reckless passes and sloppy dribbling. Embiid looked tentative, almost scared of the double and triple teams that Toronto was sending at him. And Doc Rivers let him know about it.
“I didn’t get on him but I got on him at halftime,” Rivers said, “like you’re getting the ball in good spots. I think he keeps looking for double teams instead of being aggressive, and I think that might have been a breakthrough for him. In the third quarter, he didn’t care if they were coming or not he was going to be aggressive and I thought that was good.”
“He’s the most dominant player in the league physically”
-Doc Rivers says he told Joel Embiid to take it to Raptors after they were being physical with him
“You be the dominant guy”
Embiid didn’t sulk or complain about the hard coaching. No, he stepped up and delivered.
“We were down by 10 [points], so coming out of halftime I knew those first few minutes were going to be huge,” Embiid said, “so I just wanted to go back to imposing myself and trying to be aggressive and that’s what I did. And obviously, as a team, we did a good job, too, of just getting stops when we needed them, and offensively we were just moving the ball.”
Sixers ‘Gotta Get One More’
The Sixers lead their first-round playoff series 3-0 over the Raptors. They have a chance to close it out on Saturday (April 23) at 2 p.m. Don’t think they are taking anything for granted. Embiid was the first person to mention the challenge of winning one more game in what promises to be a hostile road environment at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
“They got great fans, they’re loud,” Embiid said. “I knew definitely coming into Toronto I was definitely going to be the bad guy for quite some time. So I just wanted to come out [in Game 3] and let the game come to me, but it felt great [to get the win] but the job is not done. We gotta get one more.”
Joel Embiid on the game-winner:
“It felt great. Obviously we know what happened a couple years ago.
They’ve got great fans. They’re loud. I knew coming into Toronto, I was definitely going to be the bad guy.
It felt great, but the job is not done. We’ve got to get one more.”