Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee BucksĮmbiid might win the official scoring title, but per 36 minutes, Giannis, at 32.7, is the highest scorer in the league (by two-tenths of a point over Embiid) that's a microcosm of how close this is. 6, with roughly the same amount of wins for each, isn't enough for Embiid to overcome that slight performance gap. But right now, Jokic has just been the better player not by much, but by enough, and Philly finishing as the No. In that scenario, Embiid wins the MVP, in my opinion, on the strength of a late-season flip. That could swing the tide in Embiid's favor. Now, you pair Embiid with Harden, and the Sixers are outscoring opponents by 15 points per 100 possessions with an offensive rating north of 122, while Jokic's Nuggets are barely treading water down the stretch of the season with a defense that is looking worse and worse. Removing Harden from the equation, which more or less puts Embiid and Jokic on equal ground as far as support, below are the offensive, defensive and net ratings of the Sixers and Nuggets with their respective MVP candidate leading solo-star lineups, per Cleaning the Glass. We're just about flipping a coin on this.Īt the end of the day, the Nuggets have just been a better performing team with Jokic as the lone All-Star than the Sixers have been with Embiid as the lone All-Star. As I said, if Embiid wins, it will be just. Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ersĮmbiid is going to play in close to 70 games and is in line to win the scoring title while leading the Sixers to at least a top-four seed despite playing most of the season with Seth Curry as his best teammate (by the way, that's not meant as a knock on Seth, who is fantastic in the role he fills). Neither can be defended one on one, but the gap between Jokic's passing and Embiid's passing is greater than the gap between Embiid's defense and Jokic's defense. His passing gets a lot of love but it's still not enough. Embiid has gotten better out of double teams, but for me this is the skill that separates Jokic in what is a hair-splitting debate regarding the game's best center: He absolutely shreds double teams.
Putting the ball in Jokic's hands is a guaranteed good-to-great shot, either for him or a teammate, in a way that Embiid doesn't match. Jokic hasn't had anything close to a second All-Star anywhere near him this season.įinally, it's just the eye test for me. Yes, Embiid endured the Ben Simmons drama, but he's also had James Harden since the February trade deadline. If you want to go the winning route, Jokic has led the Nuggets to just two fewer wins than Embiid's Sixers despite playing the entire season without Jamal Murray and all but nine games without Michael Porter Jr.
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