According to NOLA’s analyst and former NBA champ, Joel Embiid is putting up “Wilt Chamberlain-type numbers”, making JoJo his pick for the MVP honors.
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Over the past few months, Joel Embiid has been playing some of the most dominant basketball the league has seen in a while. Without the likes of Philly’s second All-Star, Embiid has been getting more freedom with the ball and the shots he takes. And clearly, that has been working for him.
After averaging only 23 points and 10.5 rebounds in the first two months of the 2021-2022 campaign, JoJo took things up a notch, and since the start of December, the Cameroonian big man has been playing on a different league altogether.
Unquestionably, Embiid is having the best career of his life. Yes, he was named as an MVP finalist last year, but this season, he has an even better shot at grabbing the honors. Several analysts, fellow players, and former legends already have selected the 7-footer as their pick to lift the 2022 Maurice Podoloff Trophy.
“Joel Embiid has been special all year long, not discrediting Nikola Jokic or Giannis Antetokounmpo or LeBron James”: Antonio Daniels
Recently, former NBA champion Antonio Daniels gave his two cents on Joel’s impressive season. The NOLA analyst further went on to call Embiid his MVP. The former 13-year veteran said:
“Right now Joel Embiid is my MVP… If you breakdown his last 4-5 games, he’s giving you 42 and about 13 rebounds. He has been special all year long. He’s putting up Wilt Chamberlain-type numbers. Which is crazy!”
“I’m not discrediting, or taking anything away from Jokic and what he’s doing. I’m not taking anything away from Giannis and what he’s doing, LeBron what he’s doing. Obviously, Steph was in the conversation for a while, but lately, with the slump, he’s kinda fallen off. For me, clear cut – it is Joel Embiid and then whoever you want to go with, with 2,3,4,5.”
Calling Joel’s stats “Wilt Chamberlain-type numbers” seems a bit far stretched. The man used to drop 50 points, grab 20 rebounds, and block several shots on a daily. However, we do see where Daniels is coming from. Over the past 6 games, Embiid has been averaging a staggering 38.6 points, 12 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 2 blocks per game.
Sure it might not be as mindboggling as the numbers Chamberlain used to put up back in his day, but putting up stats like this in the modern NBA is unreal.
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If Embiid manages to keep up this level of play, while leading the Sixers to grab more wins, he could definitely end up winning the MVP trophy at the end of the season.
