At morning shootaround the day the 76ers went out and beat the Utah Jazz, Brett Brown very matter-of-factly and confidently reiterated his belief that Joel Embiid would be his pick for Defensive Player of the Year.
It wasn’t a braggadocious assertion, just a comfortable statement from a man who’s had a front row seat to all 1,187 minutes the big man has logged this season.
A few hours later, Embiid made his head coach look pretty good, outperforming not just last year’s highest-decorated defender, Rudy Gobert, but anyone else from the Jazz who stood in his way.
Afterwards, it only seemed natural for Brown to humbly refer to his take about Embiid once again.
About those metrics, and that impact...
In Thursday’s 114-97 victory over Utah, the Sixers outscored the Jazz by 17 with Embiid on the court. The plus-minus rating was his sixth-best in a game this season.
On the year, the Sixers’ defensive rating is 101.9 when the All-Star is on the court. For context, the lowest team defensive rating in the NBA is 102.2 points allowed per 100 possessions, held by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Before moving on, we’ll give you one last number nugget to chew on…
This season, per stats.nba.com, Embiid is defending 53.7 percent of the field goal attempts taken against him at the rim. That mark, in and of itself, is among the best in the league.
But no player in the NBA has defended more shots at the rim than Embiid, both on average (7.4) and total (259). Take that into account, along with his field goals defended at the rim percentage, and a very strong case could be made that Embiid is protecting the rim better than anyone else out there.
Embiid feels he should have won Defensive Player of the Year honors a season ago, when he was fifth in defensive rating, seventh in rebounding average, and fourth in blocked shots per game.
This campaign, the 24-year old’s third in a full-time playing capacity, he ranks third in rebounding (13.3 rpg), ninth in blocks (1.9 bpg), and fourth in defensive rebounding percentage (33.3%).
According to basketball-reference.com, Embiid is eighth in defensive win shares, with 2.0.
Inside the Sixers’ locker room at Vivint Smart Home Arena, after going for 23 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, and a season-high five blocks, the Cameroonian said it would mean more to him to win Defensive Player of the Year than MVP.
Through a third of the year, Embiid thinks he hasn’t been good enough yet defensively. When asked if he considered himself to be this season’s best defender, he said no, butn then quickly added, “I’m definitely top 3.”
Probably safe to say he’s thought about the matter a bit.
Sounds like Brown has too, and to him, the candidate - to this point - most worthy of Defensive Player of the Year is clear.
“I’m still figuring out how to best put myself in a position where I can really help the team and be the best defensive player in the league,” said Embiid. “So far, I have a resume at the end of the day, and that’s the title I want to win.”
There’s a lot of basketball left to be played, but consider Embiid very much on his way.
