By Larry Rupp
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. With just two months left to go in the regular season, Joel Embiid is cementing himself as the NBA MVP favorite. The All-Star center is off to a blazing start in 2022 and it has caused his odds to take home the hardware to jump all the way up to +160, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
The only other players within striking distance are Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets (+320), Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks (+370) and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors (+600). Keep in mind Embiid opened the season outside of the top five candidates and had odds as low as +5000 in early January.
Study the legends & you may become one… @JoelEmbiid pic.twitter.com/yO8fMjweDS
— Drew Hanlen (@DrewHanlen) January 18, 2022
An MVP is known as someone that contributes the most to their team. Well, Embiid is taking over games on a nightly basis and simply willing the 76ers to victories. He recently joined Allen Iverson as the only Philadelphia players to ever score 25-plus points in 20 straight games and it doesn’t look like he plans to stop getting buckets anytime soon.
After all, the former Kansas standout was named NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Month in both December and January for a reason. Embiid can do it all. He has the size to take on opposing centers in the paint, the shooting stroke to hit shots from beyond the arc, and the defensive prowess to block shots at the rim. The four-time All-Star also leads the league when it comes to points scored in clutch situations, when the score is within five and there is less than 5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Not only that, but Embiid is determined to give the media something positive to focus on in Philadelphia. He is on pace to set a career-best mark in assists per game and is turning the ball over at a career-best rate as well. That has been huge for a Sixers team playing without their starting point guard in Ben Simmons as he continues to sit games out.
The most impressive part of Embiid’s dominance this season may be the fact that it isn’t surprising anyone anymore. The Cameroon native joined Shaquille O’Neal as the only two players since the NBA-ABA merger in 1977 to average 25 points and 10 rebounds through their first 300 career games. Looking for Embiid to pop off every night has become the expectation.
"The baddest guy in the league right now is Joel Embiid."@SHAQ makes his case for who should win MVP 🗣 @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/2nPKsmD9Fa
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 26, 2022
One of the biggest knocks on Embiid over the last few years has been his health. He missed 20 games last season and it caused Jokic to run away as the league’s MVP. All of the hard work the 27-year-old put in during the offseason is paying off, though. Embiid has only missed games this season due to planned rest or the COVID-19 virus, not because of any kind of injury.
The NBA is turning into a shooters’ league, which makes it all the more impressive what Embiid is able to do standing at 7-foot tall and weighing 280 pounds. He is on pace to do something a center hasn’t accomplished in this century, which is leading the league in scoring. There’s plenty of time for other players to make up ground, but this is Embiid’s award to lose right now.
Picture Credit: Allproreels.com
