PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Sixers stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons are in contention for two of the NBA's most prestigious honors this year. Thursday night, the league announced three finalists for each of the major regular season awards.
Embiid is a finalist for most valuable player, along with Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokić and Warriors guard Steph Curry.
Simmons is a finalist for defensive player of the year along with Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert — who won in 2018 and 2019 — and Golden State forward Draymond Green, who won it in 2017.
Embiid finished the season with some of the best stats of his career — averaging 28.5 points along with a 51.3 field goal percentage and 10.7 foul shots attempted per game. He was arguably dominant among all centers in the sport, often drawing double and triple teams. The Sixers would be nowhere without him.
The big knock against Embiid is durability. He played 51 of 72 regular season games, most of them missed because of a left knee bone bruise that thankfully wasn't a major ACL injury as feared when he landed awkwardly March 12.
Jokić, meanwhile, didn't miss a single game, while averaging 26.4 points, 8.3 assists, 10.8 rebounds and shooting 56.6% from the field. Denver's star is arguably the favorite because of his availability, but proponents of Embiid would say that shouldn't matter.
Curry, a two-time former MVP, carried the undermanned Golden State Warriors throughout the season, averaging 32 points a game. A Curry victory would continue the long streak of centers not winning the award, dating back to Shaquille O'Neal's MVP season in 2000.
Simmons is in his fourth Sixers season and has never won defensive player of the year — though he has described himself this season as the best defender in the NBA, in part because he guards the league's top players regardless of position.
No Sixer has won either accolade in 20 years, since Allen Iverson and Dikembe Mutombo won MVP and defensive player of the year, respectively.
Doc Rivers, now in his first season with the Sixers after stints coaching the Los Angeles Clippers, Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, was not named a finalist for coach of the year, even though the 76ers progressed from the sixth seed in 2020 to the top Eastern Conference seed in 2021.
The three coaching finalists are Monty Williams of the Phoenix Suns, Quin Snyder of the Utah Jazz and Tom Thibodeau of the New York Knicks. Williams has grown the Suns into an elite team, the Jazz had the best regular season record in the league, and Thibodeau coached the Knicks from annual embarrassment to respectable competitor.
The awards are determined by votes from a global panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. The winners of each — which also includes most improved player, rookie of the year, and sixth man — will be announced by the "NBA on TNT" crew during its postseason coverage.
When the winners are announced, the league said each voter's ballot will be made available at pr.nba.com.