Joel Embiid's production throughout the 2020-21 season has by far been the best we've seen from him in his NBA career. And that's saying something, considering he averaged 24.6 points and 12.1 rebounds per game over the past three seasons. This year, his scoring total is up at 29.3 points per game, good for fourth in the league, and he's first in Player Efficiency Rating (PER). His .553 field goal percentage, .390 three-point percentage and .850 free throw percentage are all career highs.
JaVale McGee isn't quite having the same season, though he's not playing badly by any means. In 16 games, he's averaging 7.7 points and 5.9 rebounds in a limited role off the bench, though he becomes a little bit more Embiid-like when you expand his role to 36 minutes per game. Then, those numbers turn to 17.0 points and 13.0 rebounds... not too shabby.
But McGee isn't vying for an MVP award, and he knows that would be foolish. He's done acting a fool... he's Shaqted a Fool one too many times.
However, he is vying for Joel Embiid to win the MVP award for the sake of NBA's big men. McGee talked about the evolving league and how the big man has faded away on "Posted Up with Chris Haynes."
"I hated whenever we'd play Houston. They would go small, they would play five out, P.J. (Tucker) in the corner shooting threes, never going in the paint," McGee said. "You know as a big man, especially a shot-blocking big man, our whole aura is to sink into the paint because you want to block every shot that goes in there. So it was definitely hard not playing against teams like that and then just seeing the NBA transition into that."
However, he sees the league starting to shift back into a mold that thrusts big men into prominence, which is a trend that he likes to see.
"I just feel like we need the big men to become MVPs and All-Stars again just so we can be like, okay, we got our stock back up now," McGee said. "Pay the big man, play the big man, pick the big man.
"I want Joel Embiid to average 100 (points) and get MVP back-to-back-to-back because all that does is make all the big men look good."
Temper your expectations, JaVale. But not too much. Maybe averaging 30 per night — a number that he has reached in seven of his last eight games — is much more attainable and would definitely give him a strong case for MVP to go along with his tremendous interior defense.
As of now, Embiid has the third best odds on FanDuel to win MVP, at +550. LeBron James (+280) and Nikola Jokic (+440), both of which would likely make McGee happy because one is a former teammate and the other is another big man, are the only players ahead of the Sixers star.
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM App
Follow RADIO.COM Sports
Twitter | Facebook I Instagram