Joel Embiid is quietly having his best career NBA season, but it does not seem like anybody is noticing.
Well, Embiid's personal coach Drew Hanlen is noticing and he is getting fed up with the lack of respect for the Sixers' center from the national media.
Hanlen tweeted this on Tuesday night, after Luka Doncic's ridiculous 60-point, 21-rebound, 10-assist performance in an overtime win and Joel Embiid's 48-point, 10-rebound performance in a loss.
Doncic, Nikola Jokic and his quest for three straight MVPs, and Jayson Tatum of the Celtics—who is averaging a career-high 31.1 points and shooting a career-best 47.7-percent from the field—seem to be the NBA media darlings of this year, at least so far.
But it is actually Embiid who is leading the NBA in scoring at 33.7 points per game, his career-high, to go along with a career-high 52.9 field-goal percentage, 9.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists.
Hanlen, who also coaches Tatum, also tweeted on Tuesday about how Embiid is currently being left off the NBA All-Star starting team.
In fairness, because the teams start two guards and three forwards, one of Embiid, Tatum, Kevin Durant, or Giannis Antetokounmpo will be forced to come off the bench, so someone is getting slighted here whichever way you slice it.
And while the Sixers loss on Tuesday snapped an eight game winning streak, they're still behind the Celtics, Bucks, Nets, and Cavs in the East at 20-13 after a slow start, in which Embiid missed eight games due to an injury.
Most sportsbooks have Tatum, Antetokounmpo, Jokic, Doncic, and Durant all ahead of Embiid in the MVP race, which is shaping up to be one of the greatest MVP races in NBA history. But while Embiid is currently trailing the pack, they're all bunched together as the clear six most likely candidates, as there is a big drop off in odds when you get to Ja Morant at No. 7.
Currently, Jokic's Nuggets have the best record in the West at 22-11 and the big man is putting together yet another historic offensive season where he is also shooting a career-high 61.8-percent from the field. Jokic is averaging 25.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, 9.5 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game. He is leading the NBA in seemingly every advanced stat category like Player Efficiency Rating (PER), Offensive Win Shares, Win Shares Per 48 minutes, Box Plus/Minus, and Defensive Box Plus/Minus, while trailing only Doncic in overall Win Shares and Value Over Replacement Player (VORP).
Speaking of Doncic, he's second in the NBA in scoring averaging a career-best 33.6 points per game to go along with 8.7 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game. Doncic is also shooting a career-high 50.6-percent from the field and 35.5-percent from three.
Antetokounmpo, who is looking for his third career MVP award, is averaging a career-high 31.2 points per game and KD, looking for his second career MVP award, is shooting a career-best 56.3-percent from the field.
Embiid—who has finished second to Jokic in the last two MVP races—has missed eight games this season. James Harden has missed 14 and Tyrese Maxey, who is expected to return on Friday, has missed 18 games. But the Sixers, in large part due to Embiid's dominance, remain just 4.0 games back of Boston for the NBA's best record.
So don't sleep on the big guy for this year's most valuable player, even if know one is talking about it yet.
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