After missing much of the 2024-25 NBA season with yet another knee injury, Joel Embiid is officially back and made his regular season return in the Philadelphia 76ers nail-biter of a win over the Boston Celtics.

While the 76ers didn't get much out of Embiid in the game, with VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey instead dominating the Celtics' backcourt as “The Process” onlys scored four points and six rebounds in 20 minutes of action, in the opinion of Jeff Teague, Philadelphia still has one of the most dominant players in the NBA today.

Discussing the top centers in the NBA on Club 520, Teague boldly declared that if Embiid isn't hurt – which isn't all that often – the 76ers have the best center in basketball, even better than Nikola Jokic.

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“Joel Embiid is really better than [Nikola Jokic] if he don’t ever get hurt,” Teague declared. “If Embiid's not hurt, he’s the best player in the NBA. Nobody can stop him.”

From a purely statistical perspective, Embiid is one of the most effective scorers in NBA history, leading the league in points per game from 20021-23 before averaging more than a point a minute in 2023-24 before being shut down for the season. While few would make the argument that Embiid is better than Jokic now, as injuries has robbed him of consistently being the player he's shown he can be, if “The Process” gets it right, he can still be the best player on any basketball court in the world, confirming Teague's thesis even if it's unlikely to happen on a night-to-night basis.