Philadelphia 76ers star big man Joel Embiid was finally healthy last season, and the 24-year-old didn't disappoint.
Embiid played in 63 games in 2017-18 and averaged 22.9 points and 11.0 rebounds per game while shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 30.8 percent from 3. The 7-footer made the All-Star team, helped the Sixers clinch the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and advance to the second round of the playoffs, and he was also in the running for Defensive Player of the Year.
This is the first summer Embiid is not coming off surgery and can work on his game. As a result, Sixers head coach Brett Brown is expecting Embiid to have an even better campaign this upcoming season.
#Sixers Brett Brown: ‘I think Joel Embiid is gong to be dominant this year.’
— Tom Moore (@TomMoorePhilly) September 18, 2018
#Sixers Brett Brown: ‘Joel blew me away with the workouts I watched this summer.’
— Tom Moore (@TomMoorePhilly) September 18, 2018
Like Brown, Embiid is oozing with confidence. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft out of Kansas said in August he wants to win MVP.
“I want to win the MVP,” Embiid said on a conference call from Africa. “I feel like at the end of the day, it might be an individual award, but when I play better, the team also does. I feel like if I’m an MVP candidate or if I win the MVP, that means we are on another level.”
With Ben Simmons and Embiid leading the way, the Sixers are projected to be a top-three team in the Eastern Conference now that LeBron James is in the West. Embiid, who wrote in his The Players' Tribune piece that he started playing basketball three months before he got an offer to come play high school ball in Florida, is arguably a top-10 player in the NBA, and it's scary to think how much better he can become after having such a sound 2017-18 season.
Health, of course, is always the biggest key with Embiid, so hopefully the big man is able to stay injury free because the league is in a better place when he is playing at a high level.
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