Compare And Contrast Joel Embiid

For the past three years Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid have been winner and runner up for the NBA’s most prestigious award, the Most Valuable Player. This award is given to the best performing player in the NBA’s regular season. The MVP is decided by a panel of 100 independent media members, not affiliated with any teams. Since its inception in the 1955-56 NBA season, the MVP has been the most polarizing award in the league and for the last three seasons it's been no different. Nikola Jokic was the league MVP in both 2021 and 2022 with Joel Embiid being runner up in both years. After coming in second two straight years, Embiid finally won the elusive award in 2023.

Jokic’s two MVPs were among

He’s led the league in scoring for the past 2 years, peaking at 33.1 in 2023. He’s a powerful yet graceful scorer which causes some fans to prefer his game over Jokic’s more scoring bag. The main difference between the two is on the other side of the court, defense. Some consider Jokic a poor to mediocre defender while Embiid is one of the better defenders in the league. His 7 '0 280+ pound frame and 7' 5 wingspan coupled with his surprisingly quick feet and proficient leaping ability allow for Embiid to be one of the league's most intimidating shot blockers. This is in stark contrast to Jokic, as he’s one of the league's least athletic players. Though he’s 6’11 280+ pounds, his slow feet and abysmal vertical leap serves as an open invitation for players to drive to the basket. Some fans believe you can’t win a championship with a bad defensive center as the center position is widely regarded as the most important position for a team's defense. Traditionally centers are the defensive anchor for NBA teams, this isn't true for the Denver Nuggets and it shows as the Nuggets were ranked 15th of 30 NBA teams in defensive rating. As for the 76ers, they were ranked 8th with Embiid as their

Jokic’s defensive advanced stats are actually better than Embiid’s and he’s actually led the league in defensive box plus/minus for the past three seasons. I will admit, defensive advanced stats are not always an accurate indicator of a player's defensive impact, as defense is the hardest thing in basketball to quantify. The best way to gauge a player's defense is the eye test. Personally, the eye test tells me Jokic is an average defender, he’s one of the smartest players in the league therefor he’s often in the right spots on defense and he has incredible hands, as he was among the league leaders in deflections and averaged 1.4 steals over the past three years. Jokic is also one of the best defensive rebounders in the league, using his aforementioned 6’11 280+ pound frame. To me Nikola Jokic’s uber-efficient scoring, incredible rebounding, and all time level passing far outweigh the defensive discrepancy between Jokic and Embiid. Making Nikola Jokic the best center in the NBA in my