First Take: Embiid the only MVP to not reach the Conference Finals

[cupcakesnake]

Mid career? Late stage career might describe it better. He has 2-3 good years left.

A good 2-3 years will mean a good 2-3 cracks at the conference finals if he has some health luck and the Sixers keep up their end of the bargain. Then there's the real late career, if he's lucky enough to be playing in some capacity in his mid/late 30s.

It could also not happen, and his career is looked at as a tragic one or a disappointment. I'm just fine with saving that discussion for when it happens rather than defining his career in this way before the final report card is in.

I thought the Sixers could have easily made the conference finals this year, despite all the bad luck that was their season. The first round exit this year doesn't properly communicate how good Embiid is, or how good the Sixers were. When they were healthy, they were stomping people. They gave a very tough Knicks team a hell of a series despite having a decrepit Embiid, a starting point guard out with injury, and a severe lack of depth. I look forward to seeing what they do with their offseason.

I'm not an Embiid fan. Historically I've rooted against the Sixers. But I don't love seeing such bad luck during a player's prime career, and then see people grasping at every possible thing that drags them down.

Bad luck? Cmon ….hes made his bad luck by being fat and refusing to get conditioned….his lack of accountability is not bad luck

Hard to look at a list of Embiid's injuries and be like "all of these are cause he's fat and poorly conditioned!".

But if you just want to do the hater thing where you don't look at the details and make a broad sweeping conclusion based on your feelings then sure, you do you.

[hippesthippo]

Embiid last year

Embiid winning the MVP over Jokic wasn't historically bad. Many of his backers sincerely believed, and many still do believe, he is a better player than Jokic. That isn't the case for Derrick Rose winning the MVP in 2011 or AI in 2001. But the 2023 MVP race was one of the uglier races for MVP. And Embiid actively played a role in it.

It was terrible because of the just completely made up excuses some made to justify it. "well jokic let off the gas once his team had the 1 seed locked". Just wild takes like that....

Jokic was the better player, but Embiid had a historic season scoring-wise so I was fine with him getting recognition for it. He shot 50% from mid-range and was simply unstoppable.

[BigShot Bojan]

A good 2-3 years will mean a good 2-3 cracks at the conference finals if he has some health luck and the Sixers keep up their end of the bargain. Then there's the real late career, if he's lucky enough to be playing in some capacity in his mid/late 30s.

It could also not happen, and his career is looked at as a tragic one or a disappointment. I'm just fine with saving that discussion for when it happens rather than defining his career in this way before the final report card is in.

I thought the Sixers could have easily made the conference finals this year, despite all the bad luck that was their season. The first round exit this year doesn't properly communicate how good Embiid is, or how good the Sixers were. When they were healthy, they were stomping people. They gave a very tough Knicks team a hell of a series despite having a decrepit Embiid, a starting point guard out with injury, and a severe lack of depth. I look forward to seeing what they do with their offseason.

I'm not an Embiid fan. Historically I've rooted against the Sixers. But I don't love seeing such bad luck during a player's prime career, and then see people grasping at every possible thing that drags them down.

Bad luck? Cmon ….hes made his bad luck by being fat and refusing to get conditioned….his lack of accountability is not bad luck

Hard to look at a list of Embiid's injuries and be like "all of these are cause he's fat and poorly conditioned!".

But if you just want to do the hater thing where you don't look at the details and make a broad sweeping conclusion based on your feelings then sure, you do you.

it’s as broad of generalization as saying “oh it’s bad luck” , sure I’ll give you the upper body ones but those foot and knee injuries even when they are based on trauma being immobile and lacking coordination inflexibility are all exacerbated or make you significantly more susceptible by being unconditioned …but yeah bad luck

[cupcakesnake]

Bad luck? Cmon ….hes made his bad luck by being fat and refusing to get conditioned….his lack of accountability is not bad luck

Hard to look at a list of Embiid's injuries and be like "all of these are cause he's fat and poorly conditioned!".

But if you just want to do the hater thing where you don't look at the details and make a broad sweeping conclusion based on your feelings then sure, you do you.

it’s as broad of generalization as saying “oh it’s bad luck” , sure I’ll give you the upper body ones but those foot and knee injuries even when they are based on trauma being immobile and lacking coordination inflexibility are all exacerbated or make you significantly more susceptible by being unconditioned …but yeah bad luck

I mean he's had foot and knee injuries since he was a spry young lad, but I'm also looking at some of postseasons getting messed up by illness, broken face, concussions, and a torn up hand. There are 3 playoff runs from stuff that has nothing to do with anything other than bad luck.

We can quibble over his conditioning for some of them, though I don't feel medically qualified to have a strong opinion on this subject either way.

I am looking at the specifics, year-to-year, and yeah I'm saying there's some pretty garbage luck in there. Tell me how I'm generalizing.

I root against Embiid basically every year, so this isn't me feeling I have to defend this guy.

[dhsilv2]

Embiid winning the MVP over Jokic wasn't historically bad. Many of his backers sincerely believed, and many still do believe, he is a better player than Jokic. That isn't the case for Derrick Rose winning the MVP in 2011 or AI in 2001. But the 2023 MVP race was one of the uglier races for MVP. And Embiid actively played a role in it.

It was terrible because of the just completely made up excuses some made to justify it. "well jokic let off the gas once his team had the 1 seed locked". Just wild takes like that....

Jokic was the better player, but Embiid had a historic season scoring-wise so I was fine with him getting recognition for it. He shot 50% from mid-range and was simply unstoppable.

Nothing about that year was historic...