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

[phanman]

Heard it on First Take. Joel Embiid is the ONLY MVP to have never been to a conference final.

Just a remarkable record.

I'm far from an Embiid fan but he was not the problem in that series. He was the Sixers best player by a large margin against the Knicks.

Too bad he was only good for 3 quarters.

[xchange55]

If I'm being honest, I felt like Joker deserved the MVP the year Embiid won it. They obviously both had incredible seasons, but just missing averaging a triple double for a big for the number 1 team in the west, which tends to be more competetive all around compared to the east. Oh and he also shot a ridiculous 63% from the field.

Embiid's stats had been done before many times over. I don't think you will find many (if any) seasons that match Joker's that year. Let's say you have Big O and Brodie averaging a triple double - they are shooting 10-15% less than 63. Only players you might see hitting 63% FG are dominant centers - but they won't be averaging 9.8 dimes.

[UcanUwill]

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....

Embiid was dominant that year, it was 50/50 while Giannis was distant third. The narrative changed after the playoffs flameout. It was regular season award, while everyone was dumping on Embiid during post season and off season, everyone seemed to forget it, because before injury this season, he was favorite to win it again.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, would we be pissed again this season if Embiid could have won his second?

doubt many voters has ever thought Embiid is better than Jokic, very few did, MVP does not necessary mean best player.

[MarcusBrody]

Heard it on First Take. Joel Embiid is the ONLY MVP to have never been to a conference final.

Just a remarkable record.

Yet!

Until his career is over, he still has the opportunity to make it.

Jordan won MVP in 88 and lost in the second round that year after having been eliminated in the first round in all his previous trips to the playoffs.

He did make the conference finals for the first time as reigning MVP, the following year, but he did win it before ever reaching a conference final. He was also only 25 when he won his first MVP and 26 when he reached the conference finals.

[jc23]

he still has time. problem with embid is he is not built for an 82 game season. Philly needs to take the fines and limit him to 40 games next year. He played 39 this year due to injury.

[lessthanjake]

Deceiving stat. How many of those players reached the CF before winning the award? I know Westbrook did and ever since he won it, he has never been to the CFs since.

It’s actually surprisingly not very deceiving in this regard.

There are only 3 MVP winners in history who had not made the conference finals in their career by the time the playoffs ended in their MVP-winning season. Those three are: (1) Michael Jordan in 1988; (2) Bob McAdoo in 1975; and (3) Wes Unseld in 1969. All of those guys were really young at the time. Jordan was 24, McAdoo was 23, and Unseld was 22. Jordan made the conference finals the next year (at age 25), and Unseld made the finals two years later (at age 24), so they’re really not particularly comparable to Embiid having not made the conference finals as a 30-year-old MVP winner. McAdoo is the only arguably close analogy. Even he had made the conference finals by his age-30 season, but that was only as a role player on the Lakers.

[Capn'O]

he still has time. problem with embid is he is not built for an 82 game season. Philly needs to take the fines and limit him to 40 games next year. He played 39 this year due to injury.

More than missing games, I think that he needs to:

A) Condition himself better and lose some weight
B) Sixers should figure out how to play him fewer minutes within games.

From what I've seen, he tires out by the 4th and overplaying in game makes him susceptible to injury imo.

[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....

Embiid was dominant that year, it was 50/50 while Giannis was distant third. The narrative changed after the playoffs flameout. It was regular season award, while everyone was dumping on Embiid during post season and off season, everyone seemed to forget it, because before injury this season, he was favorite to win it again.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, would we be pissed again this season if Embiid could have won his second?

doubt many voters has ever thought Embiid is better than Jokic, very few did, MVP does not necessary mean best player.

There's no form of MVP that I can see that would argue in favor of Embiid last year. This year, had Embiid played enough games. OK we could talk. Last year...just no. Denver was the 1 seed and philly the 3 seed. Jokic played more (minor difference but it wasn't a place to adjust in his favor). Jokic had better stats. And more importantly, some of the writers who voted for Embiid basically had said Jokic was running away with it before Perk did his whole race baiting crap along with Embiid's constant crying.

[dhsilv2]

he still has time. problem with embid is he is not built for an 82 game season. Philly needs to take the fines and limit him to 40 games next year. He played 39 this year due to injury.

More than missing games, I think that he needs to:

A) Condition himself better and lose some weight
B) Sixers should figure out how to play him fewer minutes within games.

From what I've seen, he tires out by the 4th and overplaying in game makes him susceptible to injury imo.

Guy needs to spend his summer on a stationary bike. A couple of serious bike races a day should do the trick on one of those fancy bikes.

[bisme37]

he still has time. problem with embid is he is not built for an 82 game season. Philly needs to take the fines and limit him to 40 games next year. He played 39 this year due to injury.

More than missing games, I think that he needs to:

A) Condition himself better and lose some weight
B) Sixers should figure out how to play him fewer minutes within games.

From what I've seen, he tires out by the 4th and overplaying in game makes him susceptible to injury imo.

Yeah it's been that way in every playoff series vs BOS over the last few years too. He comes out and dominates the first quarter but by the end of the game he's sucking wind and kinda useless both mentally and physically. Whether injured or not.

[Capn'O]

he still has time. problem with embid is he is not built for an 82 game season. Philly needs to take the fines and limit him to 40 games next year. He played 39 this year due to injury.

More than missing games, I think that he needs to:

A) Condition himself better and lose some weight
B) Sixers should figure out how to play him fewer minutes within games.

From what I've seen, he tires out by the 4th and overplaying in game makes him susceptible to injury imo.

Yeah it's been that way in every playoff series vs BOS over the last few years too. He comes out and dominates the first quarter but by the end of the game he's sucking wind and kinda useless. Whether injured or not.

I'm almost positive we rope-a-doped. Part of the strategy.

[Jadoogar]

Deceiving stat. How many of those players reached the CF before winning the award? I know Westbrook did and ever since he won it, he has never been to the CFs since.

lol why is it deceiving? Embiid hasn't done it before or after winning the MVP.

[Celts17Pride]

Joel Embiid had one heck of a playoff series for the Sixers this year given the fact that he was playing injured. Much respect for Embiid.

[Hornet Mania]

Deceiving stat. How many of those players reached the CF before winning the award? I know Westbrook did and ever since he won it, he has never been to the CFs since.

It’s actually surprisingly not very deceiving in this regard.

There are only 3 MVP winners in history who had not made the conference finals in their career by the time the playoffs ended in their MVP-winning season. Those three are: (1) Michael Jordan in 1988; (2) Bob McAdoo in 1975; and (3) Wes Unseld in 1969. All of those guys were really young at the time. Jordan was 24, McAdoo was 23, and Unseld was 22. Jordan made the conference finals the next year (at age 25), and Unseld made the finals two years later (at age 24), so they’re really not particularly comparable to Embiid having not made the conference finals as a 30-year-old MVP winner. McAdoo is the only arguably close analogy. Even he had made the conference finals by his age-30 season, but that was only as a role player on the Lakers.

Good info. So McAdoo is the closest comparison in terms of team success as 'the man'.

[Johnny Firpo]

Embiid last year

"People have been talking about who has the most pressure to win. People want to mention me," Embiid said. "I'm not at the top of that list. I'm not a two-time MVP, I've never made first team All-NBA, I've never won anything. So why is there pressure on me to do something when there are guys that have won two MVPs, a bunch of MVPs and haven't done anything either?

That wasn't the whole thing either, he said that Jokic is a bad defender and the advanced stats lie. He did that even though Jokic never said a bad word about him, ever. Then the Serbian goes on a historic run, playing amazing offense and good defense, and could basically say anything at that point. What does he say about Embiid? That he is amazing, and a great player, and people shouldn't criticize him, and he deserved the MVP.

[Exp0sed]

Deceiving stat. How many of those players reached the CF before winning the award? I know Westbrook did and ever since he won it, he has never been to the CFs since.

the dude is 30 years old

He absolutely should've made conf finals that year Hawks beat them

he's running out of excuses now

In that Hawks series, he became the only player in NBA playoff history, to have a back to back 8+ turnover games.

Low i.q, loser and a dirty player

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[famicommander]

Most fraudulent season in NBA history.

He played 39% of his games this year against teams that won 27 or fewer games.
He played 62% of his games this year at home.
He went back into several games late into garbage time to stat pad his silly 30/10 streak, which is why he got hurt.

He is the absolute definition of empty stats.

[UcanUwill]

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....

Embiid was dominant that year, it was 50/50 while Giannis was distant third. The narrative changed after the playoffs flameout. It was regular season award, while everyone was dumping on Embiid during post season and off season, everyone seemed to forget it, because before injury this season, he was favorite to win it again.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, would we be pissed again this season if Embiid could have won his second?

doubt many voters has ever thought Embiid is better than Jokic, very few did, MVP does not necessary mean best player.

There's no form of MVP that I can see that would argue in favor of Embiid last year. This year, had Embiid played enough games. OK we could talk. Last year...just no. Denver was the 1 seed and philly the 3 seed. Jokic played more (minor difference but it wasn't a place to adjust in his favor). Jokic had better stats. And more importantly, some of the writers who voted for Embiid basically had said Jokic was running away with it before Perk did his whole race baiting crap along with Embiid's constant crying.

Does Perkins really have so much power? I haven't seen a single episode of Perkins show, whichever show that is, and altho I agree voters influence one another, don't get me started and Zach Lowe starting entire Roy Hibbert hype machine, but man, who gets influenced by Perkins, is he even moderately respected? Any time I hear of him is when people making fun of him.

I was not influenced by Perkins, I think Embiid was fine, I would have voted Jokic first, Embiid second, but it was pretty close. I agree that if Jokic doesnt have previous two, he probably wins, and thats what was wrong, human factor of fatigue played a factor, but it was not high way robbery like some claim, D Rose MVP was worse in my opinion, some other recent ones were also a bit suspect, every MVP is at least somewhat debatable, this is just that, but since people hate Embiid (he is pretty unlikable), they make it sound like it was a disaster vote. This is not even close to latest Messi Balan D'Or, Embiid was deserved, the problem we had other guy just as deserved, and that guy is the popular one. Embiid definitely pushed for that MVP, Jokic was domewhat coasting. We never have this debate if Embiid has a post season as good as his MVP season. Instead he has a flameout, a total whimper, while other guy wins a championship, so 50/50 pick looks terrible now. But all that happened post voting and post what award is about.

[Chokic]

Wonder if Embiid regrets starting that MVP campaign. Dude is gonna get **** on till the end of time.

Why should he? He's always been playing injured in the playoffs. This is not a new revelation. It would be different if he was healthy. Steve Nash is the only two time mvp in nba history to never win a title let alone make the finals and I don't hear anybody gripe about him being a fraud mvp or weakest mvp.

[zero rings]

Wonder if Embiid regrets starting that MVP campaign. Dude is gonna get **** on till the end of time.

Why should he? He's always been playing injured in the playoffs. This is not a new revelation. It would be different if he was healthy. Steve Nash is the only two time mvp in nba history to never win a title let alone make the finals and I don't hear anybody gripe about him being a fraud mvp or weakest mvp.

You new here? People gripe about Nash's MVPs all the time.

I also don't remember Nash publicly campaigning for the award while taking passive aggressive shots at the competition like a little baby.