Joel Embiid caused quite a stir on social media when he hinted he could leave the Philadelphia 76ers in order to win an NBA championship. He then quickly attempted to downplay those comments by claiming he was just trolling.
Embiid has received a ton of criticism for it, though, with one fan highlighting that the reason he hasn’t come close to winning a championship, is because he comes up short in the postseason.
These Embiid stats sheeesh pic.twitter.com/zsNNJgT7hG
— Tom (@TAizenberg) July 17, 2023
Some of those are really jarring and it has gotten to the point now, where Embiid is being regarded as a playoff choker. The great players either maintain or surpass their level of play from the regular season when they get to the postseason, but he hasn’t been able to do it.
As the fan mentioned, he had the largest PPG drop-off from the regular season to the postseason for an MVP in 2023. Embiid averaged 33.1 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.0 SPG, and 1.7 BPG in the regular season to win MVP, but in the playoffs, only put up 23.7 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 2.7 APG, 0.7 SPG, and 2.8 BPG.
Even in the 2021-22 campaign, he led the league by averaging 30.6 PPG during the regular season, but his average dropped to 23.6 PPG in the playoffs. It’s simple, if he wants to win a championship, then first and foremost, he has to play better.
Doc Rivers Spoke About Why Joel Embiid Has Failed To Impress In The Playoffs
It was under Doc Rivers that Embiid had all that regular season success, but his superstar’s poor play in the playoffs meant all three seasons under Doc ended in disappointment. He was let go after the latest playoff failure, and during an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Rivers explained why Embiid has disappointed in the playoffs.
He pointed to injuries being the biggest reason and that definitely has played a part. The problem, though is that at the end of the day, that’s just who Embiid is. His body, for one reason or another, just breaks down come playoffs, whether it’s his own doing or that of an opponent. Rivers also mentioned that Embiid needs to make his teammates better, and he believes it’s something the big man is capable of but hasn’t done consistently over the years.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
