Rookie of the Month Joel Embiid
The city of Philadelphia, at least the basketball obsessed part of it, hasn’t had anyone to root for in a while. So it’s no surprise that every dream shake and chase down block, every soft-touch two and wide-open three, has us chanting ‘Trust the Process.’ We need Joel Embiid. Not just because of his instant and easily measurable affect on the team (#1 defense in PTS per 100 possessions with him, #29 without him ), his tremendous yet-to-be seen ceiling, or his media friendly personality.
We need Joel because of what he represents. He’s Andy Dufresne in a city full of Morgan Freemans. A reminder that hope isn’t just a good thing, it’s maybe the best of things. I say that not just as someone who recently watched the last half of Shawshank Redemption on TNT, but as a Philadelphia sports fan. Trained to expect the worst and wait for the other foot to drop until the last second ticks off a winning clock. We need Joel because he reminds us that as naturally as we slip into the role of long-suffering sports fan, that’s not who we are. We’re the underdogs. And while we don’t have the center of the universe swagger of NY, the superstar glitz and glam of LA or the comfortable trophy throne of Boston, thanks to Joel Embiid, we have the thing that keeps all underdogs going, and that’s hope.
Why does Joel Embiid bring us hope? Beyond the intangibles like upside and hustle and heart and feel and culture and vibe, beyond the every important eye-test and tjhe Disney-ready story of a kid who didn’t pick up basketball until his teens and suffered and struggled on his way to becoming ROM/ROY/MVP/GOAT, there are the tangibles. In his first 12 games of the year, Joel Embiid averaged 18.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in just 22.8 minutes. His Per 36 minutes numbers are staggering across the board. He also shot 50% from deep on 30 attempts. His PER (24.7) is on par with Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard and Hassan Whiteside. He’s got as many blocks per game as Giannis and Myles Turner in significantly less minutes. And while his playing time has been limited enough to keep him off the basketball reference top 20 lists, if he were on their lists he’d be top 10 in rebound percentage and three point percentage, and he’d be number 1 in block percentage.
Obviously overall percentages in a limited sample size are just that, limited. But Embiid’s so far impressive numbers are not the point. It doesn’t really matter if he shows up in the leaderboards of a dozen statistical categories. It doesn’t matter if he wins Rookie of the Month again in December or if he wins Rookie of the Year or if he makes the All Star Game or if he gets a Sam Hinkie neck tattoo or how much better his numbers are in 28 minutes a game than 23. All we’re really hoping is that he stays on the floor .
