3 reasons why Joel Embiid could win the scoring title in the 2021-22 NBA season
Joel Embiid finished second in the 2020-21 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) campaign. Embiid finished behind Serbian Nikola Jokic, his best ever showing in the MVP race. Apart from the ongoing Ben Simmons drama unfolding in Philadelphia and their loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the second round of the 2021 playoffs, Embiid continues to be the biggest reason to remain optimistic about the franchise moving forward.
Embiid has put up career bests in scoring averages (28.5 ppg), field-goal shooting efficiency (51.3%) and (37.7%) in long range shooting efficiency in his 2020-21 campaign. Had he not been limited to only 51 games, Embiid would have probably finished ahead of Jokic to win his first ever MVP award. His 28.5 ppg placed him among the top five scorers of the league in a single season, the second time Embiid has achieved this feat. Embiid ranked among the top five scoring averages in 2018-19 too when he averaged 27.5 ppg.
The question now is whether Embiid can win the scoring title, an achievement missing from his NBA career so far. He came fourth on two occasions when he cracked the top five, but is yet to do any better than that. However, there are a few reasons to believe that Embiid can add scoring title honors to his resume in the 2021-22 NBA season. We look at three such factors.
#1 Ben Simmons’s departure would mean more scoring for Joel Embiid
With the recent developments in Philadelphia, it is hard to imagine that Simmons and Embiid will play together for much longer. Simmons will most likely be traded by the 76ers, which would certainly mean more scoring opportunities for Embiid. Equally, Embiid would also be under more pressure to take on more scoring to negate the effect of Simmons’s departure from the team.
Over his four-year career in the NBA with the 76ers, Simmons averaged 15.9 ppg while also averaging 11.6 field-goal attempts. In the absence of a jump shot and a non-existent mid-range/long-range game, most of Simmons’s buckets came from close to the basket. That is exactly the preferred area of operation for Embiid. With Simmons gone, Embiid is expected to get more touches of the basketball and could end up dominating even more in areas close to the basket, resulting in a surge in his scoring output.
Also Read: What is Joel Embiid’s Current Contract?