Kevin Durant picks Joel Embiid for MVP - "He was my pick last year, too"

Kevin Durant picked Phialdelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid to win the 2023 NBA MVP award.

The Philadelphia 76ers finished third in the Eastern Conference and are one of the favorites to win the NBA title this season. After trailing Nikola Jokic in the MVP race throughout the season, Embiid’s monster performances in the final weeks of the regular season made him the favorite for the majority.

The Philadelphia 76ers look comfortable in the playoffs with a 2-0 lead over the Brooklyn Nets, who are Kevin Durant’s previous team.

Now with the Phoenix Suns, Kevin Durant said that Embiid was his favorite for the 2022 MVP award as well. Embiid has been even more impressive this season, and his performance against Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets in the regular season first led to claims that he deserves the award over the Serbian. Embiid had the better of Jokic, finishing with 47 points and 18 rebounds. Jokic, on the other hand, had a poor shooting game, finishing with 24 points, eight rebounds and nine assists.

Embiid finished the regular season with a career highs in scoring average (33.1 points per game), with assists (4.2 per game) and shooting efficiency (57.3%).

Kevin Durant picks Joel Embiid to win MVP

“He's just flat-out unstoppable”

(Via @boardroom ) https://t.co/XwKo7sQ52Z

He has helped his team to multiple victories single-handedly and is the key to any title charge that the 76ers muster this season.

"Joel Embiid," Durant said. "He was my pick last year. I didn’t even do anything defensively (during MVP season), and Joel is just flat-out unstoppable.”

Joel Embiid the favorite to win NBA MVP award?

Considering the kind of health issues and criticism that Joel Embiid has received over his Philadelphia 76ers career, his resurgence this season has been impressive. What sets the big man apart from others is the defensive output that the 76ers are able to derive from him.

Apart from being an annual MVP contender, Embiid is also usually a contender for NBA Defensive Player of the Year (won by Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr.). He's been the stock player for his team on both ends of the court.

James Harden's move in February 2022 was expected to make Embiid the secondary ball handler for the Philadelphia 76ers. However, that has been far from the reality. The experienced Harden, widely regarded as one of the best NBA scorers of all time, has not been producing big numbers, which is down to Joel Embiid’s output.

Harden has scored 31 points in the two playoff games thus far, although he did end up with a double-double in the first game, with 23 points and 12 assists.

The 2023 NBA MVP finalists:

🏆 Jokic
🏆 Embiid
🏆 Giannis https://t.co/cYwGqWNDTo

While there is still a long way to go, Joel Embiid looks determined to finally help his team live up to its potential this season. Whether the 76ers are able to snag a title out of it remains to be seen.