{"id":54239,"date":"2025-08-02T05:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/54239\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T05:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:12:08","slug":"joel-embiid-may-have-chip-on-shoulder-after-rough-treatment-from-national-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/54239\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Embiid may have chip on shoulder after rough treatment from national media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"61\">Just over one year ago, Joel Embiid scored a career-best 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs. He was shaping up to be the best player in the world and was well on his way to winning his second consecutive Most Valuable Player award. Fast-forward to now, and the national media no longer views him as a top-five player in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"64\">Shaun Powell of NBA.com<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/ranking-10-best-players-in-east-entering-2025-26\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> put together a top 10 list<\/a> involving only Eastern Conference players heading into the 2025-26 season. The list includes Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Paolo Banchero, Cade Cunningham, Embiid, Evan Mobley, Jaylen Brown, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Trae Young.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"67\">Powell also listed Tyrese Maxey, Scottie Barnes, and Bam Adebayo as honorable mentions. Since this list is a projection of next season, he left out Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton as it\u2019s assumed they\u2019ll both be sidelined due to their respective torn achilles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Is Embiid&#8217;s placement accurate?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">As I\u2019ve said, we have <a href=\"https:\/\/thesixersense.com\/joel-embiid-s-uncertainty-forces-76ers-to-confront-defining-truth-about-the-roster-01k0pnctsy5d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">no idea what version of Embiid<\/a> Philadelphia will receive next season. While none of the minor updates regarding his rehab have been worrisome, there hasn\u2019t been anything necessarily encouraging either. This leads me to believe that Embiid likely won\u2019t be going blow for blow with Nikola Jokic for the crown of best center in the NBA. But, he\u2019ll remain an elite player who\u2019ll be pivotal in dictating the 76ers\u2019 ceiling.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Theoretically, it\u2019s not impossible that with proper recovery time, Embiid will return to peak form. However, considering he\u2019ll turn 32 years old next season and there isn\u2019t a great track record for big men with knee issues, it\u2019s a tad bit unrealistic to believe he can return to best-in-the-world status.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">With that in mind, Embiid will likely remain a top 10-15 player in the league \u2013 assuming he\u2019ll play more than 19 games as he did in 2024-25. So, Powell ranking him as the sixth best player in the East is a bit harsh, but also justifiable. Players like Banchero and Cunningham will probably take leaps towards their primes and play more games in the regular season.\u00a0You also have to factor in that Embiid will inevitably miss some time due to load managment.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">Nonetheless, there\u2019s also a world where Embiid could re-establish himself as a top-two player in the East. If he can stay relatively healthy, post 26 to 28 points per game, continue to hone in on his playmaking, and redeem himself defensively, we\u2019re still looking at an elite big man. But, we simply won\u2019t know until Embiid steps on the court again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over one year ago, Joel Embiid scored a career-best 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-54239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}