After the game, Gobert finished bathing and changing, and sat in front of the microphone to give the big guys a good look at how strong Embiid really was: "He played a magical game. He became an MVP for a reason. He's really, really tough to deal with. ”
Then he added:
When it comes to physical confrontations, my face was elbowed, my head was punched, they never watched the replays, and on the defensive end, I couldn't touch anyone, the last three away Pelicans, the Mavericks, and today, only the Heat, it was better, today I got two fouls early, I generally don't question the referees, I played in the league for a long time, this thing looks unfair, this ball is too strange, well, my defensive performance in my life is obvious to all, but I came on the court with two quick fouls, and then when they defended, they almost beat me to death, and no one blew it, it was weird, really strange, I guess there must be something in this that we don't know, or I can never understand the inside story, of course, I don't want to waste too much energy on this, I don'tI'll put my attention on it, but if I have to go to the bench for two or three minutes and it's going to affect our team, and of course I'll try to do my best when I get back on the pitch, but if you have three friends there ready to blow you out of the game as soon as possible, it's hard to be yourself!
Edwards wasn't convinced, but he had to be tactful. Euphemisms like to tell a fable and make up a story, such as Huazi who said he had a friend, "Text me and say I've never seen Embiid behave like this." To be honest, I don't even know how he can lose by playing like this. ”
You just look at this sentence and Gobert's first sentence is the same as the one with a convincing look, but then Huazi's second sentence is a dagger: "When he plays like that, especially when the referee maintains such a blowing scale, there is nothing you can do about it, you can't move a finger against him." ”
It's normal for Gobert and Huazi to be unconvinced, and the Wolves are now the league's No. 1 No. 1 defensive efficiency, and as a result, they were bombarded by Embiid for a season-high 51 points, losing for the sixth time of the season. When this kind of thing happens, it always needs to be summarized, pick up the data sheet and look at it, good guy, Embiid made 17 of 18 free throws, this data is too glaring, and the truth is obvious.
Indeed, Embiid is now the NBA's top scorer per game, starting the season with an average of 35In terms of 12 points, according to the introduction of the three-point line in the 80s, modern basketball is a season, and only Jordan, Harden and Kobe Bryant can surpass this average of points per game.
You can see how important it is to have the ball in your hands to score high scores. And for the centers during the Warriors dynasty, it is not a question of whether they have the ball in their hands, they have almost developed to the stage of playing with them without playing, and when this sincerity is dying, Embiid, Jokic and others are born!
Now the center has the ball in his hands, they've got the MVP, Jokic is back-to-back, Embiid is likely to do the same, and he's ready to go for a three-straight scoring title. It's rare to see three consecutive scoring titles, the last time it was Harden, the last time it was Durant, and then Jordan. Embiid was very excited to play for the Heat when he was young, saying that he wanted to reinvigorate the glory of center with Whiteside, and he was able to make an appointment with White to go to the future together, which shows that he did not have a mature idea of where the center industry should go at that time, and he definitely did not think that he would be where he is today.
Embiid is a successful center today, they can be the heart of the team, they can make great contributions on both ends of the floor, they don't need a friendly point guard to "pass the damn ball" to them, they start from outside the three-point arc and do everything that basketball shouldn't have been done by the original definition: passing across half court, three-pointers, rim-up breakaways, pull-outs, and fouls outside the paint.
As for making fouls, if someone who hasn't watched Embiid play, they won't have too many questions, after all, with Embiid's size in the contemporary interior and his status as a scoring champion, it's easy to remind people of the previous scoring champion inside Shaq O'Neal. O'Neal also averaged about 10 free throws per game at his peak, so no one questioned it too much, and some even complained that with everyone's actions towards O'Neal, this number of free throws was less.
But if you've watched Embiid's game, you know why the Wolves and some others have so many whispered beeps about Embiid's fouls, because Embiid's fouls do have an element of acting, and his clothes can make up a full 10 minutes**, but love acting is just an amplification of the rules, not everyone can move the referee with large body movements, and some time ago there was an inside line who also wanted to act, but now he has not been able to return to the court. In Embiid's own words: "People talk a lot about my free throws, and that's because they don't understand the rules." ”
That's the case, although making fouls is a trivial matter, the words of the leopard in the tube can still fully reflect some of the characteristics of our human beings: we prefer to watch ourselves in slow motion** frame by frame to find those fouls that were missed by the referee, rather than someone directly amplifying these fouls on the court, which is so self-defeating.
Of course, there are also people who map Embiid's off-court love to act on the basketball court, from character to ball skills to express comprehensive disdain, which is also human nature, everyone is most likely to have the kind of colleagues or classmates who love to act and really have two brushes, you will not see their two brushes, you care more about their acting skills, and believe that this is the reason why they climb faster than you, but the truth is that we are not as hard as we think in both aspects of work and study and human affairs.
Embiid certainly has two brushes, just like Harden, not all rule study masters can become scoring champions, Margetty and Kevin Martin were both masters in the early years, and they are far from scoring champions. Just take Embiid's game against the Wolves as an example, 17 points from 18 free throws is obviously not all of his offense, and how he still has 34 points is worth paying attention to, here is only one thing: Embiid "stands" 10 from the free throw line. The meaning of this standing pull is literal, you say he is dry pulling, his knees are indeed bent, but his feet do not seem to be all off the floor, just this hand scored 20 points, this is real kung fu.
Embiid has taken 38 of all shots from near the free-throw line this season8%, and the hit rate reached 537%, what is the concept of this hit rate?Just three examples for comparison:
Taking the most shootable inside Dirk as an example, the MVP version of Dirk has 6 percent shots in this area, with a shooting percentage of 497%, the championship version Dirk has 5 into 8 shots in this area, shooting 507%。
In the case of Jordan's 1996-97 version, he had 5 out of 9 shots in this area and hit 497%。
In the case of the 2022-23 season when there was a mid-distance all-time break, Durant had 466% of shots were made in this area, with a whopping 54 percent of shots7%。
You can see that Embiid's mid-range jumper has reached a super high level, and it's definitely not something that can be performed by acting. It took that distance, coupled with his efficient finishing under the basket and improved close-range hook shots and throws, to start the season averaging 35 points per game.
If you break down Embiid's offensive style at the beginning of this season, basically compared to last season, the obvious difference is the rebound of the low-post offense and the decrease in the proportion of blocking and pick-and-roll, and he plays more like a big center. This has something to do with Harden's departure, and it also has to do with Embiid's more involvement in the tactics under the Nas system, but let's not talk about his Jokic in the skill of assisting, just look at his individual offense, and the other practical result of the decline in the proportion of blocks and pick-and-rolls is:
Embiid's mid-range jumper has dropped dramatically, and the percentage of mid-range shots that solve problems after shallow protrusions with the ball has increased, and more than half of his 10 mid-range shots have been completed after dribbling in the game against the Wolves. From this point on, he is more like a big striker again.
Looking at the quarter-season season, Embiid clearly has the best performance in the league at the moment, and it makes sense that the NBA's official website rated him as the current No. 1 MVP ranking. After all, we're only talking about his offense, so we're going to have to give up some space to describe his defense, otherwise it's too easy to write an expository essay and no one really cares about that. You just need to know that his rim protection and projection impact are still among the top in the league, and he and Jokic have different tasks on the defensive end, Jokic has been asked to go out more to defend and pick and roll since last season, leaving the basket for other forwards, while Embiid is arranged to be more inclined to shrink to the basket under the Nas system, and the value of his rim protection is self-evident.
But - there will always be buts - Embiid is already a two-time scoring champion, and we all know enough that he can score, however, after Harden left, Embiid single-handedly led Philadelphia to a 19-8 record, No. 1 in the league in offensive efficiency, No. 5 in defensive efficiency, fourth in the league in third place in the East, and a league-high goal difference, which is what really impressive Embiid is, but we need to be clear about the fact that Philadelphia also has one of the easiest schedules in the league, and 13 of their 19 games won by opponents with less than 50% of the winning percentage, including 3 games for the Pistons, 3 games for the Wizards and 1 game for the Hornets, 1 game Trail Blazers, these teams have not won more than 7 games so far, the terrible thing is that they won the Hornets by 53 points, won the Wizards by 45 points, won the Pistons by 32 points, their league's first goal difference is easily doubtful, the only consolation is that they also won the Lakers by 44 points, and what is even more terrifying is that Embiid has missed none of these games against weak teams, so far this season, he has only missed 3 games, namely the away Green Kai, the away Pelicans and the away Timberwolves, no surprise the team lost. Proportionately, with 3 out of 27 games, Embiid should be able to meet the 65-game threshold to enter all major awards, especially that one.
Embiid has his own thoughts on playing an underdog: "You have to respect the game and respect the opponent. It's an NBA, any night, a player can have a mental breakdown, I never think about who the opponent is, I always keep a positive mindset every night. ”
In fact, there are not too many problems with what Embiid said, because after so many years of research, it is unlikely that you will be able to stay healthy, and if you improve your attendance a little, you will not necessarily get injured, and even if you are healthy and your teammates are very strong, you will not be able to be killed in the division semifinals without being thrown and killed, so these things are a bit metaphysical no matter how you look at them, and you can't grasp them all. Embiid looks a little cunning at the moment, but if you take into account that the Pistons, Hornets and Wizards are there, it seems very Song Xianggong if there is a bargain, no one will praise Song Xianggong, but there will always be people who praise Song Xianggong as the MVP and scoring champion in the regular season, in fact, Embiid averages 35 points per game and only plays 33 minutes.
So now it's too early to think about whether Embiid can touch the floor of the division finals in half a year, or whether Green Kai is his permanent version of his wild father, or whether Embiid can really beat Jokic and win the MVP without crying this time, it's too early, life must be happy, Enzi is also a human being, and if you are a human being, you have to have a little strategy, and every season in the NBA is like every stage of life, you have a bit of a targeted strategy, and it does not prevent people from evaluating you in the end. Embiid himself said that as a player, you still have to win some awards, how many MVPs you have to win in the regular season, how many you have to win the scoring champion, and how many you have to win the championship, it's really good to be able to take care of both, he explained: "After all, no one will rank Holly in the top 50 in history!."”
So Embiid is a little bit strategic, a little bit ambitious, it's still early, and all we can do is watch the star perform, see how he's progressing, and it's far from the time to think further. It's not time for Embiid to go this season, let alone to discuss Embiid's place in history.
I don't know if it was Bimes or Napoleon who said that the truth was within cannon range. Some people believe this, some people don't, because they don't have a cannon in their hands, and those who don't have a cannon in their hands can often only play the role of cannon fodder, and the cannon fodder will not think that he is living in an era when the truth is universally recognized, because he has become cannon fodder, and he will definitely think that this era has long since lost his conscience and humanity. As for whether Embiid is holding a cannon, or will eventually become the cannon fodder of the times, and become the object of ridicule by those who will always be held with a cannon, that is, the truth, no one can give an answer, I think many people are in a hurry to arrange an ending for him, just like many people are in a hurry to arrange an ending for other ambiguous places in this world, I think it's too early.