Joel Embiid Should Have Been Rookie of the Year, But It's Just Philadelphia's Latest Loss

Joel Embiid played a very short season, appearing in just 35 games before he was finally shut down because of knee issues that would eventually lead to another surgery. Still, this dude averaged 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.5 steals. Philadelphia was 13-18 (.419) in the 31 games he played at 15-36 (.294) in the 51 he didn’t.

Malcolm Brogdon, the winner of the 2016-2017 Rookie of the Year award, had a perfectly fine season and even played well in the playoffs, but he was no Joel Embiid. The only reason anyone voted for Brogdon for 1st is because of the number of games missed by Embiid. Yet many weighted his games played as heavy enough for 2nd or 3rd place votes and put him on the All-Rookie First Team. See how stupid that sounds?

Oh well. It’s over now. Time to move on and look to the future. Start with this video of Embiid walking down the street and Euro-stepping around a young woman.

He looks good. Months removed from surgery. A new point guard in his life. Ben Simmons dunking on a regulation hoop.

Things are looking up in Philly. However the fans might want to pump their brakes just a bit. Kevin Durant is right about the dumb, forced FEDS nickname. And trading up to get Markelle Futlz with the #1 pick isn’t really the culmination of anything.

This is still just a bunch of guys who have never played together. Philadelphia has only had a record over .500 3 times in the last 12 seasons. They’ve been so bad that 28 wins and the 4th-worst record in the league was considered a great success. Maybe fans should wait for a playoff appearance before they start retweeting all the times people said “The Process” wasn’t working.

But that’s OK. They don’t have much going on in Philly. The Eagles haven’t won a playoff game since 2008. The Phillies have the worst record in baseball. The Flyers play hockey (poorly). If having four guys with corresponding initials all be healthy at the same time during the offseason is good enough for the fans, that’s great. Raise those two  ’16-’17 All-Rookie 1st Team banners to the rafters and enjoy it while you can because it’s tough getting out of the cellar.