Joel Embiid, Second Team All-Defense and now Second Team All-NBA.

He was beat out by Rudy Gobert in the former category and Nikola Jokic in the latter, with those votes looking like this:

Before we do a brief Jokic/Embiid comparison, a few thoughts:

  1. I’m not sure how Joel got three third team votes. I also don’t know how Jokic got two third team votes. I think it was pretty obvious that these two were the best NBA centers this year.
  2. Also not sure how Russell Westbrook got a first team vote. That’s criminal.
  3. LeBron only played 55 games this year, still put up 27/9/8, so I guess I’m not surprised to see him on the third team. Feels wrong, though, considering how that Lakers season went.
  4. Bradley Beal was probably snubbed, maybe Karl-Anthony Towns, depending on how you feel about Rudy Gobert. KAT missed out on a $32 million dollar incentive in his contract as a result of not making one of these teams.
  5. Kemba Walker being on the third team qualifies him for a Supermax deal.
  6. Not pictured, Ben Simmons received seven third team votes and Tobias Harris two.

Right, Embiid and Jokic numbers after the jump:

Jokic played more games than Joel did, leading his team to a higher seed in a better conference. I think that’s probably the macro-level angle that a lot of people would use to justify having Embiid on the second team.

It’s true that Joel’s all-around game is probably better. He blocks more shots, alters more attempts at the rim, and really serves a defensive anchor in a way that Jokic does not. Jokic, on the other hand, shoots at a higher percentage from the floor and the foul line and throws more than eight assists per 36 minutes, an elite and unselfish offensive game that helped Denver, a team with no other All-Stars, to the second seed in the West. Embiid suffered the knee injury and barely even saw the floor down the stretch, while Joker was putting up 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists in the month of March.

If you want to look at on/off, here’s what the numbers say:

  • Jokic on court: +3.9
  • Jokic off court: 0.1
  • Embiid on court: +5.8
  • Embiid off court: -1.9

So there was a bigger swing in on/off for Joel vs. Jokic, a difference of 7.7 vs. 3.8. You could also argue that the Sixers had a bigger dropoff from Embiid to Boban/Amir Johnson/Greg Monroe/etc, vs. the Nuggets putting Mason Plumlee on the court.

Either way, they’re both phenomenal players. I think if Embiid had played a few more games and didn’t struggle with the late-season knee issue, then he may have gotten the nod over Jokic.