Joel Embiid works with renowned NBA trainer Drew Hanlen, who has been VOCAL recently about what he feels is a fugazi MVP race between his client and defending champ Nikola Jokic.

In fact, if you read Hanlen’s Twitter feed, he’s really annoyed by all of it. He is pushing very hard for Embiid over Jokic and drops some facts to back up his assertions, facts like these:

Good tweet. The NBA analytics folks love on/off numbers.

Everything requires nuance, though. One of the reasons why the Sixers drop off so severely when Embiid leaves the floor is because one of DeAndre Jordan or Paul Millsap comes on the floor. So the net differential is also related to the player coming INTO the game, but regardless, the Sixers have seen this pattern happen every year with Embiid. He’s such a plus on both sides of the floor that everybody is a steep drop off behind him.

Another tweet:


Ben Simmons also racked up bullshit assists like these. We hand out assists very liberally in sports, be it hockey, basketball, etc. Jokic does throw a ton of highlight-reel passes, but there’s a significant chunk of him just running DHO or whatever, and those go into the stat sheet just the same a cross-court needle threader.

Another tweet:

Another tweet:

Simmons also racked up uncontested rebounds because he was the guy who would run in transition with the ball. There’s a ton of nuance here as well. The NBA requires a ton of nuance, which requires you to actually watch the games, but there’s a large portion of people who just want to do numbers instead.

It’s funny reading through Hanlen’s feed, because he has pissed off a lot of media members, accusing them of bias and whatnot. Then you have detractors on the other side, who say he’s just a trainer shilling for a client who has made him a lot of NBA money. That’s a little goofy I think because Hanlen has multiple clients performing at a high level, so his reach goes well beyond Embiid.

I’m not entirely sure why everybody turned on Embiid so quickly. Is it because the Sixers added James Harden? He played most of the season without him, and without his All-Star holdout teammate, for Christ’s sake. Jokic has been playing without Jamal Murray all year long. Both guys have been carrying immense loads on their backs, which is what MVP candidates do. They are both elite and fantastic players.

The huge shift is suspicious, though. Can’t trust the national fake news media. They hate the process!