Embiid named Player of the Month

Joel Embiid has been named the NBA's Eastern Conference Player of the Month. The award covers the league's initial slate of games covering the final week of December throughout all of January.

This is Embiid's second time winning the award. He previously earned the honor in January 2019. He was, however, named Rookie of the Month three times in his inaugural campaign in 2016-2017.

The Sixers are off to a conference best 15-6 start, the third best record in the NBA, and Embiid has been a driving force behind that excellence. The star center is averaging a career high 28.3 points on personal best 54.4/40/4/84.0 shooting splits while also hauling in 11.1 rebounds in just 30.3 minutes per game. His 12.9 free throw attempts per-36 minutes would be an NBA record. He is also posting career best marks in steal and turnover rate. His 31.3 PER is one-tenth of a point behind Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic--who incidentally was named the Western Conference Player of the Month--for best in the league and is, you guessed it, a career high.

Perhaps Embiid's importance to the team can be summed in a more basic stat--when he plays, the Sixers are 14-2, and when he sits, they are 1-4.

Earlier in the week, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers earned Eastern Conference Coach of the Month honors.