Joel Embiid is worth more than $196 million to the Sixers

The numbers don’t do Joel Embiid justice.

Certain, that’s a daring declare, particularly when you think about the numbers related to the contract extension the Sixers announced on Tuesday morning: reportedly 4 years, $196 million, an annual wage schedule that tops out at $54.2 million for the 2025-26 season.

Embiid is value all of it and extra. How far more? That’s the half that’s troublesome to say. There may not be a participant within the NBA whose worth is tougher to quantify than Embiid. The person metrics are spectacular. Otherworldly, even. However they don’t measure the influence of the double groups he attracts on the offensive finish, or the photographs he deters on the defensive finish, or the extent to which each of these issues make everybody’s lives simpler.

Possibly the perfect place to begin is the oldest metric of all of them. For the reason that begin of the 2017 season, the Sixers have received 67.7% of the video games through which Embiid has performed. Solely eight gamers within the NBA have a greater particular person won-loss document throughout that time-frame (minimal: 175 video games performed).

However that alone doesn’t inform us an entire lot. Certain, the listing contains guys like Steph Curry, James Harden, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. However it additionally contains Serge Ibaka and Ersan Ilyasova, each of whom performed alongside two of the aforementioned stars.

The true testomony to Embiid’s worth lies in his workforce’s document when he’s off the courtroom: 40-40, a cut up that ranks second solely to Curry, whose Warriors are 38-75 with out him during the last 4 years.

Embiid’s plus-minus numbers inform an identical story. Over the past 4 seasons, the Sixers have outscored opponents by a mixed 1,426 factors when Embiid is on the courtroom. That complete alone ranks sixth within the NBA, even supposing Embiid has performed 26 fewer video games than the 5 gamers who rank above him.

The Sixers heart additionally ranks fifth in plus-minus on a per-48-minute foundation since 2017-18, which was Embiid’s first full season. The one gamers with a greater plus-minus than Embiid’s +9.6 are Curry (+10.6), Leonard (+10.6), Antetokounmpo (+10.0), and Durant (+10.0).

However there’s extra context to contemplate: every of these 4 gamers have performed at the least 4 seasons with one other participant who ranks within the prime 20 within the metric throughout that span. Curry performed two with Klay Thompson (fifteenth) and two with Durant (4th). Leonard performed one with Danny Inexperienced (ninth), two with Paul George (eleventh), two with Kyle Lowry (sixteenth), and two with Fred VanVleet (twentieth). Antetokounmpo performed two with Brook Lopez (tenth) and 4 with Khris Middleton (thirteenth). Embiid? He’s as singular because it will get, having performed one season with Inexperienced. Past that, the subsequent closest teammates are Jimmy Butler (twenty fifth), Robert Covington (forty first), and Ben Simmons (forty sixth).

There’s an argument to be made Embiid belongs in that small uppermost tier of influence gamers in at present’s NBA. Curry, Durant, Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, James Harden — that’s the extent of influence Embiid has on the courtroom. In all places you look, any comparability you make, Embiid finally ends up amongst a small handful of all-time greats.

5 years in the past, Michael Jordan was essentially the most prolific scorer in NBA historical past on a per-minute foundation, averaging 28.3 factors per 36 minutes in his profession. Now, Jordan ranks second, as a result of Embiid is in first, with a mean of 29.3 factors per 36 minutes performed.

Most factors per 36 minutes, NBA historical past (minimal 7,000 minutes)

The Embiid extension was as near a no brainer because it will get. There are only a few gamers within the NBA that make a workforce a 50-win franchise all by themselves. Embiid is one in all them.

The injury risk will always be there, however NBA contracts are usually not MLB contracts. Except a participant breaks down in Yr 1, a workforce will all the time be two or three years away from clearing its books. For Embiid, Yr 1 is definitely Yr 3, since his new extension doesn’t kick in till the 2023-24 season.

However the Sixers have lengthy understood that this is able to be the price of doing enterprise. Actually, there was no determination to be made. When a participant the caliber of Embiid is able to signal, your one job is at hand him the pen.