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2023-24 stats: 34.7 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 5.6 apg, 1.7 bpg, 52.9 FG%
2024-25 stats: 22.0 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 3.6 pg, 1.2 bpg, 40.7 FG%
2023-24 BPM: +11.6 (2nd overall)
2024-25 BPM: -0.6 (122nd overall)
On one hand, after the 2024 Olympics, no one will ever be able to say Joel Embiid has never won anything from a team perspective. Embiid came up clutch for the Americans, too, primarily in the semifinal against Serbia, scoring seven straight points pretty late in the fourth quarter to keep Team USA afloat with the Serbians up by seven at the time. Team USA would eventually win the game 95-91, a result that would have been difficult to achieve without Embiid’s mini-run in the fourth period.
Still, Embiid’s presence in the Olympics has come at a huge cost, as the former league MVP has missed a ton of time so far in 2024-25 due to a knee issue, with his knee reportedly swollen for some time, hurting and also feeling unstable. Now, Embiid’s contract extension (signed in September of this year, going through 2028-29 and worth three years and nearly $193 million) is looking pretty brutal. We’ll see if Embiid is able to bounce back from the early-season injury woes but for now, as far as the Philadelphia 76ers are concerned, it looks like the big man participating in the 2024 Olympics was not a good idea.
Verdict: Worse
