Sixers big man Joel Embiid has been named December’s Player of the Month for the Eastern Conference, while Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell has earned the honor for the Western Conference, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).
It was a healthy month for Embiid, who appeared in all but one of Philadelphia’s 14 games in December and led the team to an 8-5 record in those contests — the 76ers were blown out by 35 points in the only game he missed. The star center averaged 29.2 PPG, 11.2 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.5 SPG, and 1.3 BPG on .496/.391/.845 shooting in 34.5 minutes per game for the month.
Mitchell, meanwhile, appeared in 12 of Utah’s 14 December games, putting up 30.2 PPG, 5.0 APG, 3.2 RPG, and 1.2 SPG with a shooting line of .502/.377/.870 in 34.2 minutes per night. The Jazz had a 12-2 month, including 10-2 in games with Mitchell available.
Embiid beat out fellow nominees Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMar DeRozan, Kevin Durant, Darius Garland, Kyle Lowry, and Fred VanVleet in the East. The other Western nominees were Stephen Curry, LeBron James, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Twitter link).
The NBA also announced the Rookies of the Month for December today, with Magic forward Franz Wagner and Thunder guard Josh Giddey earning the honors in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference, respectively.
Wagner’s Magic went just 3-11 in December, but he solidified his position as a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate, averaging 19.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and 3.1 APG on .476/.404/.889 shooting in 34.0 MPG. Giddey, who won his second straight Rookie of the Month award, missed five games, including the Thunder’s 73-point loss to Memphis. In the 10 games he played, Oklahoma City went 6-4 and he averaged 11.8 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 6.7 APG.
Joel Embiid entering the chat for MVP once again.
Has a lot of work to do to catch Jokic, KD, Giannis, Curry and others but he’s climbing the ladder.
30-11-4 shooting nearly a 50-40-90 over the past month.
This year having dealt with covid and injuries and the Ben Simmons situation we are now making some momentum up the east. Big part of that has to be credited to Joel Embiid who leads us at both ends of the floor.
Besides Giannis who else leads both the defence and offence on their respective teams as good at this guy?
demar definitely deserved that but we here
As a Sixers fan, I can’t help but agree. DeMar got ice in his veins
Only reason from what I’ve heard on 670 the score is it’s because DMDR didn’t play as many games because of Covid.
Embiid is for sure the right choice in the EC, he has been a monster & now has entered the MVP race, he is back!
In the WC, as always there is only Jokic, if you don’t give it to him is the wrong choice anyway you look at it!
For the MVP race, well there isn’t as Jokic is light years ahead of anyone else this year, right?
1/ Jokic
2/Giannis
3/LBJ
4/Embiid
5/KD
No one else is playing at MVP level this year, so that’s all folks!
Uh, no
Curry and DeRozan are both playing at MVP level and you could make an argument for Mitchell.
I’d go
1. Jokic 2. Giannis 3. Curry 4. Bron 5. KD 6. Embiid 7. DeRozan 8. Gobert 9. CP3 after that there’s a big drop off.