Fri, Dec 22nd, 2023

Tonight's must-watch games

  The Opening Tip

• Chet Holmgren is the best rookie we’ve seen in a while
• Grip vs. the House returns
• Checking in on the 2021 draft class

1. Joel Embiid is Wilt Chamberlain’ing

Sorry to the Joel Embiid haters (usually us), but he’s better this year than he was during his MVP season last year, both in terms of his play and the extremity of his flopping.

His averages: 35.1 PPG, 11.8 RPG, 5.8 APG, 11.7 FTPG on 54.1% shooting.

His 5 highest scoring games: 51, 50, 48, 42, 41. (He’s also scored less than 30 only 5 times.)

The best comp for this season is either Kareem’s 1972 season (34.8-16.6-4.6) or any of Wilt’s early 1960s seasons.

By some metrics, it’s even on-par with Wilt’s legendary 50.4 PPG year.

Look where Embiid’s 2023-24 season stands in terms of points per minute:

Embiid is playing only 34.1 MPG. Wilt played 48.5 MPG (think: overtime) during his 50.4 PPG year. Pound for pound, Embiid is doing the best Wilt impression we’ve ever seen.

2. Daily GIF: Rookie of the Year

Are you ready for someone who looks like a distant cousin of Abraham Lincoln to be a top-10 NBA player? Because...

3. Trivia time

Who has scored the most total points on Christmas?

Answer at the bottom.

4. GVTH: Fade the Hawks

Welcome to Grip vs. the House, where two things can be true: 

1. We’re both on a betting hiatus because we both reached the point where it was like, yeah, this is getting dark. 
2. We know a good betting trend when we see one. 

5. Let’s check in on the 2021 draft class

It’s early(ish), but the lottery portion of the 2021 draft has a chance to be one of the least remarkable in a long time. 

• No. 1 Cade Cunningham: Just lost his 25th game in a row
• No. 2 Jalen Green: 17.4 PPG on 40.1% shooting this year
• No. 3 Evan Mobley: Went from the next Kevin Garnett to defensive specialist 
• No. 4 Scottie Barnes: Multi-time All-Star ceiling
• No. 5 Jalen Suggs: Solid role player
• No. 6 Josh Giddey
• No. 7 Jonathan Kuminga: Future former Golden State Warrior
• No. 8 Franz Wagner:  Multi-time All-Star ceiling
• No. 9 Davion Mitchell: 3.9 PPG in 20 games this season
• No. 10 Ziaire Williams: Career 19.4 MPG 
• No. 11 James Bouknight: Charlotte declined his fourth-year option
• No. 12 Josh Primo
• No. 13 Chris Duarte: On his second team, 3.7 PPG this year
• No. 14 Moses Moody: Future former Golden State Warrior

6.  Quick Hits

• Important: There’s a rapper that looks exactly like Bogdon Bogdanović. 
• We figured it out: Joe Mazzulla looks like a mongoose. 
• Pistons fans chanted ‘sell the team’ during last night’s loss. 
• Are you sitting down? Ben Simmons’ injury will keep him out longer than expected.

7.  Reads

• NBA’s Christmas Day games, ranked [The Ringer]
• All it took for the Bulls to get good was Zach LaVine’s injury [Defector]

Trivia answer: LeBron (460 points)