Indiana Pacers Star Says Sixers' Joel Embiid is the Toughest Player to Defend

The Philadelphia 76ers always knew they had something special in their former third-overall pick, Joel Embiid. Unfortunately, over the years, injuries have held the big man back from truly dominating to the best of his ability.

This season, however, has been a different story. During the offseason, Embiid did everything he could to take care of his body. After hiring a team of specialists, Embiid has done everything from eating better to recovering properly after grueling workouts.

While his offseason regimen hasn't helped him become available for every single game this season for the Sixers, he's been healthier than ever. And now that Sixers President Daryl Morey has done everything he could to surround Embiid with better-fitting personnel, the big man has taken advantage of everything and is becoming the hardest player in the NBA to defend, according to an Indiana Pacers star.

Damontas Sabonis emerged as an NBA All-Star last season. This year, he picked up his second-straight bid to the big game. While he's having a heck of a season himself, Sabonis knows how and who to offer credit to when it's due. So, when he was asked who is the hardest player to defend in the NBA right now, Sabonis gave it to Joel Embiid after giving the topic some brief thought.

Domantas Sabonis tells @TaylorRooks that Joel Embiid is the hardest player to guard in the league 👀

From B/R x @Bolt24 pic.twitter.com/HAM7fM3TBs
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 6, 2021

"Which player is the toughest to guard in the NBA?" he repeated. "There’s a lot. I’ll go with Joel Embiid. I’ll give it to the big man." Kind of hard to argue with Sabonis' pick. Throughout the first half of the 2020-2021 NBA season, Embiid is arguably the MVP frontrunner as he averages 30 points-per-game while draining a career-high percentage of his field-goal attempts and three-point shots.

As strong and dominant as Embiid is down low, he's versatile and can beat his defenders in several different ways, which makes it extremely difficult for Sabonis or any other bigs to stop him. As long as Embiid remains the toughest player to defend, he'll be right on track to becoming to league's Most Valuable Player.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_ & Instagram: @JGrassoNBA.