Joel Embiid Placed Just Outside Top Five in Player Rankings

There is constantly one debate going on among the basketball community, who are the top players in the NBA right now? With so much elite talent in the league, properly ranking them is a tough challenge. 

The people over at NBA.com recently gave their top ten players heading into the 2021-22 season. One Sixer found themself just outside the top five. 

Joel Embiid was arguably the most dominant player in the NBA last season. If not for missed games, he likely would have walked away with the MVP award. The 27-year-old averaged a career-high 28.5 PPG and had the best shooting splits of his career (51.3% FG/37.7% 3P/85.9% FT) en route to leading the Sixers to the top seed in the Eastern Conference. 

Embiid finds himself ranked seventh in player rankings heading into this season. He is in between Mavericks' star Luka Doncic and Brooklyn's James Harden. 

There is no debating the top five of this list, but one could argue Embiid belongs ahead of Doncic. Not only has Embiid lead his team to more success, but he is a two-way superstar. Doncic puts up incredible numbers and has one of the brightest futures in the NBA, but there are more weak points to his game. 

Following how last season ended for the Sixers, Embiid is going to be a man determined this time around. He continues to improve his fitness and condition to try and rid of the injury-prone narrative that has plagued his career.

The All-Star center showed last season that his game still has room to grow. If he can continue to elevate to new heights, it might land him in the top five of these rankings down the line. 

Kevin McCormick covers the Philadelphia 76ers for South Jersey's 97.3 ESPN and Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @KevinMcCNBA.