History will not be kind to those who doubted Joel Embiid

Drew Smith
February 9, 2026
Sixers
0 Comments

Joel Embiid looks like Joel Embiid again and if you were one of the people writing obituaries for his dominance last year, it might be time to quietly delete some tweets.

After playing just 19 games in 2024-25 and spending an entire offseason listening to the national conversation drift toward “what if he’s never the same,” Embiid has come back in 2025-26 and detonated that idea.

Over his last 22 games, Joel Embiid is at 30 points per night, fourth in the NBA during that stretch, with 8.3 boards, 4.3 assists, a block, and shooting splits of 52 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from three and 86 percent at the line.

The true shooting is a stupid 63.2 percent and the Sixers are plus-117 in those minutes. That is not a guy hanging on. That is a superstar grabbing the league by the throat again.

And the part that should really scare people is how the trend line keeps climbing. He’s at 25-8-4 for the season. Last 20 games it jumps to 27-8-4. Last 10 it’s 29-9-4. Last five it’s 32-10-5. Last three it’s 33-12-7. The deeper you zoom in, the worse it gets for anyone trying to stop him. He is heating up in real time.

The midrange numbers tell the story maybe better than anything.

This year he’s hitting 50 percent from that area on 5.4 attempts per game. Last season he was at 38.6 percent. The year before that, basically MVP rhythm, he was 48 percent.

Now Joel Embiid is on pace for his most efficient midrange year ever.

Think about how insane that is considering how rusty he looked early and how much basketball he missed. The touch is sharper than before the injuries.

Joel Embiid is back to pure dominance

Embiid really movin' like this in the big '26 🔥

🍿 Knicks vs. Sixers — Wednesday at 7:30 PM ET on ESPN and the ESPN App pic.twitter.com/DDOQUaJbe0
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 9, 2026

We are talking about this run covering more than 70 percent of his games played this season. This is not a cute two-week heater. This is a massive sample screaming that he is still that dude and very much not going anywhere.

You can see it too. He’s moving better, getting to spots quicker, making decisions faster. Teams are sending doubles and he’s punishing them. Play him straight up and he’ll walk you into 40. The panic factor is back.

And yeah, people outside Philly will call it a comeback.

Here, it feels like validation.

The talent never disappeared. The work never stopped. Everyone just needed the body to catch up. Now that it has, the rest of the NBA gets to deal with a fully operational Joel Embiid again, and judging by the numbers, that’s going to be a problem for a long time.