The regular season is over.
Embiid averaged 30.6 points per game this season, becoming the first center-forward scorer since the Sharks.
Meanwhile, LeBron after Embiid has been in the center position for quite a long time this season; Giannis is the De facto center of the Bucks, Jokic is the MVP big hit, plus Towns scored the NBA eleventh, which was the most lively season for centers in the two years since 1994-95.
Meanwhile, only Sabonis Jr. is a non-center in the top five rebounds per game. In the top 12 rebounds per game, only Sa and Giannis jr. did not take the center position.
Meanwhile, the average NBA shooting three percent is a staggering 40 percent.
I've written about it before: Three-point space makes center.
The reason is not difficult to understand:
This era emphasizes space, and the collective withdrawal of the No. 4 position is no longer like the era of Duncan, KG, Dirk, Rashid, and Weber, and the axial No. 4 position is abundant.
The popularity of a big four small, and even the popularity of the five-person station outside the line, have given the superstars a huge space to operate.
The center is particularly benefiting.
Of course, the center of this era is also different from the era of the four major centers, not the era of sharks leaning back, Ewing rabbit jumping, and dreaming left waist circling.
Embiid is best at the basket, Jokic is best at high-level strategy, Downs has the most breakthrough careers this season, Giannis and LeBron in the center position of the basket breakthrough do not need to be detailed.
Even if it is a center, you have to try to play as small as possible to be comfortable.
In fact, on the offensive end now, it's hard to say there's an actual center, and a more precise position, it's called a "non-three-point threat in the box."
In the Warriors it's Looney, in the Suns it's Ayton, in the Jazz it's Gobert, that's the center.
In the Bucks is Giannis, in the Timberwolves is Van Der Biao, which is nominally the No. 4 position.
But in Philadelphia, it was often Sable (and Simmons in the past).
At the Raptors, the free throw line is often coordinated by Barnes.
Back to Embiid.
He averaged 30.6 points per game in 34 minutes this season with historic efficiency, but being able to shoot 21 free throws and 13 free throws per 36 minutes is enough. The Sharks' 2000 leading scorer season made 19 shots and 9 free throws per 36 minutes.
The 2005-06 season, Kobe's first leading scorer season, made 24 free throws and nine shots per 36 minutes.
That same season, Aaron Iverson made 10 free throws per 36 minutes 21 times.
It is said that AI loves to shoot birds, and it is said that Kobe Bryant's first scoring champion season shot like the wind, but in fact, the shooting density is not as high as embiid this season.
Because this is a three-point era, there is enough room to pull, so the superstars can concentrate the ball more than ever, in a limited time.
This season's ball usage is USG, Luca and Embiid are all 37%, and Jokic is tenth in the league, 32%.
In 2004, AI's USG League was first, 35%; the tenth place of the season was melon, 28%.
So although everyone says that the score is high, the score is more than three points, and the data is rising, but in fact, the reverse looks:
The popularity of the shooter group has made the ball power of the superstar more concentrated.
Exercising personal abilities and influence on superstars is indeed the best of times.
Trae Young became the second player in NBA history this season to rank first in the league in terms of total points and assists in a single season — the last being Archibald in 1973.
Of course, the scoring king is Embiid, and the assist king is Paul, but Yang's performance is really calculated.
It is not only that he can hold up such a statistic himself, but also because of this space era, which gives him more ball rights.
Incidentally: Yao Ming's last healthy season, with 62 percent of the league's top true shooting percentage, was unmatched, but he shot 14 shots and 6 free throws per 36 minutes, and the USG only had 26 percent.
So at that time, it was never Yao Ming's lethality that was a problem, the problem was (in the space that was not wide at the time) "how to give the ball to him".