NBA Notebook: Embiid has been on a mission in 2021

Another exciting week in the NBA is coming to a close, and with it, emerging stories to reflect on as we push closer to the All-Star break.

Let’s take a look at a few of the biggest developments from around the Association.

Tyrese Haliburton has been the steal of the 2020 NBA Draft

The Rookie of the Year award is a highly coveted and respected honor in the NBA. Recent winners include Karl Anthony-Towns, Ja Morant, and Luka Doncic. While it doesn’t guarantee a Hall of Fame career, it certainly sets the stage for a prolonged and prosperous one.

LaMelo Ball is favored to win Rookie of the Year honors, but he has a real challenger that many teams are surely regretting having passed on in the most recent draft.

The Sacramento Kings’ Tyrese Haliburton is quickly gaining attention for the excellence he shows night in and night out. He’s a top-100 player in PER, and routinely garners Twitters’ attention with his late-night playmaking. He has a 3.38 assist-to-turnover ratio, and is contributing winning plays on a consistent basis.

Haliburton has an unconventional shooting style that caused some teams to pass him over, but the 12th overall pick is proving himself to be an impactful player early in his career.

The Heat are ice cold

It seems like much longer than four months ago that the 2020 NBA Finals were being played in the Orlando bubble, and the Miami Heat were giving the Los Angeles Lakers everything they could handle.

So far, the Heat are just 7-14, and third from last in the Eastern Conference. They’ve lost seven of their last eight, with the only win being a one-point victory against the Kings. Miami has certainly dealt with injuries, but something seems off, and they’ll need to turn things around quickly to have any hope of competing in the postseason again this year.

Is Brooklyn's offense sustainable?

The Brooklyn Nets have been the most talked about team in the NBA this season with Kyrie Irving’s antics, Kevin Durant’s return to play, and the blockbuster James Harden trade to make them a true super team. Now that the team is created, they’re on what is likely an unsustainable pace of both offensive efficiency and defensive inefficiency.

The Nets are scoring over 122 points per 100 possessions, which is by far the highest in NBA history. They have arguably the two best isolation offensive players in the game in Durant and Harden, and Irving just might be top 5 iso player himself. They are putting up points so effectively that it will certainly take a unique combination of talent and coaching to slow them down.

In contrast, the Nets clearly don’t feel like they need to rebound or play D, as they are giving up 119 points per 100 possessions. They rank last in second-chance points, and on any given missed shot it’s not difficult to find poor technique and effort.

The Nets presumably are waiting to crank up their defensive intensity for when it really matters, but can they? It's a legitimate question that likely won't be answered until the playoffs begin.

Joel Embiid

Everybody has known for years that Joel Embiid is an immense talent with the best low-post game of any big man in the NBA, but between injuries and some roster dynamics, he hasn’t always put it together on the court. That has changed in 2021, as Embiid leads the league in PER and has the Philadelphia 76ers in first place in the Eastern Conference.

Embiid is averaging 29.1 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. He’s also chipping in 1.2 steals and 1.3 blocks, which demonstrates he’s dialed in at both ends of the court. It can often take years for players and teammates to gel in an optimal way, and Embiid appears to finally be putting it all together in 2021.