By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Yesterday, Sports Illustrated revealed the start of their "Top 100 Players" list by unveiling Nos. 100 to 51.
Two Sixers players were included in that fold, with Robert Covington (No. 82) and J.J. Redick (No. 59) breaking their way into the mix as two members of the NBA's best players.
On Tuesday, SI unveiled their next wave of Top 100 players and unveiled Nos. 50 through 31. The Sixers got a recognizable player named the 41st best player.
Joel Embiid was named the No. 41 best player in the NBA, which is pretty high considering he's only played 31 games in three seasons in the NBA.
Now, there's no doubting his quality as a player, but through 31 games, he did enough to solidify his standing in the league as one of the best players, and has already shown he belongs and then some.
This is what Sports Illustrated had to say about Embiid, justifying himself in that No. 41 slot.
This ranking—a futile attempt to bridge two extremes—will likely be wrong. It’s possible that Embiid plays out his 2017-18 season as something close to a top-10 player. The talent and the impact are there. It’s somewhat more likely, however, that the 23-year-old who has played just 31 games in three years again sees his season undercut by injury. For Embiid to play 50 or 60 games could feel like an incredible victory. That’s a tough sell for a top-40 player, no matter his evident qualifications.
In some ways, Embiid’s questionable availability hurts him more than it would some lesser player. Injury cannot help but become part of his team’s identity; Embiid (20.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 2.5 BPG) is so central to everything Philadelphia does that to lose him is destabilizing. Building around Embiid’s game makes perfect sense given all he can do, and yet committing to him on a structural level leaves Philly vulnerable in his inevitable absence. When he’s able to play, Embiid is highly skilled and physically overwhelming. The evidence to date suggests he’s one of the league’s most influential defenders at the rim, where his combination of size and mobility can flummox even the most sophisticated scorers. To get all this from a player still feeling out the game in real time underlines Embiid’s legendary potential. It just couldn’t move him any higher up our list—not when the scope of our ranking is the 2017-18 season alone. Embiid is awesome. He also has never played 30 or more minutes in an NBA game, played in a back-to-back, or made it through a full season intact. — RM
It might be good to mention that right above Embiid at No. 4o is the Cavs' Isaiah Thomas, and then CJ McCollum at No. 39. Below Embiid, you have Danilo Gallinari, Goran Dragic, and Jae Crowder.
Whatever this ranking means, a top media organization like Sports Illustrated firmly believes that Embiid is a Top 50 player in this league. Barring injury, the only way Embiid can go at this point in his career is up.
