[Clips Inside] Joel Embiid's 21 free throws yesterday highlight his unique whistle, and the inconsistencies in enforcing the new rules

Embiid's free throw numbers generate a lot of controversy, with some arguing that they're entirely a reflection of his skill at bamboozling defenders, while others feel it's the product of a superstar getting enormous benefit of the doubt from the officials. Despite the NBA instituting new rules that don't reward players for creating contact with defenders, Embiid's free throw rate is statistically identical to last season. As crafty as Embiid is, yesterday's game is an example of how it's VERY hard to argue that the way he's officiated is consistent with the rest of the league.

To start, here is an official video from the NBA Officials twitter showing the new rules. They clarify in clip 2 that pump-faking a defender and leaning your shoulder into them IS NOT a defensive foul in the 2021-2022 season.

With that said, here are clips of the very iffy calls in Embiid's favor yesterday, leading to 10 of his 21 free throws (plus a couple bonus FTs on floor fouls for teammates):

Embiid pump fakes McDaniels into the air and leans his shoulder into him. 2 FTs

Embiid travels, pump fakes Vanderbilt into the air, Vando goes vertical, Embiid leans into him. 2 FTs

Naz Reid goes vertical away from Embiid, Embiid contorts himself into Reid. 2 FTs

Reid gets his hand on the ball, Embiid flares his arms out as Reid and Prince strip the ball. 2 FTs

Embiid travels, pumps McDaniels into the air. McDaniels makes marginal contact with Embiid, and Embiid shoots after the contact. 2 FTs

Embiid wrap his arm around Reid's torso and bends over. Non-shooting foul

Towns pulls his arm away as Embiid goes for a rip through, maybe makes marginal contact. Non-shooting foul

The ball bounces out off of Embiid in view of the baseline official. Embiid tells him it's Philly ball and the ref is like "okay." Minnesotta turnover

This is an ENORMOUS amount of swing off of iffy calls, even for Embiid, but even after the rule changes (which really couldn't be any more specific about how these SHOULDN'T BE FOULS), he's consistently generating a few free throws a game off of these. Maybe you guys disagree and these really are fouls (although can't really disagree with the travels), but for me this is difficult to watch and just feels unfair for teams who don't have a superstar that gets this level of benefit of the doubt from referees.