Philly fan checking in. Embiid has a lot of gravity and their 2 man game was really good. Not that PG and Kawhi aren’t dope, but unless the offense has a clear identity, I think Harden will get exposed for how washed he really is. He can still pass and facilitate really well but his drive to collapse the D is absolutely cooked. I think your court is too crowded. Literally probably better off getting Harden to run vs the opponent’s bench, but he’d struggle to swallow his pride and come off the bench. Hope ya’ll figure it out. Clips an easy team to root for.

nail in the coffin. So much of the last season’s bright side was pace and movement. Harden just shuts it all down. The best approach would be to bench him and close games out with him instead of Westbrook

It was a bad unnecessary trade… and it could have waited until the deadline. There was no need to make the trade at the time it was made… our offense was playing with pace, and our defense was top 5… thats all gone now… he doesn’t fit in the starting lineup. Cp3 his ass to the 6th or 7th man

Harden needs the initial screen to be solid, preferably set high and preferably with a good roller — even if they’re not a good lob catcher, like old man Nene, he can make the PnR work with no-look bounce passes.

Even when Zubac isn’t fumbling passes in the PnR or stopping his roll, trying to kick it out and turning it over — he’s setting poor screens and often Harden can’t even use the screen because the defender sees his huge body slowly plodding up and shades/adjusts, and Harden tells him to re-screen on the other side (and the shot clock dwindles down).

Even last season with Philly, Harden would often get doubled and blitzed off the PnR leaving EMBIID the freaking MVP wide open at the middy. That’s how deadly Harden can still be as both a scorer and a playmaker in the PnR.

Even in Houston his entire game was built off Capela coming up to set a high screen for him the second he crossed half-court (which they eventually had to abandon because Harden would simply get doubled/blitzed on every single pick, so he just isolated on whoever they put on him lol).

People think both of Harden’s 40pt games against Celtics last playoffs were flukes, but they both happened in Game 1 without Embiid when Reed and PJ set high, effective screens and rolled hard to the rim, and in Game 4 after Embiid put his ego aside after popping to the midrange all of Games 2-3 and clogging up the driving lanes for Harden. Game 4 starts with Embiid setting 2 high picks and rolling hard, and Harden feeds him an easy assist the first time and hits a fairly easy floater the second.

When the initial screen is solid, defenders have to make gambles and choose what they’re going to focus on and what they’re going to give up, and Harden will always take the high percentage look that they’re giving up. He can force the right switches for either himself OR his team mates. So we can see isolations on mismatches instead of currently seeing the initial play break down and forced isolations at rhe end of the shot clock.

Not to mention with all the open 3s Harden creates being missed, the spacing is worse and driving lanes are more clogged for him.

Tldr; Once PG and Kawhi start making open 3s and once either Zu gets more reps in with Harden or gets traded for a more athletic big to run PnR with, the offence will look completely different.

GIVE KOBE PLAYING TIME

There’s more Sixers fan on r/clippers than actual Clippers fans.