Maybe he’ll have his worst day emotionally and realize that he was the biggest liar all along, fooling himself. Could also be the best thing that ever happens to him at this stage of his career.
Dude could probably be an amazing role player if he bought in.
Damn, imagining the Sixers with Harden coming in mostly when Maxey sits to play primarily with Embiid to enact their deadly PnR would be an amazing option to have. Tired out from chasing those pesky DHOs? Here’s a dose of the most efficient play of 2022.
I totally believe he still has the skillset and ability to play the role, but pride and ego are a helluva thing. Plus, he’s probably gone too far with Morey to go back now. Even CM Punk took a decade (and feuding with another promotion) to come back to WWE.
The Bulls collecting all of Lebron’s highly valued white sidekicks
I chalk the Sixers improvement to coaching and development, though i don’t think Harden would help their current starting 5 unit. Hypothetically, he’d still be a huge asset as a secondary ball handler for the 2nd unit, but he’d also probably refuse that role. Meanwhile, lack of a 2nd reliable ball handler is the team’s biggest need.
As for the Clippers, while the results haven’t been great, it’s still a small sample size for Harden, and he may still very well be working himself into game shape. Those shooting splits will hurt any offense, but if he could improve them to acceptable levels, something like 45/38/80, who knows how much of an effect it could have on the team as a whole?
Hard to say he can do it, but that’ll depend on how cooked he really is. Basically, I don’t think it’s fair to call it a “James Harden effect” if he’s just washed as opposed to it being him playing up to his standard and the system doesn’t work.
He’s not been up to his Sixers level yet and AFAIK, he hasn’t suffered any major injuries since last year so we may have yet to see the true Harden effect, assuming he can continue to get into better condition.
It reminds me of when I was a kid watching MJ, I undervalued the hell out of all the other top stars of his era who had “pedestrian” scoring averages of like 25 ppg. It wasn’t until I looked back that I gained a strong appreciation of his contemporaries.
I think it’s harder today because news is constant and information is bombarding us all the time, we fans take for granted some of the legit special performances happening in the game. Plus, amazing stops feeling amazing if it happens too often.
They’ll pay him enough to hire an interpreter, lol
The real question is do they have enough of a strip club scene, the man has priorities
I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he was legitimately off balance and any nudge (still not really a foul) could’ve tipped him over, but uh yeah he had both feet firmly planted…
FWIW, I always thought the 2020 Sixers should’ve given him a chance as they were rolling out Raul Neto and Trey Burke, basically having 0 NBA quality PGs who could run a half court offense. Who knows how Ben’s career could’ve turned out if he had ever played with one, albeit a washed Lin.
It’s certainly something to note that TJ is only played certain games but was put in for pivotal minutes 2 games in a row against the Sixers.
I’ll say this about the tournament, even if our team won the thing but loses again in the 2nd round of the playoffs, would anyone care about the mid season trophy at all? It doesn’t really do anything even as a consolation prize. That’s really the problem with it, as many people rightfully prefer not to even have the extra game at the end if it means more unnecessary mileage and chances for injury.
On top of that we fans are subjected to these fugly courts every Tuesday and Friday for its duration.
Agreed here, he should’ve gotten at least some run when it was clear that Bev wasn’t stopping him, he’s arguably only a little better than Springer offensively. Another set of young legs could’ve done wonders against the Pacers in general last night.
They really miss Oubre and Batum. The tiny 3 guard lineup definitely isn’t 4th quarter material, not against this team anyway.
Weirdly enough, I actually think Harden’s system comment might’ve been directed at Nurse like when it was alluded to that he didn’t “get” the scheme when he returned to the team before the trade.
Can this man finally get his victory tour?
Just features of the system. I was honestly saying the same thing even when he was leading the league in assists last year. It’ll be interesting to see if they can work it out this year but I think Embiid made James’ life a LOT easier last year than he may have appreciated and PG might be the only other superstar on his team whose game actually meshes properly.
It’s also funny that they have to lean on Tucker so much without the benefit of an Embiid/Giannis/Bam manning the paint while he may have healthier legs than 3 of the big 4. Meanwhile the only other scorers are guards who can’t play extensively with Harden and Russ.
I might have to check out more Clippers games for pure schadenfreude.
What’s the deal with TJ McConnell? Is he washed? I read that Carlisle took him out of their rotation, but considering he’s paid $10m/year and only 31 it seems a bit bonkers that he’s not even getting any run at all.
The only knock on him in my memory was that he’s never been a 3pt shooter, but could reliably just handle the ball and make good passes that’s 66% of the Sixers biggest need right now for our backcourt depth. I appreciate Melton but when he’s not shooting well, his dribble and control are a bit sus.
Who knows about Okafor, the what if game skews over time. Case in point, that 2015 draft has aged like milk, damn near every realistic pick we would’ve taken had huge bust potential and even Porzingis has had a lot of fit issues which who knows how he’d have done with Embiid.
Heck even KAT’s begun to pumpkin these last few years as he’s gained a reputation possibly worse than Tobias here for his laziness and cold/hot performances. And D’Lo’s bounced around 5 teams, almost shocking that he hasn’t played in Philly once considering how much we coveted him that year.
Basically unless Hinkie was an actual prophet taking Devin Booker, chances are the team’s overall success probably wouldn’t be much different from that draft, Okafor fail or not. The only other thing would maybe have been trading down to Boston for all those picks they allegedly offered for Winslow, another high rep bust.
I hope he at least charges kids $6 or free admission.
About the '26 pick, am I correct in presuming that if they’re 1, 2, and 3 in the draft, we’d still get the 3rd pick without further protection?
I think it’s fine for now, Nurse and Maxey have been pretty explicit about their focus towards developing him as a PG and giving him as much on court experience to do so as possible. Hopefully he’s conditioned and healthy enough to keep it up, *knock on wood*
With that in mind, it’s pretty awesome that the team’s been doing as well as it has with so much being a literal work in progress.