In the first game after the trade deadline, the 76ers beat the Thunder 100-87 at home. James Harden, who has just completed the trade, has yet to report on Philadelphia, but there is still some inspiration for this game about how he and Joel Embiid pair up and what impact his addition will have on this team.
Second superstar
The 76ers' desire for Harden has a long history. As early as last year, Harden was clamoring to leave Houston, and he and the 76ers were interested in each other, but it was only when Philadelphia refused to sacrifice Simmons that Harden was traded to the Nets. After that, Simmons broke with the 76ers, and Harden was not happy in Brooklyn, so the blockbuster deal before the deadline became logical.
The 76ers hope Harden will share the pressure for Embiid as the second superstar, leading this pair of inside and outside lines to impact the championship. This is also the general expectation of what kind of impact Harden can have on the 76ers.
Embiid had an MVP-level performance last season, but because the attendance was too low, he eventually lost the competition with Jokic. The pressure on Simmons has become even greater this season, averaging 29.4 points per game so far, the highest in the league, in addition to contributing 10.9 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1 steal and 1.4 blocks.
In particular, Embiid's usage rate this season is as high as 37%, not only a career high, but also the first in the league, which is quite rare for a big man in the traditional style.
But this is also the helplessness of the 76ers. Because Simmons was not in a mood, the team could only start with second-year point guard Teres Maxi, and although the 21-year-old was outstanding, his seniority was still shallow and his personal ability was still evolving. In addition to being responsible for destroying the city, Embiid also took on a lot of offensive tasks, with a career high of 4.3 assists.
Harden's arrival will obviously change this situation and greatly reduce the pressure on Embiid. As an underrated passer, Harden has won the league assists, averaging double digits in assists per game over the past two seasons, making him the real top ball-handling nucleus. With him on board, it's hard to see Embiid picking up the rebounds in the backcourt and dribbling all the way up to the front.
Harden's addition can also increase the continuity of the 76ers offense. Taking today's game as an example, in the face of the Thunder, which is obviously not as strong as their own, the 76ers have been deadlocked with their opponents in the first half, and one of the key reasons is that embiid is unsustainable when Embiid is resting. In the 6 minutes and 33 seconds embiid's absence at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter, the 76ers scored only 10 points for the team.
In the second half, the 76ers finally began to exert their strength, entering the final quarter with a 77-61 lead. But just when people thought that the game would soon enter garbage time, the 76ers without Embiid lost power again, playing 6 and a half minutes in the fourth quarter and only 10 points, and the score was close to suspense rebirth, and Embiid could only put on the stage again.
After Harden joined, in addition to being able to form a combination of punches with Embiid, another important impact was that he could lead the team's second set of lineups when Embiid came off the field to avoid embarrassment like today.
According to basketball-reference.com statistics, when Embiid is on the floor this season, the 76ers can score 115.7 points per 100 rounds, and the offensive efficiency is close to the league's number one Jazz. And when Embiid wasn't there, they could only score 108.8 points per 100 rounds, roughly equivalent to the 24th place in the league. Harden's arrival will undoubtedly change this situation.
In addition, with Harden, the 76ers can also strategically arrange embiid for more rotations.
Embiid has remained largely healthy this season, but given his injury history, the 76ers are certainly aware of the huge risks of overuse. It's just that before getting Harden, they didn't have the luxury of scheduling Embiid's rotation — the 76ers had only 4 wins and 7 losses in the 12 games embiid was absent this season.
Coexistence issues
ESPN commentator Kendrick Perkins was the first to comment after Simmons' deal for Harden was reached, saying that "Philadelphia has the strongest duo in basketball!" ”
In theory, a super backcourt who has won a regular season MVP, a super center who is on the road to MVP, is indeed the most powerful and well-configured NBA duo. But this is not necessarily the case.
As mentioned earlier, Embiid is the most used player in the league this season, surpassing doncic, Trae Young and other big ball-holding cores. Harden is also a player who needs to hold the ball for a long time, use personal singles to rip off defenses, and create offensive opportunities for teammates. At the beginning, he and Howard broke up with the Rockets, a key reason is that the latter wants more ball rights, and after the Nets' trade with the 76ers, there are also insiders who broke the news, saying that Harden wants to launch an offense around himself and is dissatisfied with his tactical position in the Nets and the arrangement of the coaching staff.
Harden is older than Embiid and seniority is older than Embiid, but Embiid is currently in the middle of the day, and he is the philadelphia senator, two superstars with a strong desire to control, who is the master and who is secondary, will be an unavoidable topic.
In addition, although the combination of interior and exterior lines looks very reasonable, Embiid is actually not the most suitable big man for Harden. Harden is good at holding the ball to initiate blocking, attracting the assist to cover the person after the pinch to catch the ball "eat cake". Embiid, on the other hand, prefers to hold the ball and single, and the willingness to perform blocking and dismantling is not strong.
According to statistics, Embiid has averaged 8.2 low singles per game this season, far ahead of all other players and ranking first in the league. For comparison, Valanciunas, who ranks second in the statistics, averaged 4.9 low-post singles per game, while third-placed Jokic had only 4.6.
As for the frequency of blocking and dismantling as a cover, Embiid has only 13.1% this season, ranking 97th in the league. With only 1.16 points per game, the blocking efficiency is only moderate (better than the league's 60.4% of players).
Embiid is a center player, but in a way, his matching with Harden may be more like the big one Durant than the enhanced Version of Capela. It remains to be seen how effective it will be.
Formation matching
In addition to the way he works with Embiid, the fusion effect of Harden and the entire team of the 76ers is also questionable.
As we all know, the ideal lineup configuration around Harden is a blue-collar interior lineman who is good at catching the ball and eating cake, and a group of flank 3Ds who are good at defending and can catch the ball and hit the empty three-pointer. At 76, I am afraid that these two "needs" cannot be fully satisfied. The difference between Embiid and the "Capelas" has been mentioned earlier, and the lack of projection ability of the 76ers, Harden should also be somewhat mentally prepared.
This season, the 76ers have averaged 30.8 three-pointers per game, just higher than the Bulls and second-to-last in the league. With a three-point shooting percentage of 35.5 percent, it ranks 11th in the league. In addition, their catch & shoot average of 22.7 shots per game, ranking 24th in the league with a 36.5% shooting percentage and 13th in the league.
Note that this is pre-trade stats with the Nets, and in order to get Harden, the 76ers also sent away the team's best shooter, Seth Curry.
This season, Curry has shot 40 percent from three-point range, including 44.1 percent from three-point range, a statistic that the team simply can't find another player who can approach him.
After Harden joins, the 76ers' starting lineup should consist of Harden, Maxie, Sable, Harris and Embiid, with only Maxi's catch-and-shoot three-pointers above par (40.2%). Among the others, Harris was 34.7 percent, Embiid was 34.5 percent, Sebel was only 29.5 percent, and Harden himself was only 30 percent, and of all the starting players in the league who had played at least 20 games, four of them couldn't make the top 100 with three-point shooting efficiency.
Playing the Thunder today, the 76ers shot 1 of 8 from three-pointers in the first half, 7 of 26 in the whole game, if it were not for the opponent's worse shots (6 of 35), maybe it would have been a ditch overturn.
In theory, Danny Green is a good fit for Harden's teammates, but due to age, his form is no longer what it used to be, and he has been squeezed to the bench by young Sable this season. Judging from the previous rumors that the 76ers are reluctant to give up Sable in a trade with the Nets, the team is very important to the defensive tip, so it is unlikely that he will replace his starting position with Green in order to strengthen the projection.
Even if the 76ers do, the defense of the starting lineup will be put to the test. Both Harris and Maxi are offensively stronger than defensive, Harden himself has a bad defensive reputation, and Embiid is excellent at guarding the basket, but the defensive coverage is limited. So the presence of Sable is very important to the 76ers.
The ultimate test
Of course, despite a series of potential questions, the 76ers were still able to win most of the regular season, just like today's victory over the Thunder.
In fact, before the Nets trade, the 76ers, who had an All-Star (Simmons), still played a 32-22 performance, ranking fifth in the East. After winning today, the distance between himself and the top of the table heat was even closer to only 2.5 wins. After having Harden, even if the 76ers simply and rudely arranged for him and Embiid to take turns to play singles, most of the teams in the league are afraid that they will be overwhelmed.
So it's no surprise that the 76ers will launch a strong attack on the upper half of the season (the top four in the East) in the second half of the season, and even have a chance to compete for the first place in the division. But the 76ers aim to be the championship, so the playoffs are the ultimate test for the "Hardy combination".
The 76ers and Simmons' conflict began with the latter's disappointing performance during last year's playoffs. Although Harden will not be as timid as Simmons in key moments, his resume in the playoffs is equally unconvincing.
Harden averaged 25 points per game in his career regular season, shooting 44.3 percent from the field and 36.2 percent from three-point range. By the playoffs, the three figures slipped to 23.3, 42.8% and 33.2%, respectively. Such a "playoff crotch" performance is rare among top stars. Note that Harden has played 137 playoff games so far in his career, so it's hard to excuse it with "insufficient samples."
Once the 76ers' record is not as expected, it will be very doubtful whether Harden and Embiid can support each other and continue to coexist peacefully. In the past few years, Harden has fallen out with howard, Paul, Irving and other star teammates, and although there is no superficial contradiction with the old brothers such as Westbrook and Durant, the cooperation between them has also ended in failure.
Embiid is also a player with a strong personality, if the 76ers keep winning, how good, once the difficulties, the story that happened in Houston, Brooklyn, it is likely to repeat itself in Philadelphia.
By then, the 76ers are afraid that they will have to start the "process of belief" again.