Before Harden was traded to Philadelphia, despite Embiid's MVP-level performance, he has scored 25+ in 22 consecutive games, becoming the second person after Harden. In the 2018-19 season, Harden had a feat of scoring 25+ in 40 consecutive games, and now Embiid is chasing Harden's record, although there is still a gap of nearly half of the games, but this is enough to show how good Embiid is this season.
It's just that Embiid is strong, Philadelphia only has one star, and in the high-intensity defense and confrontation of the playoffs, it is difficult for anyone to believe that Embiid can single-handedly lead Philadelphia out of the East. So, from the actual situation, before trading Harden, Philadelphia was a strong team in the East, but it was not a member of the first echelon in the East.
And all of this, after Harden's arrival, has completely changed!
After harden and Ben Simmons' swap trade was completed, the championship probability of this season was renewed, the Nets were still in first place, the Warriors second, the Suns third, the Bucks fourth, and Philadelphia, which rose to fifth, and was very close to the defending champion Bucks.
This is the beginning of the Harden effect, although he has not yet played for Philadelphia, it is not yet possible to determine his game status, and the degree of adaptation with Philadelphia's existing tactical system and Embiid, his arrival can obviously give Philadelphia a huge boost to paper strength.
Harden's arrival made Philadelphia really feel that the team had a very good chance to win the championship.
Head coach Rivers Sr. put it bluntly in a recent interview: "Harden's arrival has given Philadelphia an expectation of chasing the championship, and our team is ready to meet that expectation." By the time the deal happened, we were already in the chase for the championship. ”
Being able to exchange Ben Simmons, who has not played all season, and two role players for Harden, almost preserved Philadelphia's main rotation lineup to the greatest extent, so Harden's arrival is almost the icing on the cake, and there is a reason for Philadelphia to have greater expectations for the championship. And when it comes to the title rivals he faces, The Elder Rivers talks about 3 teams, but doesn't mention the Nets.
He said: "We don't have a lot of time, Phoenix are very good right now, Milwaukee and Miami, their team have been running together for three or four years, so we have to get on track as soon as possible. ”
Indeed, for Philadelphia at the moment, it is to integrate Harden as soon as possible and complete the run-in with the team, and once the run-in is right, Philadelphia will have a good chance to compete with the Suns, Bucks and Heat, which is also the strongest opponent in the mind of the old man who wants to win the championship, but in the opponent mentioned by the old Rivers, there is no Nets who have just completed the transaction with them. Embiid mentioned the terrible thing about his and Harden pairing in the interview.
Embiid said: "Every time I take the ball, the opponent will wrap me with two or three people, after Harden came to the team, now the opponent has to make a choice, do you want to wrap it up or wrap Harden? You have to make a decision, and every game can change. ”
"Some teams may want to wrap me up, some may want to pack Harden, so we just need to make adjustments"!
In Embiid's view, playing with Harden will become a nightmare for opponents, because they are players who need the opponent to use the bag to limit the defensive strategy, and when the two of them are on the floor together, the opponent will obviously have a headache for this. Especially considering that in addition to Embiid and Harden, there are scorers like Harris, and players like Maxi, Cockmaz, Milton and Danny Green, who can make a difference from the 3-point line, it is not difficult to imagine how difficult they will be to deal with.
Of course, these are all on paper, and whether he can play the desired effect also needs to see whether Harden is in the game, whether he will still struggle as much as he did with the Nets before, and how he can find a way to share the ball with Embiid and be compatible with each other.