After enjoying a full-star weekend, NBA teams will enter the final sprint phase, either for playoff home advantage or for a pick-up. To say which team's performance is the most anticipated, I believe that the answer for many people will be the 76ers, because they completed a blockbuster deal before the All-Star Weekend, got the history of the 75 superstar James Harden, after the All-Star Weekend break, Harden has healed and will usher in the Philadelphia debut, everyone wants to know how he will react with Embiid, will subvert the pattern of the East?
Embiid, who topped the MVP list on paper, plus former MVP Harden, may be the duo with the strongest offensive threat in the league, enough to put Philadelphia into the championship discussion. However, there are many other factors that will affect the two to make them play lower than expected.
Harden and Embiid one is the outside line and the other is the inside line, but the two play is actually similar, Harden is not the kind of guard who has been staying on the outside line to shoot three points, he needs to have the ball in hand, needs to hold the ball for a long time to find rhythm, needs to frequently kill the inside line, and involves the opponent's defense to show his excellent field vision. Although Embiid is an interior, he is not the traditional pile-type interior play, he also needs to have the ball in hand, and many of his playing styles are technical actions of defenders, and he can attack from outside the three-point line.
Harden has never partnered with Embiid's type of interior before, and he can't treat Embiid like Capela and Howard. Because Embiid doesn't need to be fed, he can completely dominate the game himself, after all, he was a big hit with MVP before Harden arrived, leading the team to play the third place in the East.
Harden as an outsider, he needs to have a clear positioning, need to clearly understand that this is Embiid's team, need to make sure that the game is dominated by Embiid, and can't dribble it himself, Embiid didn't even touch the ball, the offense was over.
How to balance harden and Embiid's ball distribution is a difficult problem for coach Rivers. What bothers Lao Li even more is that the other two starters of the team, Harris and Maxi, also need a certain amount of ball to ensure their efficiency. In other words, Philadelphia's starting five, except for Sable, the other 4 people need the ball, and one ball is a bit insufficient.
However, After all, Rivers is a famous coach who has been named the top 15 coaches in history, and has experienced too many scenes and storms! In a recent interview with the media, Rivers already had a general idea! When talking about the team's lineup after Harden joined, Rivers said he would ensure that at least 2 of Harden, Embiid, Harris and Maxi were on the floor, keeping the team full of offensive threats at all times.
It looks like Rivers wants to stagger Embiid and Harden's playing time, and Harden's playing time with Maxi, so as to maximize the star's personal threat. According to Shams, Harden will make his debut against the Timberwolves tomorrow, and it remains to be seen what level Harden's addition will elevate the 76ers to and how the Rivers rotation will be arranged.