After the All-Star Game, the most anticipated star is not James, Harden is the focus of everyone, and his debut is finally staged as scheduled. Harden seems to have made perfect debuts on every team, and this time is no exception, no wonder Harden preferred to give up the All-Star Game because he needed a healthy physique to handle the next game. Leading the team to an easy victory over the Timberwolves, Harden's stats are 27 points, 12 assists and 8 rebounds, and the most surprising thing is that he only played 35 minutes, so the plus-minus was close to +40. The author will not praise Harden as much as the famous Su Qun, but I can put forward a point that Harden chose the right head coach.
The 76ers are already the favorite to win the championship before Harden arrives, Embiid single-core team is still quite strong, and Harden chose both the 76ers' prospect of winning the championship, but also chose to play under a head coach who understands him, Rivers is a perfect coach to Nash, especially in Harden's debut. The author looked at some of Harden's data in the past, nash basically let Harden's playing time strictly control more than 40 minutes, and try to let him play the whole game. Harden did not have James's strong body and physical strength, and it was fortunate that there were no major injuries.
On the other hand, Rivers deliberately let Harden maintain physical fitness, forced Harden to rest at some specific times, even if the situation on the court changed, Rivers did not rush to let Harden re-enter. The author would like to point out that Harden's offensive efficiency is actually proportional to his physical state, and Harden without physical fitness is not considered supergiant, but when he is physically energetic, Harden is basically omnipotent. I don't know how Nash will feel when he sees Rivers using Harden like this, and will he consider emulating Rivers' use of core players? But Nash had no regret pills to take, and he could only continue to observe how Rivers used Harden and try to learn secretly.
Another point, the author noticed that Rivers intends to create a strong team without Embiid, as long as Embiid is resting off the field, Rivers is directly arranging five small lineups to play, Harden as a leading figure, around him are basically outside masters. This arrangement is to give full play to Harden's organizational ability, because Harden's ability to read the game and speed are top-notch, when he is packed and breaks through to the inside line, it is easy to find the outside line vacancy, if there is not enough outside firepower around, Harden is difficult to convert the pass into an assist. This is also a tactical arrangement that Nash can't do, and his arrangement for Harden is to play freely.
The author lamented that Harden really chose the right head coach, not to mention that Nash did not win the championship, and Rivers won the championship can not guarantee that he can win the championship again this season, but it is decisive to allow Harden to reasonably allocate playing time and play in a comfortable environment. Sometimes fans are always making fun of Rivers being often reversed, and with Harden, it's hard to see that. Good coaches meet good players, the difficulty of coaching naturally decreases, good players meet the right coaches, personal potential and immediate combat strength must also be synchronously improved a lot. This is just Harden's first game with the 76ers, and everyone can already expect him and Rivers to bring the championship to the team, will the Nets and Nash regret it now? I think so.