If you're going to pick one of the hottest NBA teams in recent times, the Philadelphia 76ers, who got James Harden before the trade deadline, must be on the list. Although they lost the key card battle due to the absence of Harden in the load management and the heat of the Eastern Conference, after a big victory over the Bulls, the 76ers are back on track and taking a firm step to attack the top seat in the East again.
What really transformed this team was Joel Embiid, who officially broke through to another realm this season. After all, Harden has only played 5 games, and former partner Ben Simmons not only can't help, but also spends most of the season trying to add to the chaos. In this unfavorable situation, it is not easy for Fang Xian to lead the Cameroon Lions single-core team, but the arrival of the bearded man makes him feel the offensive space that he has never felt in his career, and it can also be regarded as a cloud to see the moon.
It is also because of the impeccable personal performance that embiid, whose star level has further risen, is really seriously discussed as the strongest candidate for the MVP, alongside last season's MVP finalist Nikola Jokic, and even slightly overpowered. The Emperor's performance was impressive, so he was also compared to the legendary superstar Shaquille O'Neal, the last center who was so dominant.
However, Shaq, who is now espnonant, disputed this – although he had previously inherited that the combination of Embiid and Harden was the most dominant inner and outer duo since his and Kobe Bryant's OK combination, he now turned his tongue and claimed that the duo of The Emperor and bearded man and the OK combination were completely incomparable: "We showed dominance in 8 years, teamed up to reach the finals 4 times, and won three consecutive championships!" So, it's not even close at all, so stop putting us together again, oh my god. ”
When you think about it, O'Neal's claim is not unreasonable, after all, Embiid and Harden have just met, and they still need more wins, especially in the playoffs, to prove themselves. However, a different point of view has been raised. Jay Williams, a former NBA player and now ESPN analyst, supports Embiid better than O'Neal, and his view is this: "O'Neal can't defend Embiid!" I'll let Embiid stand on the outside and take advantage of his range. When O'Neal was still young, scouts had already discovered his defensive weaknesses, and when he was pulled out of the three-second zone, the weaknesses that were not good at defensive demolition were infinitely magnified. ”
Who is Jay Williams? In fact, he and Yao Ming have a lot of roots, as the 2002 class of the best show, he came to the NBA as the best player in the United States college in the debut season to hand over 9.5 points and 4.7 assists, which is still in line with expectations. But the overwhelmed Williams suffered a serious traffic accident while driving his own heavy locomotive, which directly led to the early end of his career and ultimately failed to cash in on his talent. So, in fact, Williams played in the league for a short time, although he was in a period with the peak sharks, but he did not really appreciate Shaq's destructive power.
The assumption he's made is quite interesting — Embiid has averaged 29.7 points per game this season, tentatively topping the scoring list, and if he can keep that statistic until the end of the season, he will break the monopoly of forward and defender players for more than 20 years and become the first five-position scorer after O'Neal. Therefore, putting Embiid and O'Neill together in a Guan Gong Zhan Qin Qiong style duel is indeed full of topicality.
But one glaring flaw in Williams' hypothesis is that it's out of context when considering the problem. The late '90s and early 20th centuries were O'Neal's era, and with his powerful dunks and silky little hookers on both his left and right hands, O'Neill was invincible in the paint. For him, these two moves are enough to fight invincible players all over the world, and they are also the most efficient scoring means, and naturally do not need to work on the outside. With his athleticism and ball quotient, if he was born in today's era, wouldn't he have mastered the ability to shoot long distances? Aren't you used to blocking and dismantling? Or with the existence of a low-level heavyweight like O'Neal, the small ball era will not really come.
But Williams has a point that does make sense, saying, "I really don't care what James Harden and Joel Embiid did in the regular season and won a few games. I want to see how they unite their teammates and lead their teams out of trouble when they're not doing well in the playoffs. ”
In fact, the lack of spiritual level and the easy to be demoralized in adversity are the common weaknesses of Harden and Embiid. In the playoffs, once the hand is not smooth or the scene is bad, the bearded man and the emperor are easy to become invisible, and then spread their emotions to the whole team. If they want to go further, then they must learn to behave better in the face of adversity. Can Harden and Embiid do that? They will prove with practical actions that it is not a big disrespect to O'Neill to put them and the OK combination together? Let's wait and see.