51 points, 50 points! Without Harden and Embiid, you're exposed, and the team miscalculates

This season's NBA regular season, unconsciously more than half of the schedule, there is still a third of the schedule, on the West side, although the Clippers have lost 4 of the last 7 games, and gradually opened the gap by the Timberwolves and the Thunder, but in fact, it is difficult for them to fall out of the top four, Tyronn Lue can have plenty of room for trial and error, and at the same time began to let Harden, Xiaoka, and George gradually rotate and rest. The Suns are caught in the second group of involution battles, and the slightest carelessness may fall to eighth, which is a very big test for Durant and Booker. Although the Lakers and Warriors basically guaranteed the qualification for the play-offs, it is very difficult to enter the top six, and it is almost impossible to play a winning rate of nearly 8% in the remaining games, which is unrealistic. In contrast, the East has been a very chaotic season, and the Celtics have managed to do a good job, and the starting five are able to crush most of the league's teams.

But behind the Celtics, it was a mess, the Cavaliers and the Bucks were entangled together, Rivers Sr. led the team from 3-7 at the beginning, to the last two consecutive wins slowly got on the right track, Mitchell exists or not, the Cavaliers are two teams. In the big team behind, the Knicks, 76ers, Pacers, Heat, including the Magic, the gap between the front and back is no more than 3 games. The most frustrating thing here must be the 76ers, Embiid meniscus surgery, unwilling to reimburse the season, he thinks the team still has a chance this season, but Embiid played this season, the 76ers have a record of 26-7;

Because of Harden's departure, the 76ers have lost a lot of attention, and Embiid has proved that he can still lead the team to play competitive without Harden through the data and ball possession ratio of the big package. Indeed, Embiid's gorgeous statistics of 35.3 points, 11.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game this season will be MVP and scoring champion as long as he plays 65 games, but the guard style of play is too much for his body, including playing the Knicks with a knee injury, and playing the Warriors was sat on his knee by Kuminga, which became the last straw that crushed him. But to tell the truth, the biggest beneficiary of Harden's departure must be Maxey, who previously said in a podcast that Harden did help him grow, but his role and positioning have improved a lot this season. From averaging 20.3 points and 3.5 assists per game last season to averaging 25.8 points and 6.4 assists per game this season, it seems that the data is improving, but Maxi is also exposed.

Maxi did have the highlights of the season. For example, in the early part of the season, the Pacers, who were at the bottom of the league in defensive efficiency at the time, scored 50 points, and Embiid's 37 points became a supporting role. Including when Embiid was injured, Maxey scored 51 points against the Jazz, who were the second-to-last defensive efficiency at the time. Last season, Maxey's two-point shooting rate was 48.1%+43.4%, especially when receiving Harden's passes, Maxey's three-point shooting rate exceeded 50%!, while this season's two-point shooting rate was only 44.8%+37.8%, and the effective shooting rate (not counting free throws) was 52.4%, ranking 211th in the league, and the true shooting rate was 57.4%, ranking 164th in the league. And Maxey's finishing ability under the basket is extremely poor, with an interior shooting rate of 52.6%, 200th in the league!

Maxey has grown up really fast in Harden's more than a year with the team, including special training with Harden and various offseason exercises, but Maxey has three obvious shortcomings. First, the body is too thin, and the confrontation is almost in vain, playing the Celtics in the playoffs last season, Maxey is the main breakthrough of the double tanhua, and even needs Harden to help defend. Second, Maxi does not have the vision and ability to coordinate the overall situation, and he can't fight positional battles, but in the connecting section, he can lead the scoring climax with speed and rhythm changes, which is more like a staggered peak trip, but the more critical the moment, the less able he has the ability to solve the game. Last but not least, the new coach Nurse is pulling out the seedlings, asking Maxey to average 20 shots per game this season before the season, and he did it, but the efficiency has come down, and the others have followed suit.

Last summer, the 76ers saw that after the Warriors gave Poole a big contract, the team's problems were reborn, and they postponed the contract extension with Maxey, to put it bluntly, to let Maxey play at his best this season and prove that he is worthy of a super cap salary. But in some tough battles, Maxey didn't perform at all, playing 5 of 14 for the Warriors and 12 points for 4 of 20 for the Heat, often 1 of 9 three-pointers, 1 of 8, compared horizontally, he is similar to Jalen Green of the Rockets, but not as talented as Green, but in the 76ers lineup, except for Embiid, there is really no ability to praise the players who are the cornerstone of the team, but this performance is really miscalculated. Harris will definitely be abandoned when his contract expires this season, and the 76ers have fantasized about getting George or even James!

There are two things that are certain, if he continues to play like this, Maxi will definitely not get a super top salary, at best, he is only at the same level as Herro and Poole, but Maxi will get more opportunities. Secondly, the 76ers have avoided taxes every year in the past, but they are still wearing the coat of "champions", including the promotion of Maxey, and the promise of all kinds of gorgeous lies to Embiid, which was finally exposed. In Embiid's absence, the 76ers are the lower tier team in the East! In my opinion, Embiid should recuperate from his injury this season, don't come back, his body is the most important.