March 03, 2022
The Sixers have raced to a 3-0 start in the James Harden era, and his debut in front of Philadelphia was a rousing success on Wednesday night. Few occasions would be able to overshadow the anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game, but the arrival of Philadelphia's new star was one of them, Wells Fargo Center rocking with a playoff-like atmosphere for an early-March game against the Knicks. Not even a sleepy first half could keep the Sixers from winning comfortably, mocking "Bing bong!" sound drops playing from the loudspeaker as the Sixers coasted to a victory late.
Here are a few things that stood out from the Philadelphia debut of No. 1. As you might imagine, it's tough to find things to be mad about with this team lately.
I don't think this is overstating it: the Sixers have never had a player like James Harden in the history of the franchise. The scorers who can compare fall short as playmakers, the playmakers who can compare fall short as scorers, and the ability to toggle between styles is something few guys are able to do well, let alone at the level Harden plays at. There's a reason teammates and members of the organization use words like "genius" and "savant" describing Harden's understanding of the game. He sees steps ahead while other guys are living in real-time.
The striking thing about Harden's dominance through these first two games is that he has made it feel as though he has been with this group for a while, leaving his imprint on the team without it feeling like your turn, my turn offense where the new point guard and Joel Embiid alternate shifts of domineering. For the first time since Jimmy Butler was in town, the Sixers have a lead perimeter playmaker who can serve as the lead dog while keeping everybody involved organically, and Harden has vocalized to Embiid specifically that he shouldn't have to do as much work as he thinks he does to score.
"I just continue to tell Jo, he's so used to like, dribbling up and having to go one on one, which he's great at. But I try to make the game easier for him in the sense of like, you give me the ball whenever the game slows down or whatnot, and I can get you some easy ones so you don't have to go against a defender every single time. You can get your shot, your little 15, 18 footer, or you're able to just get a layup. The more we can figure that out and get that more times that not, it's going to be difficult because then we create so much indecision, now our shooters are getting shots and everybody's eating. It's a process man, but we're in a good space right now."
At halftime of Wednesday night's game, Harden was the primary reason the Sixers were in the game at all, in possession of a 19-5-3 line with a bevy of highlights in his home debut. The Knicks still tried to force the ball out of his hands, as most defenses in the league try to do when Harden gets ball screens sent his way, but with the Knicks living in fear of Embiid as a roller after Sunday's dominant performance, Harden was able to attack softer coverage and lead the way while the rest of his teammates tried to catch up.
It's what happened after the halftime intermission that stood out. Following a halftime message that we'll get to in a moment, Harden seemed to make a concerted effort to either playmake for teammates or even simply defer to other players who had it rolling. It started with an emphasis on getting Embiid the basketball. Having a guy who can draw enough attention with stepback threes to create passing windows with the threat of that shot is pretty remarkable, and Harden was able to reward Embiid for simply setting a good screen and getting within range of the rim:
For whatever concerns you have about Harden in the short and long term, let it be said that he plays and thinks the game like an actual point guard, and his presence has driven home that the Sixers have lacked one for quite some time. That role requires both the mentality and the skill level to adjust to the moment as the game requires it. If Harden was asked to or truly wanted to, scoring 30+ and putting up a boatload of shots is well within his capability. He's not deferring for the sake of deferring, Harden is attacking weaknesses in the defense and creating the best possible shot for Philadelphia every time down, whether that's for himself or one of the other four guys on the floor.
The respect he demands all over the floor makes it look impossibly easy for the Sixers to get good looks. 1-4 ball screens have been an absolute goldmine for the Sixers early in the Harden tenure, with the Knicks and Timberwolves selling out to stop him and opening up repeated wide-open threes for guys like Tobias Harris and Georges Niang.
The thing that encouraged his head coach the most coming out of last night's game was Philadelphia's ability to score out of the same looks in different ways, one day after he told reporters at practice that they were struggling to get to their second or third option on a play when things broke down.
"We had that one stretch, where we ran the same play over and over again, I think we scored five out of six times," Rivers said Wednesday. "Tobias on the post, James on the pick-and-roll, Tyrese, it's a three-man game. And that's really all we worked on with that group, and they ran it tonight. I think they got every option and scored on every option on that one set."
When the guy running the show is as smooth and skilled as Harden, chemistry is a lot easier to build in a short time period. The Sixers are about to run into tougher competition over the next few weeks, starting with a back-to-back against Cleveland and Miami this weekend. With Harden at the controls, it feels like there's less reason to worry about how it's all going to come together than at any point during the Embiid era.
"I'm comfortable in a lot of situations, whether it's basketball or just in life," Harden added. "I feel like you could put me anywhere in a room and I could fit in. So here is no different, just survey the room see what you have and try your best to fit in, or for me be the best James Harden you can be in every aspect."
For a time, the big point of concern for Maxey was where he'd find his home at this level. He had shooting promise, but not necessarily results, and he had a terrific floater game but one that he probably leaned too hard on. Sixers assistant Sam Cassell and Doc Rivers stressed to their pupil that they wanted him to stop settling so much and, figuratively if not literally, get his fingers on the backboard. With that approach, more success would come naturally.
"He's fearless now," Rivers said following Wednesday's win. "That's what we needed him to be. His speed is power, that power creates fouls, or creates layups. And when he plays with that speed, there's not a lot of guys with that speed in this league, and when he uses it, it's great for us."
Maxey earned eight free throws in the win over the Knicks, launching himself into defenders enough that even Rivers noted one such attempt was probably ill-advised, a collision with Mitchell Robinson who he probably won't beat in a battle of physicality too often. Plays like those are something the Sixers will live with, of course, in order to get the version of Maxey who poured in 21 second-half points to lead all scorers.
Half of the battle with Maxey tends to be making sure he's involved in the offense to begin with. It was a struggle at times without Harden, and those concerns only grew when it was assumed Maxey would get pushed to the side in favor of The Beard. But Maxey noted after the game that a message from Harden, among some other advice he received, was at the heart of the scoring barrage.
"James came up to me if I was going to play today," Maxey said. "Having guys like James, Jo, Tobias, [Spencer Rivers] came up to me and talked to me too, saying I need to be aggressive, I can't go stretches like that being passive. I got to help these guys out, and we got to help these guys out as a team as much as possible."
The experience Maxey picked up early this season, stepping into a starting role with Ben Simmons in exile, looks invaluable in hindsight. Many of Maxey's limitations coming into the year, a la his hesitation as an outside shooter, have faded over time, with Maxey embracing the responsibility of being a quick decisionmaker on a team with two ball-dominant players. The game now moves at his speed rather than the other way around. He's prepared for any outcome on a given possession, whether that's a catch-and-shoot opportunity or a drive to the hoop.
None of this would be as exciting, mind you, if Maxey's shooting was still theoretical instead of tangible. He has taken nearly 200 threes this season and is still above the 40 percent mark from deep, a tremendous sign when you consider that nearly half of those attempts have come on pull-up threes, the much more difficult shot to master. Harden's influence on the league, let alone this team, is evident when you watch Maxey pull off a stepback three:
Tyrese Maxey is thriving pic.twitter.com/BLfOcaiAzi
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) March 3, 2022
What a joy it has been to watch him grow, in any case. If not for a late Mike Muscala three in the 2020 Disney World bubble, he likely wouldn't be a member of the Sixers. As it is, he's almost certainly going to be one of their three most important players in their bid to win a title. The kid is 21 years old.
If the Sixers were able to throw Millsap into a de-aging machine, the idea of using him as a backup five in switchable lineups built around Harden would be delightful. He had the athleticism, smarts, and offensive skill to do plenty of damage, and though Harden thrives with a rim-running, high-flying big in the middle, spreading it out around Harden is also a pretty desirable outcome.
But prime Millsap is not walking through that door, and it has seemed clear to everybody aside from Doc Rivers. Perhaps he's just trying to be diplomatic, but Rivers doesn't seem to think he's struggling to the degree everyone else does.
"I don't know if it's been a rough go, he's another guy that he's played three games and knows very little of what we're doing. He has a pretty high basketball IQ, that's a pretty good thing. We need him to be a better roller I guess, which is something he hasn't done, I think rebounding wise he's been pretty good...I'm not that concerned about it right now."
Those things are true, but the idea that Millsap is simply understanding the system away from being a quality option there seems farfetched. He was in obvious decline at the end of his run with Denver, and a Brooklyn team in need of depth around their stars couldn't find a use for him, to the point that Millsap was playing pickup games in Atlanta prior to the deadline. There was an understanding that his time was up in New York, which doesn't seem to suggest he's worth a long look in Philly.
This will likely be a moot point if/when the Sixers sign Deandre Jordan, who I'd expect will basically walk right into the backup center job on arrival. Whether he should is another story for another day, I suppose, but you have to at least try other options here in the meantime. Paul Reed and Charles Bassey are on your roster, and games with the Knicks and Wolves in late February/early March are the place where you see if they can hang. If the veteran options don't work, the Sixers are likely just screwed when it counts, and that's not a good feeling.
Let's award Doc Rivers credit on this bench decision, leaning toward his former bench captain over the shooter he has continued to roll with in all sorts of lineups this year. Korkmaz was serenaded with boos during some tough moments in the first half, and he wouldn't be seen again until garbage time came, ceding his spot in the rotation to Milton.
Milton's shooting numbers this year are ghastly, a far cry from the player who left SMU with three consecutive seasons over 40 percent from deep, but he has helped himself by playing decisively in a simplified role next to Harden. With an opportunity to attack a scrambling Knicks defense on the break, Milton sized up New York quickly and strode past Immanuel Quickley, using his length to finish at the cup. These plays were harder to come by with Milton in a solo handler role, but Harden's presence might allow him to get opportunities like these on a regular basis.
The problem from where we sit today? Those aforementioned shooting numbers. Save for Danny Green, Philadelphia's wing/guard options off of the bench are all having bad years from deep, and the Sixers need to figure out who they trust the most when opponents hedge against Harden pick-and-rolls or double Embiid in the post.
This is not a political statement, this is not me playing epidemiologist, this is not even me saying I care about wearing a mask that much. But it's definitely a different experience seeing people, interacting with people, and feeling human emotion when you can see, you know, their entire faces instead of just everything above the mask line. For an occasion as grand as this one, it was definitely cool to be able to see full faces of joy throughout the arena, this new era of Sixers basketball ushered in by thousands of screaming Philadelphia hooligans.
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