Sixers keep up the good mood, and things look better for the future now that James Harden has been traded.
In the end, this is more of a treat than a trick for the Sixers. They can let Nurse create a culture, let Maxey and Embiid work together, and give fans optimism about the future.
This week, Maxey was named Eastern Conference Player for the Week. He has played like a star in Harden’s place.
The stats are crazy: 30.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 56% to three on 8.3 tries, and 68.8% true shooting. It’s only been three games.
As of now, Daryl Morey or the front office have been right. The 21st selection pick in 2020 is turning into a star, and he has. The most important thing is that he seems to get along well with Embiid.
In addition to the great numbers he’s put up, the most promising thing is how well he’s run Nurse’s offense. Just three mistakes have been made by Maxey so far this season.
How Harden ran the pick-and-roll and set up Embiid at the elbow are the things the Sixers miss the most about him. Success has come from giving Maxey a bigger role and Embiid making changes.
Even though Embiid has become more of a playmaker, his numbers are mostly the same as they were in his last production. One player can’t really take the place of the league leader in goals.
After Trae Young, Harden was the only player in the league who averaged over 10 assists per game last year. But the Sixers’ present star duo has done a great job of setting up plays.
Maxey and Embiid are giving out 13.3 assists each game on average. That’s almost twice as many helpers as they had all together last season (7.7).
“I almost didn’t believe it,” Melton said on Tuesday afternoon. “I had to click on Woj.” I had to check that the following and other things were correct.
When De’Anthony Melton got the notice on his phone, he was in the middle of a “very intense” UFC video game match. He then double-checked that it was real because “these days, there are so many bogus accounts out there.”
The 76ers as well as Los Angeles Clippers finally reached terms on a trade for James Harden after a four-month saga.
The news came out in the early hours of tonight. Even though it happened at an odd time, the Sixers were ready for what happened.
Even though the ending makes things clearer for a 2-1 team going into November, Nurse and the other players played down the mental and emotional relief they felt at practice the next afternoon.
It’s possible that Morey gave in to the pressure that Harden, now fully back with the team, would ruin the good mood that Philadelphia’s new executive coach Nick Nurse is attempting to create.
Maybe he finally got what he wanted: a first-round pick in 2026 from the Thunder, the Clippers’ unprotected first-round pick in 2028, the right to trade first-round picks to the Clippers in 2029, LA’s second-round picks in 2024 and 2029, and four role-playing forwards whose contracts are up in 2029. All of this while lowering the ownership’s luxury tax bill.
Since the mess began in June, Morey has said that he won’t move Harden unless he can get back both a star with the same on-court value as well as enough draft capital as well as movable salary to make a deal for a star.
You can laugh at the idea of Harden’s “stardom” after another lackluster playoff performance, but the man just led the NBA in assists, averaged 21 points per game on.607 shooting, and ranked as a top-20-ish player within the sport by a number of complex statistical metrics.
You can’t just turn who into nothing, even if you’d rather stop him on the runway than let him come in the road trip.
Many reasonable people have different opinions on whether or not the Sixers’ new first-round pick in 2028 or 2029, along with a number of future second-round picks and a huge number of expiring contracts, is enough to get a second great.
But the deal needs to be made now so that Philadelphia can fully rely on the “star of commensurate on-court value” that it has created in-house: Maxey. He came into the season determined to make another leap, and he sure as hell feels ready to do just that.