Sixers: 3 reasons James Harden makes them title contenders
By Ryan Henry
1. Sixers finally have a second star who complements Joel Embiid
In the Joel Embiid-era of Sixers basketball, the team has only had one legitimate perimeter scorer, and he was only on the team for half a season. It was Jimmy Butler who played for Philly back in the 2018-19 season.
Besides Butler, the main “perimeter” threat on the 76ers the past few years has been Ben Simmons, a player who has notoriously refused to be a scoring threat from anywhere outside the paint.
Now, Philly brings in James Harden, someone who not only has been one of the best scorers the past decade, but has a case for being one of the best scorers in NBA history. Since joining the Houston Rockets in the 2012-13 season, James Harden has averaged a staggering 28.9 points per game, the most by any player during that stretch.
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From the 2017-18 to the 2019-20 seasons, Harden secured straight three scoring titles, which included a season in which he averaged 36.1 points per game, the most by any player since Michael Jordan back in 1986-87.
This year, Harden’s scoring has decreased to 22.5 points per game, the lowest since the 2011-12 season, but it has also coincided with his lowest shot attempt numbers in nearly a decade at just 16 shots a game. Playing alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on the perimeter has forced Harden to become more of a playmaker, where he has thrived, averaging 10.5 assists in 80 career games with the Nets.
In Philly, Harden now reasserts himself as the best perimeter threat on the team. While he will be the second scoring option on the Sixers behind Joel Embiid, Harden should have the ball in his hands more than he did in Brooklyn.
Having Harden being your main ball handler will also open the pick-and-roll game. In the Joel Embiid-era of Sixers basketball, the team has struggled to run the most popular offensive action consistently because of Simmons’s jump shot deficiencies. Even with Simmons out of the lineup, Sixers ball handlers are only 16th this year in pick-and-roll possessions per game at 18.6 but are 3rd in points per possession at 0.95, per NBA.com.
Harden has been one of the best pick and roll players in the league. Since play type tracking started in the 2015-16 season, James Harden has averaged nearly a point-per-pick-and-roll-possession. With Joel Embiid being the roll man, this should give an already dominant pick-and-roll player in Harden more opportunities to get easy looks.
Harden is also a threat in the isolation. If you have ever seen his clips on Bleacher Report or ESPN, this was apparent, but if you want, I’ll give you some numbers. This season, James Harden is averaging 1.06 points per possession while isolating and is shooting free throws on over 20 percent of isolation attempts. By the way, this is considered a down year for Harden’s standards!
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If James Harden has shown me anything the past decade, it is that there aren’t many players in the league I would rather trust to get me a bucket than him.