James Harden has been playing well for the 76ers since arriving in Philadelphia to team up with MVP candidate Joel Embiid in February. Harden has made Embiid an even more dangerous scorer with his ball handling, vision, and penetration, and Harden, as point guard, has turned Tyrese Maxey into a much more effective scorer off the ball.
But that ain’t the “solution” to the 76ers challenges, says NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who gets big agreement from fellow commentator and recently retired NBA scoring legend Jamal Crawford.
O’Neal says the 76ers don’t need 15 assists a game from James Harden. What they need is the superstar scorer version of James Harden, a guy to play Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade to Embiid’s O’Neal. That is the solution, says O’Neal. Not James Harden, ball distributor.
Crawford says plainly that the 76ers “don’t need 14 point, 15 assists James Harden, they need 35 point, ten assists James Harden.”
Not consulted here is Sixers President Daryl Morey, who pulled the trigger on the Harden trade and who no doubt agrees. Morey didn’t trade away Seth Curry, Ben Simmons, Andre Drummond and company for 15 assists a game. Morey did it for an NBA championship, and a run to the title will require that Harden routinely scores 30 a game.
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