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Well, that was Enjoyable – Seven Takeaways from James Harden’s Sixers Debut

February 26, 2022
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That was fun. Holy cow. So much for needing time to jell. The Sixers looked like a well-oiled machine in game one of the James Harden era. They shot 52% from the floor, 50% from three, and swung the basketball all around the floor. They can play fast. They can play slow and work through the post. They’ve got off-ball Tyrese Maxey attacking freely. It really was a beautiful thing to watch.

As the risk of getting totally carried away in just one paragraph, here are seven takeaways from Harden’s debut:

 

1) the starting lineup

Doc Rivers decided to go with Matisse Thybulle to complete his starting lineup. No issue there. Thybulle opened on Anthony Edwards and he brings needed perimeter defense to this unit.

Yes, he is a limited offensive player, but that’s fine when the other four guys all need their share of the ball. All Matisse has to do is take catch and shoot threes and continue slashing and cutting to the rim and he’ll be okay out there.

There might be occasions where Danny Green or Furkan Korkmaz start instead, but in this scenario you’re saving their shooting for the second unit. Doc Rivers can close with a different 3 and sub offense/defense with Matisse in those late, fourth quarter scenarios. He’s got some flexibility here.

2) staggering and rotations

Doc said this Thursday:

Doc did not stick to this plan, but he was somewhat close.

Here’s what he did:

First, swapped Harden and Tobias Harris for Georges Niang and Korkmaz, giving us a lineup looking like this:

  1. Maxey
  2. Korkmaz
  3. Thybulle
  4. Niang
  5. Joel Embiid

Danny Green then replaced Thybulle, so that was your first eight-man look right there. Doc then returned Harden at the end of the first quarter with a lineup of:

  1. Harden
  2. Korkmaz
  3. Green
  4. Niang
  5. Paul Millsap

So we got Harden staggered into the second unit initially, but not immediately with Harris, not until they made the extra sub to link the Harden + Harris minutes together. Later, in the third quarter, Doc switched it up and put out a Harden/Embiid lineup, so it seems like there’s gonna be a feeling out process here. He’s gonna experiment and find the best 2+2 pairings for his top four guys.

It’s whatever. It’s fine. As long as we don’t suffer another all-bench lineup during a close game. We DID get an all-bench lineup in the third, but the Sixers were up 25 at the time and survived the inevitable Minnesota run, so the Crossing Broad politburo will allow it. Bottom line, one of Embiid, Harden, Maxey, or Harris must always be on the floor in non-garbage time.

A couple of other lineups we saw last night:

  • Harden/Milton/Green/Harris/Millsap
  • Maxey/Harden/Milton/Harris/Embiid
  • Maxey/Korkmaz/Thybulle/Niang/Embiid

3) a performance to remember

27 points, 12 assists, and eight rebounds for Harden on Friday night. He did a little bit of everything, starting patiently and then ripping some of those sick step-backs in the second half.

Let me give you some video clips of various actions and sequences:

They ran this again in the second half and it flowed into a Harden drive and floater. Nice action. It gives him the option of rounding Embiid or just pulling up and firing from three instead.

This one jumped off the page at me:

That is uber rare. A relocation catch-and-shoot corner three? If Harden is willing to move off the ball and pull the trigger like that, it’s going to be a such a dangerous thing to complement Embiid in the post.

Also:

The step-backs are so good. We’ve been watching these for years now, and it’s just crazy how quickly he creates space and gets these shots off. He draws a ton of fouls on them, too.

4) pick and roll?

There really was not a lot of Harden/Embiid pick and roll in this game. I only counted 3-4 in the first half, and this was one of them:

Keep in mind, James Harden has never played with a big like Joel Embiid. Most of his previous teammate bigs were rim runner and lob threat guys, like Clint Capela and Nic Claxton. And for Embiid, he’s never traditionally been a roll man. He started as a DHO screener for JJ Redick and then developed into a talented post-up player. It’ll be interesting to see if they keep developing this action, or if they play more like they played Friday night. They also should keep looking for a buyout market big.

5) foul shooting

We joked months ago about Harden and Embiid getting to the foul line a bazillion times, and those predictions weren’t far off. They are both top-five foul drawers in the NBA and in this game finished a combined 19-22 from the stripe. The Sixers went to the line 36 times, which is incredible. The highest single-team free throw total this season is 43, and you have to think this team will eclipse that number at some point.

It’s inspiring, because the Sixers weren’t shooting well to open the game. But they built up a lead because they were getting to the line and getting cheap points. It’s a formula that will work every night.

6) quick passing and great vision

The ball movement was excellent in this game. Just crisp passing, early recognition of where to go, and then precise transitional moments like this one:

You also saw how quickly Harden just whips the ball to the unloaded second side. Tobias Harris stepped into a handful of catch-and-shoot threes (2-6 from deep), just simple one-pass stuff in the early shot clock. These wings are going to get a ton of clean looks right above the break line.

7) off-ball Maxey

The burden is no longer on Tyrese Maxey to run the offense as the primary ball handler, so we saw a lot of great off-ball moments like this:

Awesome stuff. Happy Saturday. Enjoy your weekend.

The post Well, that was Enjoyable – Seven Takeaways from James Harden’s Sixers Debut appeared first on Crossing Broad.

https://www.crossingbroad.com/2022/02/well-that-was-enjoyable-seven-takeaways-from-james-hardens-sixers-debut.html

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