The Philadelphia 76ers’ interest in pursuing Brooklyn Nets star James Harden in the upcoming offseason has become such a big, prolonged talking point that rival teams want the league to look into tampering by the Sixers.
At the moment, Harden joining the Sixers looks like it will be a real possibility, and, for Philadelphia, it makes a ton of sense. Harden obviously has a lot of experience with Philadelphia president Daryl Morey, and he seems a perfect offensive fit with Joel Embiid due to his shooting and playmaking.
However, something seems a bit off with Harden lately. The offensive maestro had a miserable night on Wednesday in a loss to the Sacramento Kings, against whom he shot just 2-for-11. This continues a recent stretch of tough shooting nights.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Bobby Marks joined Zach Lowe on “The Lowe Post” podcast and they questioned Harden’s fit in Philadelphia:
Bontemps: Frankly, I think waiting to trade for James Harden this summer would be a terrible trade and a terrible idea. I think it is insane that they might wait to do that. James Harden went to 2-for-11 last night against the Kings and scored four points and they lost to the Kings. James Harden does not look like a top 10 player in the world anymore. He doesn’t look like a guy that I want to be paying $50 million when he’s 36.
Marks: I think like three years from now, we’ll be talking about James Harden like we talk about John Wall and Russell Westbrook.
Bontemps: I’ll go step further. If you watch James Harden play now, he’s a better shooting version of Russell Westbrook. That’s who he is now, when he plays his best. … He’s a good player, but he has the same flaws. When he’s on offense and he doesn’t have the ball, he stands there. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t shoot catch-and-shoot 3s, so you’re just sort of playing 4-on-4 and on defense. He’s obviously never been very good on defense, and one thing he does do in terms of switching, you can’t do if you have him playing with Joel Embiid because Joel’s playing in a drop and he’s going to be by the rim and you’re not going to have him out at the 3-point line switching around on guys.
On the season, Harden is still averaging 22.5 points, 10.2 assists and 8.0 rebounds, but his shooting numbers are down so that is an obvious concern. The Sixers could very well believe they can get back to where he was with the Houston Rockets, but he will also have to play nice with Embiid to make this work if it becomes a reality.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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