The deal is now officially complete as James Harden and Paul Millsap passed their physicals on Saturday to make things move forward for the Philadelphia 76ers. Now, it’s time to get to work.
Both Harden and Millsap were able to be at Philadelphia’s practice on Monday as they prepare for a matchup with the Boston Celtics on Tuesday at home. While Harden will miss the game, as well as Thursday’s matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks as he is out through the All-Star break, he was able to practice on Monday and get some work done with the team.
“We didn’t do anything live, but we did all the skeleton work,” said coach Doc Rivers. “All the defensive walkthrough stuff, all the shooting, did everything everybody else did. Obviously, he’s a high IQ basketball player so a lot of the things we do is stuff he does anyway and some of the other things we just throw out there and had him do it, and he kind of figured it out. It was good.”
Harden is a guy who can play in any offense and he is able to make things work wherever he goes. This will be an easy adjustment for him, but he still has to be able to familiarize himself with his new teammates and make it work with everybody accordingly.
“We did walk through some stuff,” said Danny Green. “He did get a chance to familiarize himself with the offense, a little bit, defensive principles, but it’s gonna take a couple days for me to get a great feel or feel comfortable, but naturally, he’s gonna just do what he does and we’re gonna figure it out around him.”
James Harden working on off the dribble 3s #Sixers pic.twitter.com/sQFrziV4GI
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) February 14, 2022
Georges Niang, who has been victimized by Harden plenty of times while he was with the Utah Jazz and Harden with the Houston Rockets, is just happy that he’s on Harden’s side this time around. He also doesn’t believe that the adjustment will take very long.
“I don’t see it taking too long,” said Niang. “I think the most underrated thing about James’s game is how smart he is. He’s constantly asking questions, picking up on things, you can see him looking at different things where he’s picking his spots, and I don’t see that taking too long. I’m just happy that I’m not on the other side of a James Harden team because in Utah it seemed like every year he was knocking us out of the playoffs.”
Harden’s next opportunity to play will be after the break on Feb. 25 against the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=59894]
[lawrence-related id=60076,60073,60082]