The Philadelphia 76ers were finally able to see their prized acquisition in James Harden at practice on Monday as they were able to come together as a team. Harden will remain out through the All-Star break, but the fact he was able to practice with the team is a good sign.
Harden did a lot of work with young guard Tyrese Maxey–who Harden was impressed with back in December–and the two guards were able to work together after practice. They did a lot of shooting drills and worked on off-the-dribble 3-pointers which is going to be a big part of Maxey’s development.
While they did not scrimmage or anything like that, the Sixers were able to get some walkthroughs in. Coach Doc Rivers said Harden was impressed with Maxey’s work in practice.
“Clearly, our first day we wanted to make sure that James and Tyrese were together because just being together will help Tyrese,” said Rivers. “James today was blown away by Tyrese. Like he had two dunks today and James was like ‘oh my gosh’ because you don’t see that, how athletic he is. I thought that surprised James.”
Harden and Maxey will be the new starting backcourt for Philadelphia and the fact that they are working together already is a good sign. There is a lot that Harden can teach Maxey about looking for his own shot as well as getting to the line and drawing fouls.
James Harden working on off the dribble 3s #Sixers pic.twitter.com/sQFrziV4GI
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) February 14, 2022
“Just stand next to him hope it rubs off,” Rivers said of Maxey’s work with Harden. “I love that we’ve gone from, our skill development when I got here everybody was doing individual workouts. Every single guy on every basket and I was like, ‘I thought this was a team game?’ and so we’ve gotten two more two and three guys, you know, pods, on baskets just to get guys to try to get each other.”
Harden’s next opportunity to debut for Philadelphia will be on Feb. 25 against the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road after the All-Star break.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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