As the Philadelphia 76ers head into the postseason and prepare for their Round 1 opponent in the Toronto Raptors, all eyes will be on James Harden as he looks to make a big impact in his first Philadelphia playoff run.
The Sixers are entering the playoffs as the No. 4 seed and after acquiring Harden at the deadline back on Feb. 10, things have been choppy.
In 21 games with the Sixers, he averaged 21.0 points, 10.5 assists, and 7.1 rebounds, but he shot just 40.2% from the floor and 32.6% from the 3-point line. Those aren’t prime Harden numbers and coach Doc Rivers admitted that he and the Sixers are still trying to work things out.
“I think he’s getting it,” said Rivers. “I don’t think any of us are there yet, but we’re working on it. We’re a work in progress.”
Rivers won’t go into any specific details on how much work the Sixers need, but he did add that the team knows and understands where they are and what needs to be done.
“We know as a group we need work and things we need to work on,” Rivers added. “A lot of it is continuity, a lot of it is spacing, we know exactly what we need to do.”
Harden did admit after their most recent loss to Toronto that spacing is something that is bothering him in terms of being able to get to the basket. Luckily for he and the Sixers, they are having a week’s worth of practice to get this done and figure everything out.
Due to the play-in tournament, Rivers has a week with his team to figure it all out. Normally, teams would jump right into it, but not now with everything going on.
“I think this is really good,” said Rivers. “Maybe if I had a team that we had been together. If you’re Golden State or Milwaukee, I’m sure they would love to jump right into it. They already know what they’re doing, but in this case, honestly, I think it’s good for us so I like it.”
Helping Harden become a catch-and-shoot player is something that is going to eventually have to come to light. In Philadelphia, Harden doesn’t need to be that guy to have the ball in his hands all the time, and helping him become a catch-and-shoot player is an emphasis in practice.
“He does it every day,” said Rivers. “I’ve never been a player who had the ball for this many years in a row, you still have the ball a lot, now the ball’s being swung to you a lot too. It’s amazing. You watch, and he doesn’t miss a shot, but it’s not natural for somebody swinging him the ball.”
The thing is, the Sixers are keeping tabs on his shooting in practice. The challenge now is for Harden to bring it out in a game.
“We keep percentages on all of it, he’s one of the highest guys on catch-and-shoot on those,” Rivers finished. “In the game, it comes and he puts it on the floor a lot so I don’t know what that is getting comfortable with it, but he’s putting the work in. That’s all you can ask.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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