CAMDEN, N.J. — For the Philadelphia 76ers to have any success in the 2022-23 season, they will need Joel Embiid and James Harden to be on the same page and in perfect synergy.
This will be the first full season for Embiid and Harden. They played 21 games together after the 2022 trade deadline deal. The two were the No. 1 pick-and-roll combination in the league as they were incredibly tough to stop, but coach Doc Rivers wants to see more.
The biggest thing with that duo is Rivers wants to see Harden defer to Embiid a bit more. The offense is going to be centered around the big fella, and the Sixers need Harden to understand that.
“I just think they’re getting better each day,” said Rivers at practice on Friday. “There’s pick-and-rolls that James wants to explore and there’s pick-and-rolls that, really, the play is for Joel and that’s what they have to still figure out. They’re starting to do that.”
The potential for Harden and Embiid is great. Harden is a guy who can break a defense down despite being 33 years old now and he’s such an elite playmaker. Embiid is as dominant as they come. He can take games over single-handily as a 7-foot big man. There aren’t many players in this league who can do what Embiid does at his size.
“We know how dynamic they are as players and how great they are with the basketball as well,” said Tobias Harris. “Just seeing how they keep their spots on the floor, but also we know how great they are, whether it be in pick-and-roll combination and just playing off each other. So, we’ve had some really good moments in training camp where we’ve seen some pretty great things between the both of them together.”
Obviously, it helps that the Sixers have a full training camp with the star duo so they can grow and build off each other.
“It’s been really good, especially being able to have this time and have a training camp to go through all that,” Harris added. “That’s going to help us throughout this whole year.”
As far as how Harden looked in his preseason debut on Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Rivers was happy with what he saw.
“He looked fine,” the coach stated. “He looked good. He was beating guys off the dribble. I love that he’s passing ahead, the advanced pass. I think that’s why Tyrese (Maxey) has been so effective because we got him in the open court. We can’t do it enough. We literally can’t do that enough. He’s starting to see the game better a point guard perspective.”
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