Sixers feel confident, prepared to play with or without James Harden

The Philadelphia 76ers feel confident and prepared to play with or without James Harden.

CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers have been through this before.

Two years ago, Ben Simmons was causing a similar disruption through his own trade request. The Sixers were uncertain whether he would play or not.

Now, they are going through it with James Harden. The future Hall of Famer requested a trade in June. While he showed up for training camp in Colorado and has been with the team during practice, he has not played in any games. He also missed practice on Wednesday.

While some may believe the Sixers are clouded in uncertainty, the players  themselves believe they’re going to be OK.

“For sure,” Danny Green said. “It’s something we’ve done in the past. We have more mature players now. We have a couple different pieces. A lot of depth. We have a great group that can get it done. Especially, when you have Joel, Tyrese and Tobias. That’s a good foundation. Then we have Tuck (PJ Tucker), myself, Pat (Beverley), Kelly (Oubre Jr.). We have some veteran leadership there and some of the young guys that can get it done.”

The message coach Nick Nurse has preached is “If he’s here, we go. If he’s not here, we go.” Essentially this means the Sixers are focused on themselves and trying to succeed. No matter what happens with Harden, there is not much the Sixers can do. They just want to play basketball.

“Most of the time, when we’ve played, we’ve been playing together just mixing and matching a bunch of different lineups which has been great, but it’s been good,” Joel Embiid added. “I think we’ll be prepared either way.”

Tyrese Maxey was in just his second season when this happened with Simmons. He had to run the offense as the team’s point guard and score. That was a challenge for him given how young and inexperienced he was. Now, he will assume a similar role, but he’s far better equipped.

“Oh, it’s night and day,” Green added of Maxey. “He’s played enough games now to where he has a veteran IQ, presence, the way that he can change the pace of the game, change the tempo of the game, or even change the game. Take over a game.”

While the Sixers continue to work through this Harden situation, they believe they have the right pieces to remain successful thanks to Maxey’s growth.

“His maturity and how he’s grown as a player is a huge difference from his rookie year to now,” Green added. “That makes us even more dangerous where we don’t have to rely on Joel as much when we have a guy like Tyrese and Tobias (Harris) and other guys that can bring different energies offensively and defensively.”

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