Get excited! <Tom McGinnis radio voice> 

James Harden is a Sixer and you’re gonna see stuff like this soon:

Eight thoughts that come to the top of my mind right now:

  1. The Sixers are gonna live at the free throw line. Joel Embiid and James Harden are #2 and #3 in FTA per game (11 and 8). And per 36 minutes, it would equate to 17.7 foul shots combined.
  2. The Sixers offense is basically gonna remove the Seth Curry Iverson cut and replace it with Harden/Embiid pick and roll possessions. It’ll be Embiid post ups, Harden/Embiid pick and roll, Harden iso, and Tobias Harris elbow/post looks. Pretty simple stuff and no need to get complicated. It’s a far cry from Brett Brown’s “A to B” motion offense.
  3. Is Danny Green or Matisse Thybulle in the starting five? It can vary in the regular season and playoffs, but come crunch time in the postseason, it’s gonna have to been Green out there. Matisse is shooting less than 32% from three this season and you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where teams are gonna sag off him and leave him open. It’s not exactly a Ben Simmons situation, but there are similarities. You never want to have to sub offense/defense unless you really need to.
  4. Harden’s only shooting 33.2% from three this season, so you’d like to see that number come back up closer to his career average of 36.2%. Last year with Brooklyn he shot 36.6% from three, so there’s evidence to suggest he’s just a little off right now and can turn it around. It’s not some lengthy trend.
  5. He was more of a facilitator for the Nets than he was with the Rockets. 10.9 assists per game compared to 7.5 during his final Houston year. That number might come back down as he takes on scoring option 1B behind Embiid, and doesn’t have to compete with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant for back court touches.
  6. With Harden and Tyrese Maxey both in the fold, Doc Rivers can stagger a legit ball handler into each unit. God willing, we’ve seen the last of the dreaded “all-bench” lineup.
  7. Speaking of the bench, it’ll be one of Maxey/Harden with Furkan Korkmaz, Thybulle or Green, Georges Niang, and either Millsap or Charles Bassey. They’re gonna have to play smaller with the second unit, and/or add Tobias Harris into the mix if they want to match Harden and Embiid minutes and break out Maxey instead. Doc really needs to shrink his lineup in the postseason and can’t be running out 10 guys like he did in Game 7 against Atlanta.
  8. One issue I can see that will need to be addresses is turnovers. Harden coughs it up almost five times per game. Embiid has gotten that number down, but both guys are high usage and need to emphasize keeping turnovers in check.