Philadelphia, PA: We are a couple of days away from NBA Free Agency beginning on July 1 and there are some questions about the direction that the Sixers are about to be going under new head coach Nick Nurse. One of those questions is what the future holds for James Harden – he has until this Thursday to invoke his player option or become a free agent and try to get a new deal.
On the Tuesday edition of ESPN First Take, ESPN analyst Tim Legler came out and said that the Philadelphia 76ers will not win a title with James Harden:
.@LegsESPN on if the 76ers should keep the Embid-Harden duo 👀
"I do not think so, because I don't think you win a championship with James Harden." pic.twitter.com/m1q8MFvymr
— First Take (@FirstTake) June 27, 2023
After hearing everything that Leglar said, it makes a lot of sense to wonder that, if the Sixers were to bring back James Harden, are they even close to getting over the hump of the second round of the playoffs.
To be honest, I don’t think so – you could see it in the body language from Harden in the series against the Celtics where he would have two good games but was nowhere to be found in the other five games. You see it wearing on Joel Embiid as his confidence is still not the same after the mess he had to deal with with Ben Simmons.
This team should be built around Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey going forward. Tyrese Maxey has something different about him as he can make more plays and is very quick off the ball while James Harden likes to move slowly and walk his way up the floor.
