Over the course of his career, James Harden has made a name for himself as a big-time scorer. He was a spectacular volume scorer during his time with the Houston Rockets but has moved to a more playmaking-oriented playstyle since ending that era of his career. Since joining the Philadelphia 76ers, James Harden has been putting up 22.9 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 10.7 APG.
While he is obviously a fantastic secondary offensive option currently, James Harden believes that he still needs to score more. After defeating the Mavericks, Harden claimed that he still needs to “be aggressive and “to be in attack mode and look to score”. Noah Levick of NBC Sports relayed Harden’s words.
“It’s been great,” Harden said of his 8-2 start with the Sixers, “but I still need to be aggressive. I think tonight was a sign of that. I still need to be in attack mode and look to score the basketball, because that’s what I do. Just trying to find a balance … of when to be playmaker.
“And I think tonight, especially in that fourth quarter, me attacking, attacking, attacking, the playmaking ability is going to come. We got lobs, we got threes. So that’s going to come from my aggressiveness. You’ve got to just read the game and tonight I think I read the game well.”
There is no doubt that the best version of James Harden comes out when he balances his scoring and his playmaking. There is no doubt that he is still capable of having amazing scoring nights, and hopefully, more of those come in the coming weeks as the Philadelphia 76ers seek to finish the regular season on a high note.
Many people previously believed that James Harden and Joel Embiid would be a poor fit with one another, but it is obvious that this is not the case. The Philadelphia 76ers are viewed as a contender currently, and that is due to their star duo’s play. Hopefully, we see them make a deep playoff run, and perhaps this is the year the 76ers make it to the Finals.
