The Philadelphia 76ers are facing the heat in the final month of the regular season. After putting their chips in to trade for James Harden and offloading Ben Simmons, Andre Drummond, Ben Simmons, and picks, ‘The Process’ needs to be completed in Philadelphia soon.
Philadelphia has solidified their status as championship contenders with the move and arguably stand to lose the most if things do not go their way this season. ESPN NBA analyst Tim MacMahon believes the same applies to Harden, who is the star with the most pressure to win a title this year.
“Harden has the most to prove of any player in the NBA. Two straight years he’s chosen his destination. Last year the hamstring failed him, but he chose his situation. So, there’s no excuses. We can talk about roster flaws around them; this is what he chose.”
Prior to those comments, MacMahon discussed Philadelphia’s performance in a high-profile 129-100 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on March 10.
“You said the Nets beat them. We need to use a more aggressive verb. They absolutely humiliated them. They stole their soul. I mean that was an embarrassing performance. Listen, James Harden has a track record of sometimes shrinking when the lights get brightest. And that was kind of a classic big-game performance where he disappeared, they lose, and then he reappears at a club with some of his rapper buddies after the game. They’ve had all the elements of a big-game James Harden failure.”
Harden is nearing the twilight of an illustrious career with an MVP and scoring titles to his name. However, an NBA Championship still eludes him. Having teamed up with an MVP candidate in Joel Embiid has kept him in contention after he forced his way out of the then odds-on-favorite Nets.
This team will make tweaks in the off-season to improve the surrounding pieces, but hopefully, they can roll with the punches this season and continue building on their relatively great play since the trade in February.
