James Harden is on his third team in two years now, and expectations couldn’t be higher. With a legendary head coach, one of the best centers in the NBA, and a pair of young studs in Tyrese Maxey and Matisse Thybulle, the 76ers have everything they need to take home a Championship this season.
According to Paul Pierce, he’d take home 5 if he had the chance to lead that team.
Speaking on the “No Chill” podcast, Pierce explained why the 10x All-Star is all out of excuses.
“But my thing is when I look at that, Embiid right now is the best big in the game but I’m like … if I had the chance to play with the talent that Harden plays with, I’d probably be walking out of here with 5 championships.”
It might be a stretch by the Celtics legend, but his point holds true: it’s championship or bust for the 76ers. Pierce is hardly the first one to say it.
“James has got a reputation,” Barkley said. “He has struggled in all big games. If you go back and look, even in Houston, when they should have beaten the Golden State Warriors, they were up until Chris Paul got hurt. And Chris was the leader of that team. But James is developing a reputation, and it’s fair, James is a terrific player. But when lights are the brightest, he has played awful. The thing about being a great player, you don’t have to play great. You just can’t stink up the joint. And he stunk up the joint. The 76ers have to win a championship in the next two years or that’s going to go down as one of the worst trades ever because the reason I wasn’t crazy about the trade – The Nets are going to have KD, Kyrie, and Ben Simmons, probably for the next 10 years. I think the 76ers have to win this year or next year.”
The 76ers have looked good since the Beard’s arrival, but it doesn’t mean all too much in the grand scheme of things.
The East is deeper than it has been in a long time, and the path to the Finals will not be an easy one for Philly. But with, arguably, the best roster in basketball, they should expect nothing less than to take home the ultimate prize.
Only time will tell if they can deliver.
