“Is he not focused, is he not comfortable or is he not a great player anymore?” - Kevin Wildes questions James Harden’s recent struggles with Philadelphia 76ers
James Harden came to Philadelphia with championship hopes, but his recent play has raised doubts about the 76ers' ability to make a title run.
The Toronto Raptors (47-33) went past the 76ers (49-31) on Thursday night 119-114. James Harden was on the floor for nearly 40 minutes and shot 3 of 12. While his scoring (13 points) took a hit, Harden still managed to generate points for his team with 15 assists.
James has been in a scoring slump for quite some time now. In his last 7 games, he has averaged 17.2 points, shooting a mere 34.1% from the field and 31.3% from the three-point line. He has also averaged 11 assists per game in the same span.
Kevin Wildes raised some serious questions about Harden's slump of late on FOX Sports' "First Things First:"
"Is he not focused? Is he not comfortable? Or is he not a great player anymore? The last 16 have been really bad. ... Do you know how you're playing this game? Are you not all in on the Sixers right now, just how you weren't all in on the Rockets, and you weren't really all in on the Nets?
Is James Harden not focused, is he not comfortable, or is he not a great player anymore? ... He has 0 dunks with the 76ers. I feel like if you can't dunk that's an indicator that you've lost a step." — @kevinwildes https://t.co/wxeqENtq9g
"The second question is, are you not comfortable, are you just not comfortable playing in this system, playing with Doc (Rivers), playing with (Joel) Embiid? ... Here's the third biggest question: Are you just not an elite player anymore?"
Harden, in his last 16 games, has averaged 19.6 points, shooting just 34.1%, including 29.6% from the 3-point line.
James Harden and Joel Embiid can win a title, but the window is closing fast
The decision to bring James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers was inspired solely by one motive: to win an NBA championship. Philadelphia general manager Daryl Morey unloaded Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond to ensure that Joel Embiid's MVP-caliber season didn't go to waste.
With Harden and Embiid, the 76ers have a very real chance of winning it all, but escaping Father Time is a feat no one has achieved. Harden is 32, and his struggles with his physique and weight have been well-documented, most recently with the Brooklyn Nets, earlier in the season.
When the Simmons-Harden trade went down, a critical point of emphasis was that if the 76ers want to win with Harden, they better hurry. His recent performances have only worked to strengthen that argument.