“Me and James are still close. He’s like a big brother,” Maxey said. “As soon as he came in here, he embraced me. He taught me a lot. All he’s done here is elevate my game.”
The Sixers acquired Harden from the Brooklyn Nets in 2021-22. Philadelphia lost to the Miami Heat in the 2022 Eastern Conference Semifinals and fell to the Boston Celtics in the 2023 semifinals. Harden is averaging 21.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 10.6 assists in 79 games with the Sixers.
Maxey is one of the top young players in the NBA. He averaged 20.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists last season while shooting 48.1% from the field, 43.4% from beyond the arc and 84.5% from the free-throw line.
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This pairs well with his comments on JJ Reddicks podcast;
“He didn’t make it weird at all,” Maxey said on ‘The Old Man and the Three’ Podcast. “He came in and was very like… Just not what I expected. I’m going to be honest, just not what I expected. He was very receptive. He worked hard, he did all the drills. He was talking to even young guys that he didn’t know. Think about; James Harden, MVP, scoring champ, two-time assist leader, he’s sitting there talking to guys like Ricky Council like, ‘Hey, when you’re in help, you should do this,’ And I’m like, this is not what I was picturing.”
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These two have a great bromance and Harden clearly loved mentoring him. too bad Daryl Morey a whole bitch
Players, including Maxey, are definitely watching how this Harden saga plays out. News flash, they’re on Harden’s side. Morey is digging his and the Sixers own grave right now.
Maybe but I also think he gets Morey’s perspective as he wants to win as well
I suspect a lot of players are very savvy about understanding the NBA from a roster and team construction standpoint as so much of NBA media is centered on that aspect of the game now
There’s a good chance waiting it out till the deadline is their best move and it gets him a lot more shots in the meantime so we’ll see how the team responds
What’s Morey gonna do with that cap space? The same thing he does whenever he has had cap space? The same things he’s done his whole career when he’s had cap space, sign no one of note (I’ll concede D12 though, but that was on the back of harden and parsons, not Morey)
Morey has no choice but to do everything he can to maximize the return for Harden. Philly has to make another move after that and they need assets they don’t currently have to make such a move.
He’s not a bad guy here. He’s doing what any GM has to do in this situation.
Facts, always good to remember that at the end of the day, this is the players’ job, and the workers always should take the side of the workers over the management.