76ers vs. Nets: PJ Tucker on the Evolution of James Harden

PJ Tucker sees an evolved James Harden ahead of the 76ers' upcoming playoff series against the Nets.

Saturday’s Game 1 matchup of the NBA Playoff series between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets won’t be the first time James Harden and PJ Tucker share the court as teammates during the postseason.

During the three seasons between 2018 and 2020, Harden and Tucker shared the floor as members of the Houston Rockets. At the time, Harden was the NBA’s scoring champion for three consecutive seasons and won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award during the first run.

After Tucker and Harden had two playoff runs on two different teams following the 2020 run in Houston, they are reunited as teammates on Sixers for the 2023 playoff run. Tucker is playing alongside a scoring champion once again, but it’s not James Harden.

However, that’s not to say that Harden has taken a step back now that he’s sharing the court with the potential NBA MVP Joel Embiid. Instead, Tucker sees a different, yet still dominant, version of Harden taking the floor this season.

“His game has just evolved, period,” Tucker said following practice this week. “To be able to be scoring champ and assist champ multiple times is kind of crazy. How many players can actually do that? To evolve to be more of a playmaker now to get everybody involved, to see a game, I think he has one of the hardest jobs because he’s so used to having the ball so much and playing with (Embiid). Trying to figure that out every night is crazy, and seeing him evolve all year is pretty amazing.”

All season long, Harden received praise for tweaking his game to focus more on the playmaking aspect rather than scoring. As a result, he led the league in assists for the second time in his career and did it while still averaging 21 points and knocking down 39 percent of his threes.

In a recent interview, Harden mentioned that he believes he’s mastered his craft playing the game of basketball at this point in his career. He has a long list of accolades and impressive stats to back him up. 

Now, the Sixers hope that Harden’s regular season success as a playmaking guard this season can translate to a title run. Being in the NBA since 2009, Harden hasn’t achieved the ultimate goal of winning an NBA Championship just yet.

Perhaps, with the significant change in his game, the evolved Harden could help the Sixers get to where they need to go this year. The Sixers and the Nets will get things started on Saturday afternoon.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.

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SIXERS VS. NETS PREVIEW

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