Skip Bayless has once again taken shots on James Harden who is majorly underperforming for the Philadelphia 76ers as they take on the Toronto Raptors. The Beard scored 14 points as the Sixers won 112-97 to take a 2-0 lead in the first round of the playoffs.
When Harden joined Philadelphia, he started off really nicely as he developed a connection with Joel Embiid. But now his form has gone down and he has been far from his best form in the last two playoffs matches.
Therefore Bayless who is always on the edge on basketball opinions stated that Harden’s age is catching up and he is on a decline.
Speaking about the ten-time All-Star, Bayless said on ‘The Undisputed’:
“He’s starting to look old to me, it’s like he’s becoming an old man right before your very eyes and I see Chris Paul almost 37 just take over a game in the fourth quarter.”
Both Bayless and Shannon Sharpe shared high praise for Sixers youngster Tyrese Maxey. The young guard scored 23 points and also had eight assists and nine boards. Maxey received a lot of praise from both the analysts but there were questions on Sixers’ future.
“I’ve loved Tyrese Maxey and if you remember I thought back to you, I said, ‘You cannot include Tyrese Maxey in any trade to bring in James Harden’ and they managed not to do include him and I love his guts and I love his style and I love the energy that he plays with and he just plays with the flare, he is just fearless and I love that about him. But to your point, if you are going to go places it has to be Harden and Embiid and not Maxey and Embiid,” Bayless added.
James Harden is an elite offensive weapon, he is a sensational shooter and has developed into one of the best passers in the league. The Sixers fans were very excited to see Harden join their franchise and were excited to see Embiid and Harden combine and bring them the NBA Championship.
Although Embiid is going strong as he scored 31 points against Raptors in the second game, Harden is having an scoring average of 17.9 points per game in the last ten matches. Therefore the Beard will have to retrospect and find out the areas he can improve to comeback to his best form.
