James Harden was not very good with the Brooklyn Nets to start the NBA season. Fans thought he was going to be a lot better than he was, however, it kind of became clear that Harden wanted to play with another team entirely. Harden was not fond of the environment in Brooklyn, and it made sense for him to have a bit of a scenery change. In the end, that is what happened as he was sent to Philadelphia.
Even in Philly, Harden has not been the same player he used to be. The Sixers star has been hampered by bad performances and he simply has not been enough as the Sixers are up against the Miami Heat in the first round of the postseason. In fact, Harden has been so bad that Stephen A. Smith is hitting the star with a huge dose of reality.
Mitchell Leff/BIG3/Getty Images
“James Harden is NOT a max player anymore! Can we just get that out of the way?” Smith said matter of factly on First Take. As you can see in the clip down below, Smith believes that Harden has completely fallen off and that there does not seem to be a path back for him. Harden used to be one of the most prolific scorers in the entire NBA, but over the course of the last couple of seasons, he has been anything but that, to the detriment of his teams.
The Sixers are a team that need to get out of the second round of the postseason and it doesn’t seem like that is going to be possible right now. Needless to say, it is a bad time to be Harden right now, and it is an even worse time to be a Sixers fan.