The Philadelphia 76ers are currently living in a new era of basketball. The era of Joel Embiid and James Harden. A guard and big man combo have always been a recipe for success. However, when you look at the best guard and big man combo, you always recall the Kobe-Shaq or Stockton and Malone’s of the world. Where there are a lot of highlights and alley-oops. But this is not something you’ll see with Harden and Embiid.
The Philadelphia 76ers have lost 4 out of 12 games since the James Harden trade. Their most recent loss came to the Toronto Raptors team without Fred VanVleet. After that game, a lot of question marks began to appear around Joel Embiid and his case for the MVP. One stat that surfaced put Joel Embiid and James Harden’s game into perspective.
James Harden and Joel Embiid make more free throws than field goals
The narrative of the NBA being soft came into existence because of easy it has become to pick up calls. With how little contact needs to come into play to draw a call, that is a narrative that cannot be easily shaken off.
We’ve seen a lot of NBA players like Trae Young and Dwayne Wade use this to be successful but the NBA tried to combat it by changing and tweaking the rules. However, one NBA duo that doesn’t seem to be affected by this rule is James Harden and Joel Embiid.
Currently, Joel Embiid and James Harden have more Free Throws made than field goals. Embiid has 555 FTs and 538 FGs whereas Harden has 391 and 351. This is all that we expect to see from Harden. James Harden led the league in Free Throws made for 6 straight seasons and was a driving force in his 36 and 34 ppg seasons. That earned him his MVP award which did not sit right with a lot of viewers who believe this has ruined the game.
This season we could see it all unfold again if Embiid wins the MVP award whilst leading the league in most Free Throws made. His play is very physical but lately, it has looked like he’s been only trying to draw calls. That’s why his stat lines look decent even in a bad shooting night like tonight against the Raptors. However, the final score reflects what his performance looked like.
Will this style of play cost them in the NBA playoffs? Philadelphia fans hope that’s not the case this season.
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