Danny Green's Assessment of Harden, Maxey, and the Sixers

Spending months rehabbing his ACL injury, veteran forward Danny Green has had a lot of time to simply watch basketball games instead of playing this season. And although he’s no longer a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, Green still kept tabs on the Sixers throughout the 2022-2023 season.

“I watch,” Green said with certainty when the topic of tuning into Sixers hoops came up.

As a member of last year’s Sixers, Green was around when Philadelphia’s front office struck a blockbuster deal with the Brooklyn Nets to land the ten-time All-Star, James Harden.

Harden played in just 21 games with the team before their playoff run. While the acquisition of Harden was viewed as a move that could help the Sixers get over the second-round hump, Philadelphia found themselves eliminated from playoff contention in Game 6 of round two.

Harden and the Sixers acknowledged that a lack of time to perfect on-court chemistry between the stars played into their postseason struggles down the stretch. With a full offseason to work, the Sixers hoped that Harden and Joel Embiid could figure it out for the 2022-2023 NBA season.

Although Green is no longer around, he has been paying attention. And when asked about what he’s seen out of the Sixers this season, the newly-signed Cleveland Cavaliers forward dished some of his thoughts on the progress so far.

“I seen James take more of a facilitating role and figure it out, both of them,” Green said, acknowledging Harden and Embiid. “I know at the end of last year it was a struggle, but he’s kind of back to himself where he’s able to still score at a very good clip, but he doesn’t feel the need to. He’s able to be a quarterback out there and play pretty freely but, at the same time, make things easy for everybody around him.”

Green went beyond discussing the star duo of Harden and Embiid and highlighted the third-year guard Tyrese Maxey, who has been taking on a new role as of late.

“Tyrese comes off the bench and is giving them a different look,” Green continued. “Doc has been experimenting and doing things differently where it’s starting to make sense for them.”

The play from the trio of Embiid, Harden, and Maxey will be crucial when the playoffs roll around, but Green credited some of the reserves for holding it down over time as well.

“They’ve been playing good basketball, and they’ve been rolling,” he finished. “I was happy to see a lot of guys when James [was out], like Shake, Furk, and Matisse, get some more playing time as well. Sucks that I can’t see Matisse tonight, but I’m happy for him that he’s in a place where he’s been playing pretty good minutes. All in all, I’ve been watching them, keeping up with them, and they’ve been doing well. It was good to see they are still winning games and playing well.”

At the All-Star break, the Sixers hold the Eastern Conference’s third seed with a 38-19 record. They are two games in front of Green’s Cavaliers, who they defeated on Wednesday night.

The Sixers might be on the right path to reaching their ultimate goal, but they still have a long way to go. For now, they’re rolling and playing well in the eyes of a three-time champion.

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