Sixers notebook: James Harden returns as 76ers practice with full squad at training camp

The Sixers wrapped up the second day of their training camp at Colorado State University. Here are some notes from the practice.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the show that Kyle and I did live from Fort Collins after practice.

James Harden’s return

The story of the day is that James Harden, the Sixers’ star point guard who skipped media day in the latest escalation of his as-of-yet unfulfilled trade demand, joined the Sixers for day 2 of their training camp in Fort Collins, Colorado.

According to Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, Harden was just about a full participant in practice, noting that there will be a ramp-up period that the team implements to get Harden fully up to speed.

“It’s always in kinda coordination with strength and medical, and the player, of how fast they’re gonna go to get all the way through there,” Nurse said. “Doesn’t look like it’ll be too long. He looked good, participated in the majority of (practice) anyway. He looked like he’s physically in good shape.”

Harden did not address his teammates about his trade request, or his brief holdout, according to Nurse, with the coach adding that he doesn’t feel it’s necessary. It’s a sentiment that his teammates, at least those that we spoke with today, shared.

“We’re all grown men here. Everybody understands the business of the game of basketball at this point,” veteran forward Tobias Harris said when asked whether Harden needed to address the team. “Personally, he doesn’t have to address myself, or anybody, truthfully. His participation (in practice), in my opinion, is addressing that he’s here, and his attitude and energy today allowed everybody to understand that he wants to go out here and compete with us and get stuff done.

“He’s not in here disrespecting any one of his teammates in any type of fashion, so at the end of the day we’re out here to play basketball and do our job, represent the city and help bring a championship to Philadelphia,” Harris continued.

Nurse said that he expects Harden to continue to participate for the rest of training camp.

“Yeah. He’s here. He knows the schedule, right?” Nurse said, jokingly. “We expect him to be here now.”

There is of course one person whose voice matters the most in that locker room, and we did not get a chance to speak with Joel Embiid today. But the reporting throughout the summer has been that Harden still gets along with his teammates, and the early signs from his return seem to reaffirm that.

Tyrese Maxey drawing rave reviews

It has to be stated that every coach, on every team, is talking up every player that they have on the roster at this time of the year. That’s especially true when nobody else in the world is privy to these practices (note: we’ve only been able to see shooting drills so far.)

That being said, Tyrese Maxey has improved enough over the years that any praise from a coach, especially after Maxey just had months over the summer to work on his game, comes across as believable. And Nurse spent much of Wednesday talking up his star guard.

“He had one of those days where nobody could catch him on anything. He was really providing a lot of juice for his team today, getting to the basket a lot, causing a lot of problems for some of the guys (defensively),” Nurse said of Maxey.

Nurse would go on to praise Maxey’s shooting, specifically the deep range he has on his 3-point shot, his versatility, and his ability to create space to get the shot off.

“I’m always super impressed with his range, and how well and the ease he’s shooting the ball from deep,” Nurse said. “It just comes off so effortlessly, and he really shoots it well. And there’s a kinda, I can’t quite put my finger on it or I haven’t seen it before, but there’s just some quirk there of shiftiness that he loses people on the perimeter, and then he’s wide-open from 3. Like he’s being totally guarded and all of a sudden…”

“He’s getting better with time. Learning how to handle the pick-and-roll, making passes, defending,” Danuel House said when asked about Maxey. “He comes in ready to work and trying to sharpen every object in his bag.”

The Sixers are enjoying the improved ball movement under Nurse’s system

Something that Tobias Harris noted when Kyle and I spoke with him the other day was how much more the ball was moving around.

“I think you guys are going to see this year an offense that is going really to be created through movement. Body movement, ball movement, actions, cutting, DHOs, the ball swinging side-to-side,” Harris said. “I think this is going to be a very good year of seeing a real offensive flow on the floor. And you can ask anybody in here, they’re really excited for that.”

When asked about his first impressions of Nick Nurse, his scheme and his points of emphasis as compared to what they were running last year, Danuel House agreed.

“It’s just a lot more selfless basketball. There’s not so much of two guys having the ball. Doc is two guys ball dominant, Nick Nurse is everybody play together, everybody work for each other,” House said. “You could see the difference, night and day.”