Looking at things right now, the Philadelphia 76ers are in a good place. With the trade for James Harden, the Sixers are solid contenders. Moreover, Joel Embiid has raised his level of play. Their duo has only delivered a dominant performance in their short time together. However, a former NBA player believes the pressure is all on Embiid with the whole Ben Simmons trade taking place this season.

Simmons was a key piece to the Sixers in his time with the organization. However, after the playoffs last season, the scrutiny drove him away. After the truckload of fines, Philly decided to move and go all out, bringing in James Harden.

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While success is on the back of the Embiid-Harden duo, Arenas believes the result won’t matter.

The former Washington man believes Embiid will do anything to prove the Beard trade was the right way to go.

Arenas digs into Joel Embiid

It was clear that Embiid wanted to move on from Simmons after all the drama this season. Looking at this, Arenas believes Embiid will run his mind to make everyone believe getting James Harden was the right move. All this because he wanted to get rid of Simmons. Over that, Arenas thinks Embiid is an MVP candidate because he didn’t have Ben Simmons.

He said: “Embiid is going to be more delusional than anything because of the Ben Simmons thing he needs this to work. He needs to prove to the city that this was the right trade, this was the right movie that we did.”

“So he needs it to work, so no matter what happens, in his mind it’s always this was the best thing we did. We got rid of the guy who didn’t want to be here. So you’re never really going to get his true intentions of really how he feels,” he added.

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Currently, the Sixers have excelled with Harden and Embiid. James has averaged 22 points and 10 assists and proved his dynamic with Embiid works. To go against Arena’s point, Joel Embiid has been himself despite having a superstar presence alongside him. However, Embiid had no choice but to elevate his game as he knew he would be alone for the most part of the season.

Joel was always one of the best bigs men in the league. With Simmons, he even believed they would win together. However, after losing out on such a big star, Embiid had to dial in. Now playing with one of the best scorers, he has the pressure to deliver.

The only way to validate the Harden trade is for the Sixers to win the trade. But with the way their dynamic has worked, the Sixers will surely have a championship as the only thing in their mind.

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If Embiid continues his run, do you think he is a clear favorite to win MVP?