Addition by Subtraction: Sixers - (Doc Rivers + James Harden) + Nick Nurse = winning basketball

James Harden and Doc Rivers one day will share enshrinement in the basketball Hall of Fame. Their tenures in Philadelphia will not aid their candidacies.

The Sixers hired Rivers to replace Brett Brown in 2020. The Sixers traded for Harden in February 2022. After they combined for two postseasons of mediocrity, it all went south: Harden got Rivers fired in May, demanded a trade in June, and finally was shipped off to the Clippers on Halloween. The Sixers received role players and draft picks, but no star. Things looked bleak. Looks were deceiving.

The Sixers hired Nick Nurse, and they never needed Harden.

It has been addition by subtraction.

The Sixers are 7-1, including a signature Wednesday win over the Celtics, the best team in the Eastern Conference. They host the Pacers on Sunday, so the Sixers could exit the weekend just like the Eagles, with eight wins, one loss, and limitless possibilities.

I, like most, did not see this coming. Not without the addition of a star.

I thought the Sixers might be better with Nurse than Rivers, not because Nurse’s genius outshines Doc’s, but mainly because coaches have a shelf life, and Doc’s had expired in Philly. I did not think the Sixers would be better without Harden, because talent has no shelf life. Apparently, Harden has less talent than I calculated, and his former teammates have more.

Plus, the dynamic has changed.

Rivers gave Harden too much control. Too much leeway. He told him at training camp in 2022 that Harden need worry only about facilitating himself and Joel Embiid: “It’s a pecking order. This ain’t a democracy.”

» READ MORE: Live microphone catches Doc Rivers’ frank conversation with James Harden at Sixers camp

At that moment, somewhere, Bobby Knight spit out his coffee and Red Auerbach rolled over in his grave. At that moment, the stated objective to generally ignore Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris spelled the Sixers’ doom. At that moment, the Rivers/Harden collab wrote its own epitaph. Their excisions have made Sixers basketball watchable for the first time since 2011 (the Ben Simmons show was wretched, too).

In retrospect, the benefits of their removals should have been obvious.

The Sixers play a faster brand of ball, which always is a better brand of ball. Of course, the Sixers would have played faster behind Rivers, who was 61 last season, than behind Harden, who just looked like he was 61 last season.

The Sixers entered Friday night’s game in Detroit ranked 12th in “pace” — how many possessions it uses per 48 minutes — at 101.4. They ranked 27th, or fourth from last, last season, at 97.4. Why is this? Because you no longer have a now-gray-bearded 34-year-old stumbling somewhat disorientedly upcourt, like a chubby version of Uncle Drew.

“The ball is moving,” Embiid said, a not-so-subtle criticism of Harden and the scheme Rivers allowed him to run. “No matter if the shots are going in or not, guys are just happy worrying about the right things — which is to win. That’s the only thing that matters, and that’s the only thing that should matter.

“No one has an ego.”

This cannot be overstated. Harden almost incurred an 8-second violation every time he brought the ball up; only Luka Dončić possessed the ball more than Harden’s 8.6 seconds per possession. That gave the Sixers just 16 seconds to run the offense, which translated into a lot of forced shots as the shot clock neared its expiration. Harden shot 42.3% as a Sixer, his worst shooting percentage for any of the five teams that have employed him.

Little wonder, then, that Harden last week at his introductory press conference in L.A. outrageously declared himself “a system,” bigger than any scheme any coach might design for any team’s maximal overall performance. Doc enabled this.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, Phillies’ Bryce Harper, and James ‘The System’ Harden: A study in contrasts

Embiid, now unencumbered by “The System,” is more incentivized and fitter than ever. He no longer walks up court, setting moving screens for The Beard. Again, this means the offense starts sooner.

Maxey, now the full-time point guard, is getting about four more shots per game, but he still entered Sunday shooting 48.0%. After two years of the coaching staff’s discouraging Maxey from taking his trademark runner, Nurse & Co. have encouraged him to shoot the shot. He made four floaters in the fourth quarter Wednesday.

Maxey spent last season as Harden’s understudy at point guard, but that generally meant Maxey played sporadic minutes with inconsistent personnel groupings. His assist-to-turnover ratio was about 2.65-to-1. This season, despite handling the ball full time, his ratio — after his 11 assists and no turnovers against the Pistons on Friday — is 7.5-to-1, by far the best of any player averaging at least 30 minutes.

Harden’s rate last season was 3.17-1. After three games with the Clippers, it’s 1.56-1. That is not a typo.

In those three games, Harden has more turnovers (9) than Maxey (8) has in eight.

This isn’t meant to suggest Harden is without value. Yes, the Clips were 0-3 since “The System” was installed, but there is a reality in which the Clippers ultimately succeed. They start three Hall of Fame-bound players alongside Harden: Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George. They won’t stink.

But neither will the Sixers.

Harris, even more than Maxey, has been set “free,” in his words. He entered Sunday getting just 11.9 shots per game, but the type of shots he’s getting now better suited his skill set; he’d gone from shooting 50.1% last season to shooting 58.9% so far this year.

Replacing P.J. Tucker, who was traded with Harden, with Kelly Oubre, who signed this offseason, seems like an obvious upgrade. But let’s wait to see if this version of Oubre after eight games is the same version after 80 games. If it’s not, they can always turn to Marcus Morris, who was part of the return, and also is known as P.J. Tucker Lite. Nicolas Batum, who was also part of the return, is another option.

Harden’s indifference to defense, born of an inability to defend, has been replaced with De’Anthony Melton, whose defense often approaches the NBA’s average.

To be clear, the team’s record matters less than its progress. If the Sixers entered the weekend 6-2, or 5-3, they still would be a better team than they were at their best with Harden. It’s not that they stank. It’s just that, despite Harden’s skills and Doc’s coaching, they never had a chance.

Rivers made the Sixers better in his three seasons. He’s a big reason the current team has succeeded so markedly and so quickly; Nurse inherited a good squad with polished principal players.

Rivers turned Embiid into an MVP. He made Maxey, a draft-day afterthought, a bona fide star. He even got the most out of Ben Simmons, though that turned out to be precious little.

There was much more to Doc. During the social upheaval and pandemic of the last three years, Rivers represented the Sixers with the same class and grace he displayed as the coach in Los Angeles when Clippers owner Donald Sterling was outed as a racist.

Rivers made plenty of mistakes, too. In defending Simmons’ indefensible play, as well as his early usage of fan favorite Paul Reed, he insulted a smart Philly fan base and media corps. He was often condescending when explaining his strategies, even if his strategies made sense. And they didn’t always make sense.

But Doc’s biggest mistake was handing the keys to the team over to a washed-up superstar.

It’s clear that Nurse will give Melton, Harris, Maxey, Oubre, and Batum plenty of chances to carve out roles to complement Embiid.

It will, in short, be a democracy.

As basketball always should be.