Sixers

BREAKING NEWS DEFCON 1: Ben Simmons Has Been Traded (Updated)

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Feb 10th, 2022 · 1:19 PM EST

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It happened:

BREAKING: The Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers are finalizing trade sending James Harden for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and draft picks, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 10, 2022

The Brooklyn Nets are trading James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first-round picks, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 10, 2022

Simmons, Curry, Drummond, and two first rounders is somewhat of a steep price, but the Sixers get their guy, and the Ben Simmons saga is over. I think the counterpoint there, if you’re upset about the package Daryl Morey gave up, is that they kept both Tyrese Maxey and Matisse Thybulle and didn’t have to part with their young talent. Now you can roll a starting five of Maxey, Harden, Danny Green, Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiid, and stagger Maxey and Harden to give you a bona fide ball handler on both units. You lose your backup center, which is always important behind Embiid, but you can play small with Paul Millsap* and/or finagle something else to make it work.

Will update this post as more information comes in. The Sixers, FYI, host the Nets at the Wells Fargo Center on March 10th.

EDIT 1 – Woj says Paul Millsap is part of the deal. Millsap was out of favor in Brooklyn but is a veteran forward who isn’t THAT far removed from some good Denver years.*

EDIT 2 – The draft picks going to Brooklyn are 2022 (unprotected) and a protected 2027 first rounder. That’s alright. They’re all-in right now and bringing in Harden puts them in position to compete for a title this year, and come out of an Eastern Conference that is pretty jumbled and doesn’t have a clear-cut favorite.

EDIT 3 – just spitballing on some lineups here, but with a staggered Maxey or Harden, you can run out a second unit of legit ball handler/Korkmaz/Thybulle/Niang/Millsap if you wanted to. Charles Bassey and Paul Reed are still there. There are ways to make it work.

EDIT 4 –

https://twitter.com/Kevin_Kinkead/status/1491844155320021000?s=20&t=weUP2tYAL54f4n3d0J1O1g

EDIT 5 –

Embiid checking in:

pic.twitter.com/OzKxG4HRlO

— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) February 10, 2022