Sixers

Five Thoughts on the James Harden Trade, Which Mercifully Happened Sooner Rather than Later

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 31st, 2023 · 9:37 AM EDT

---

The James Harden saga is over, mercifully just three games into the 2023-2024 NBA season.

That’s probably the best part, that we will not have to endure a Ben Simmons repeat, and wait until February for a resolution to another lame bit of maneuvering. Honestly, the Harden saga was maybe 10% as bad as the Simmons thing. This one didn’t feature mental health claims or anybody practicing with their phone in their pocket.

Here’s the final trade, according to Woj:

• Sixers get: Marcus Morris, Robert Covington, Nic Batum, KJ Martin, two first round draft picks, two second round picks, and a pick swap
• Clippers get: James Harden, P.J. Tucker, Filip Petrusev

To accommodate the move, the Sixers waived Danny Green. They just didn’t have enough roster spots available.

Five thoughts on the move:

1) they didn’t need a “star” in return

If the Sixers pushing for a star player was one of the initial reasons for the holdup, that strategy could have changed when Tyrese Maxey came out of the gates on fire. He’s still only 22 years old, and we’re only three games in, but as the primary ball handler he’s averaging 30 points, six assists, and seven rebounds while shooting 56% from three. All of those numbers will drop off, but considering the cumulative improvement he’s shown since 2020, there’s enough to feel comfortable with a 1-2 punch of Joel Embiid and Maxey, surrounded then by solid role players.

2) draft capital coming back

According to Shams Charania, the draft picks coming back look like this:

• 2026 Clippers first-round pick via Thunder
• 2028 Clippers first-round pick
• Two second round picks
• One pick swap

The firsts especially are additional ammunition, which was direly needed because the cupboard was bare. If you look down the road, Daryl Morey now has attachable assets to make a corresponding deal, be it at this trade deadline or in the summer.

3) expiring contracts and newfound cap space

All four players the Sixers traded for are on expiring contracts that amount to about $41 million this season. They’ve also got the following current players on expiring deals:

• Tobias Harris: $39 million
• De’Anthony Melton: $8 million
• Furkan Korkmaz: $5 million
• Danuel House: $4 million
• Kelly Oubre: $3 million
• Patrick Beverley: $3 million

You’re looking at a ton of cap room next season. They really could reshape the entire roster if they want to, and be selective in building a new look around Embiid and Maxey. You also have to consider that there are going to be guys who just aren’t in the rotation at all come February, and you can flip them at the deadline for return.

4) stylistic fits, or not

Harden’s play style just doesn’t seem to fit what Nick Nurse wants to do. If you watched any of the first three games, you noticed a more active Sixers team on the offensive end. They moved off the ball, cut to the basket, and mixed dribble hand-off with traditional pick and roll sets. They threw some horns in there. That’s not what James Harden is, or has been for years now.

When Nick Nurse said this last week, you really got the sense that they were going to deviate a bit from static iso and post touches of the last two seasons:

Nick Nurse on installing more “unpredictability” in the Sixers offense with Joel Embiid pic.twitter.com/MneYMCCK47

— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) October 23, 2023

Even if they had resolved the conflict with Harden, having him play here, in this system, just didn’t make a lot of sense.

5)  role players and roster questions

At the risk of burying the lede, did the Sixers get better with the players coming over from LA? Well, yeah. Harden wasn’t even in the picture, so replacing a guy who wasn’t playing with multiple people who are actually available is an upgrade. And P.J. Tucker didn’t seem long for this world anyway.

In all seriousness though, Kenyon Martin Jr. is young with upside. He’s only 22 but averaged 12 points a game for the Rockets last season. The nature of the Houston rebuild allowed him to play 206 games through his first three seasons. He’s an athletic mover who will get to the rim and bring energy to the defensive side.

Chester native Marcus Morris finally coming home to the Sixers makes a lot of sense. He can still play. He’s been good for 14 and 4 for almost a half-decade now, a starting role player on that Clippers team for the last two seasons and a career 37% three point shooter. Nic Batum came off the bench last year for about 18 minutes a game and Process-favorite Robert Covington had a similar niche role. Both of those guys are in their 30s and on the backside of their respective careers. Morris turned 34 last month.

It’ll be interesting to see how they tweak the lineup with Tucker and his $10 million gone. All three of those veteran additions are probably Tucker upgrades at this point, and if you like Kelly Oubre coming off the bench and firing away, then putting him in the starting five isn’t the move. What’s crazy is that the Sixers went from having seemingly 0 wings two years ago to now having a wealth of options in that spot. Nick Nurse is going to have some decisions to make and some lineup questions to answer. It’s a good problem to have, though it seems like a temporary one, because the roster will look totally different next season.