This Harden-Simmons trade is going to go down in folklore as the trade that doomed the 76ers and Nets. The Philadelphia 76ers and James Harden are almost set to break up this offseason as despite opting-in to a further year, Harden has demanded as trade out of Philly.
I’m sure Nets and 76ers fans are happy this lingering “Big 3” saga is just about over.
The Philadelphia 76ers are probably going to need a new point guard come the start of the 2023/24 season as James Harden, who did opt-in to his $35.6M player option a few days ago, has asked for a trade out of the City of Brotherly Love. And, to be honest, this is the best move for the 76ers and Harden.
You don’t need me to tell you that the James Harden experiment in Philadelphia has worked out just as well as the Titanic crossing through Atlantic Ocean ice fields. In two seasons with the 76ers, Harden played a meager total of just 79 games, averaged a 12-year low of 21.o PPG each season, and saw the 76ers get bounced out of the 2nd round in both years.
And, to top it all off, Harden choked miserably in both playoff series exits (2022 vs. Heat, 2023 vs. Celtics) as he scored 14 PTS and 11 PTS, respectively, in Games 5 and 6 against the Heat (both games the 76ers lost) in 2022, while he followed that up with a 13-point and 9-point, respective, performances in Game 6 and Game 7 against the Celtics this season (which the 76ers lost as well).
Simply put, throughout his fantastic career that has seen him earn 10 All-Star appearances, 7 All-NBA nods, the 2018 MVP award, 3 scoring championships, and an inclusion on the 75th Anniversary Team, Harden has come up too little too late in the most meaningful and impactful playoff games of his career. And, with Joel Embiid also failing to make it out of the 2nd round for 7th straight season (and all his NBA season), the 76ers can only have one playoff choker on the roster.
Okay, that’s not the actual reason why the 76ers are letting go of Harden, but it might as well be as Philly has proven the Harden-Embiid tandem just simply does not work. Harden relies too heavily on his own ISO attacks and volume shooting, while Embiid must demand the ball on nearly every possession to be an effective paint scorer.
When now former 76ers coach Doc Rivers tried to mix that up and have both guys play a fast-moving attack, we saw both Harden and Embiid choke under the pressure of the Celtics defense as these guys just simply don’t have it in their lockers to play any other way. And, seeing as how Embiid is the face of the 76ers franchise and Harden hasn’t been an MVP-caliber player since his days in Houston, the 76ers had to move on from Harden and his near $40M contract to build the team AROUND Embiid.
Still, I think we can all agree that the Ben Simmons-James Harden mega trade that saw 2 1st round picks, 5 players, and hundreds of millions worth of salaries move between the two teams will go down as one of the mutually worst trades in NBA history.
Not only have the Nets utterly imploded less than a year and a half after the move, but now the 76ers are set to lose Harden too. It was just a horrible move all round.
We’ll have to wait and see where Harden lands (maybe Houston or the LA Clippers), but I know for a fact that 76ers fans are happy to see him taking his beard out of Philadelphia.
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