After another unconventional trade request James Harden is on the move once again. This time he joins Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook on the LA Clippers. I was surprised by the timing of the deal (The fact that it was so early in the season not that it was late at night) and the return so I wanted to break down what this deal does for both the Clippers and the Sixers.
The Clippers
In my mind the clear winners of the trade are the LA Clippers because they got by far the best player in the trade and they didn’t give up Terrance Mann who most people assumed would have to be in the deal. The Sixers might flip a bunch of the picks and contracts they got in the trade for a star player and come out looking just fine but as it stands right now the team that left the table with James Harden is the winner to me.
What this does for the Clippers
Acquiring James Harden moves the Clippers up in the hierarchy of the west. Before the trade I considered them a tier below contenders like the Nuggets, Warriors, Lakers and Suns. I thought that even if they were completely healthy the Kawhi, PG and Russ combo would struggle to beat any of those top 4 teams and the chances that they would be healthy were slim making them a bit of an afterthought in the west. With Harden I think they could go toe to toe with any of those teams and come out on top and they would actually be a pretty nasty match up problem for the Lakers, Suns and Warriors.
Harden has been a part of some of the most disappointing teams of the last decade so I can understand anyone’s skepticism that he would come in a vault the Clippers to the top of the west but here are some things to consider as far as why his addition is such a big deal.
Harden can play point guard
Ever since the beginning of the Kawhi and Paul George Clippers era the Clippers have lacked a true point guard that can run the offense and set up role players with easy buckets. Here is a list of the point guards the Clippers have had on their roster since adding Kawhi and PG.
Patrick Beverly
Lou Williams
Reggie Jackson
Derrick Walton
Yogi Ferrell
Eric Bldesoe (washed)
John Wall (super washed)
Bones Hyland
Jason Preston
Russell Westbrook
Besides Russ none of those guys were any good at play making for the Clippers and even Russ’s style of playmaking isn’t the conventional pick the defense apart that Harden possesses. With Harden running the show, players like Zubac and Mann should feast on open dunks and corner 3s and Kawhi and PG will also enjoy an easier diet of shots. So adding Harden should make their half court offense run much smoother on a day to day basis in the regular season.
Speaking of the regular season, a big reason that the Clippers have been routinely disappointing in the playoffs is that they often haven’t had great seeding to set themselves up for a deep playoff run with home court advantage because their stars miss a lot of games in the regular season. Harden has been an iron man for most of his career and is a regular season wins machine. Even if Kawhi and George continue to miss games at the same rate they have in years past Harden should be able to team up with whichever Clippers star is in the lineup and power this team to wins. I originally had the Clippers at just 37 wins and I think the Harden addition easily adds 10 wins and vaults them up the standings from the edge of the play in to a home court advantage team which is of course a big deal.
As far as their championship aspirations I still think the injury concerns for Kawhi and PG make it so I can’t expect them to beat the Nuggets or either of the top contenders in the East. But on the slim chance that somehow all their main guys do make it to the playoffs healthy then I think they will be a truly difficult team to face for anyone especially teams that don’t have a dominant big man like Jokic or Giannis to beat up on the Clippers weak center rotation but the opportunity raise your ceiling from a team with no shot to a team that has a shot even if it a shot that is dependent on some pretty remarkable health luck is progress for a Clippers team that has been largely disappointing over the past few years.
The Risks
James Harden has a history of taking a great situation and making the least of it before getting frustrated and demanding out. In Philadelphia even before he got into his tiff with Morey it was clear he was frustrated having to take a backseat in the Sixers effort to win Joel Embiid the MVP. He made several comments about how he was still capable of playing like Houston Harden which I’m not sure is really true, I think he can play like Houston Harden every once in awhile but the ability to average 36 points per game is behind him but I don’t think he knows that. Anyway he won’t be able to play like Houston Harden on this Clippers team where he is clearly the third best player. So there is a possibility that after one year of once again “sacrificing for the team” Harden decides to bounce in free agency which would be disastrous for the Clippers, however I don’t think anyone but the Clippers is going to offer him the contract that he wants this offseason so I think they should be safe from that.
Adding Harden kind of steps on Westbrooks place on the team as the regular season innings eater and I could see him becoming disgruntled after being forced back to the bench and not getting to “play like Russ” but Russ is on a minimum so if that becomes a problem they can move on from him pretty easily.
The consistent problem with Harden is that he disappoints in the playoffs so if you’re the Clippers you worry about another total meltdown in a critical series but I think in a do or die moment Kawhi and George should be able to take over if Harden goes full doodoo mode.
Some notes on what the Clippers gave up
The Clippers gave up Marcus Morris, Robert Covington, Kenyon Martin Jr and Nic Batum as well as 2 first round picks, a pick swap and a couple of second round picks. As far as those players I don’t believe the Clippers will miss any of those guys individually but it was interesting to see them give up basically all the back up forwards in their rotation. With the picks it’s interesting because whenever a team makes an all in trade people will say “now they have no picks” but in reality they’ll have a pick every other year because it is literally not allowed for a team to have no picks. So the Clippers will continue to make a pick every other season. Now they have given up swaps in the in between year but the thing about swaps is that they frequently never convey and if they do you still get a pick later in the first round. So If I’m the Clippers I’m not worried about this poopoo platter of picks that Daryll Morey will now take and use to trick a different GM into giving him an actual good player and 6 years from now we’ll look back and be completely underwhelmed by what all these different picks turned into.
The Sixers
The Sixers really had no choice when it came to this trade, they had to trade James Harden, there was no market for him and unlike with Ben Simmons the clock was ticking and with each week that went by the less leverage that Morey had.
The Sixer were put in a lose-lose situation and so what happened next was that they lost. Now Morey will not stay down for long and we can see based on what he demanded in return for Harden that he plans on flipping most of those assets towards getting another star to fill the Harden sized void in their roster.
As far as the players they got back I think they are all upgrades over a lot of the forwards that the 76ers currently have in their rotation and I think this improves the 76ers depth for now at least until a couple of those guys are included in whatever trade the Sixers make later this year.
So far this season the Sixers are enjoying a breakout year from Tyrese Maxey and that may be enough to keep the Sixers in the top half of the east standings but without the top end talent that Harden provided they are a long ways away from competing with the top teams in the East.
The Sixers should be optimistic because they have one of the best GMs when it comes to making moves to improve his roster so I thought I would take a look at who Morey might spin those picks, swaps, and expiring contracts for.
Zach Lavine
Lavine is on a Bulls team that is going nowhere. If the Bulls are smart they will give up on this core and start again which is painful because their last couple of rebuilds have failed miserably but their heading to the bottom of the standings whether they want to or not. As far as his fit on the Sixer, Lavine is a great scorer and shooter who could play alongside Embiid and Maxey or be staggered with bench units to keep the scoring up. He is not a perfect fit and having him would push Maxey into much more a playmaking role as a starting lineup of Maxey, Lavine, Oubre, Harris and Embiid doesn’t have much playmaking but with Maxey’s continued growth and Nurse’s ball movement system it would be good fit.
Demar Derozan
He isn’t being discussed very much as an option for the Sixers to target but Derozan is in the same situation as Lavine and I think that he would be a little cheaper to acquire since he older and I assume the Bulls front office is more attached to Lavine. Derozan is a better passer than Lavine so that would be a good fit but he is a much worse and reluctant shooter than Lavine and would crowd the floor around Embiid. He’s also older but the rest of the Sixers team besides Maxey is also old so I don’t think that really matters.
Jerami Grant
Grant would be a good fit as a third option with Embiid and Maxey. Last year he shot 40% from 3 and although he is a little bit overrated as a defender he has all the tools to be a great defender and I think Nurse is the kind of coach that can get that out of him.
OG Anunoby
After being on the trade block for years Anunoby is not in the final year of his contract and the Raptors should look to move him. Now that he is on an expiring contract Masai won’t be able to justify demanding 3 first round picks for him and the Sixers sloppy handful of picks and swaps should do the trick. Anunoby is a great shooter and defender and would fit seamlessly with the Sixers. The more I think about it this seems like the ideal move for the Sixers.
Pascal Siakam
Similar to Anunoby with him being on an expiring contract the difference is that Siakam is more of sure thing as far as he has shown the ability to be an on ball scorer and playmaker on a good team while Anunoby has shown the skills to maybe do that while not actually having done it before. It is a real mystery box vs sure thing situation and if I am the sixers I think I go Anunoby but if the Raptors are being ridiculous then Siakam would do just fine.
Kyle Kuzma
Kuz just signed an extension with the Wizards but to me it feels like that was more about the front office wanting to keep the asset and less like they feel like Kuz is a building block of the next great Wizards team. I think they would be happy to get a handful of picks and keep kicking the can down the road as they are just at the beginning of a rebuild.
The Dishwasher 
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