Acquiring James Harden was not without risk. He allowed his weight to get out of control just to force his way out of Houston, he stopped caring on the basketball court, and became such a detriment to the locker room that teammates publicly said they don't care if he leaves. James Harden has been known to sometimes clash with teammates, and coming to Philadelphia, getting along with Joel Embiid would've been paramount, as well as dropping that excess weight he tacked on during the winter.
Even having said all that, barring the trade demand from Houston being so extreme, as in something like Ben Simmons, Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, three first round picks and four pick swaps; I think the Sixers made a major mistake in not bringing the superstar to Philadelphia.
James Harden is a top 5 player. There are only so many of them available... um, 5 available to be exact. And not only was he available, but he wanted to come to Philadelphia. That is the first time in my life a top 5 NBA player had Philly as his preferred destination, and I'm approaching 40 years old. Those opportunities in this city pretty much never happen. Not only that, but allowing him to go to the Nets strengthens one of your eastern conference rivals, making the road to the NBA Finals that much tougher.
Pivoting away to other stars isn't going to be as seamless as people make it out to be. The Colangelos, and Elton Brand left the Sixers with very little tradeable commodities. They have two significant ones: Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. The former, you need to keep and build around and the latter, whose value depreciates by the week as he continues to show that he is just a below average offensive player in a league built around scoring guards and wings. The price in trading for star caliber talents is exorbitant. The benchmark was set months back when Jrue Holiday was traded to Milwaukee. The compensation included multiple first round picks and swaps for a player who isn't even close to James Harden's ability.
For the Sixers to pivot and land a guy like Bradley Beal, the price is going to be astronomical. We're talking Simmons, Thybulle, and multiple first round picks and pick swaps. And the Sixers will be operating from a disadvantage this time around given that Harden actually preferred to want to come to your team, and his antics, age, and contract(2 years plus player option) remaining turned off a lot of other teams who had more assets than the Sixers to trade. This came down to the Sixers and Nets - the one team the Sixers had more assets to offer in any trade, and were steal beaten out by them. Good luck acquiring Bradley Beal when teams like the Warriors, Pelicans, Thunder, Heat, Nuggets, Celtics, and others will likely be in the mix this time, while Ben Simmons' value continues to decline.
Then when you look at other players maybe a couple tiers down from Harden and a tier down from Beal, you get to players like Zach LaVine. Guys who are in that "niche" spot where trading Ben Simmons is too much, but you don't really have that other piece to get those players in deals. The Sixers were always going to have to rely on trading Embiid or Simmons to get that missing piece, as their roster consists of very few valuable pieces to bring in an impact player.
I trust Daryl Morey generally. Most people should, he's a tremendous executive. But great executives make mistakes. Daryl Morey pursued Jimmy Butler a few years back, and lost out on him. A move that may have propelled them past the Warriors and winning an NBA title. I think this is one of those times he made a mistake. Arguably the biggest of his career. I think it's highly unlikely an opportunity will come like that again, and I actually think the most likely scenario is Simmons and Embiid remain your two top guys going forward and the team cycles through complimentary pieces every offseason hoping one gets them to a championship level.
NBA superstars at peak greatness when traded very seldomly don't work out. Sometimes the trades work out well for both teams, but not often in the NBA does a top 10 player get traded at a good age and health, and the team that acquires them come to regret it. And I don't believe you necessarily have to win a championship for the deal to work out either. The Sixers wouldn't have just acquired a top 5 player by landing Harden. They wouldn't have just kept him from the Nets. They would've acquired a minimum of two years of hope for a championship the fans haven't legitimately had for 20 years. Think about that. The last time this city had legitimate NBA championship hopes was two decades ago when Iverson's Sixers took on the Lakers. Hope in itself has value to a sports fan and a city.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of Philadelphia always finishing as the runner-up for superstars. I'm tired of seeing cities like LA, NY, and Boston land big fish, while Philly punks out when the price gets too high, and see the trades lead to championships for their cities. I said it in a previous blog piece: Philadelphia operates like a small-minded sports town. We had our chance to land a big fish and puff our chests out for the first time in a while, and that opportunity was squandered yet again. Such is the present day norm for Philadelphia, it seems.
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