Can’t believe lot of so called experts thought Philly was going be tough to beat..I said when trade happen that it was a bad trade for Philly
I think in the short term (this season) it makes them better than if they'd done nothing. Harden + Millsap + DJ is better than Curry + Drummond.
But, there options weren't "do the BRK trade or do nothing". They could have kept Curry and Drummond and added helpful pieces for Simmons. They probably could have gotten Haliburton and Barnes for Simmons + #1. That would have made them better both long and short term.
I'm glad that Morey was hyper-focused on Harden.
Embiid / Drummond
Harris / Niang
Barnes / Green
Curry / Thybulle / Milton
Haliburton / Maxey / Korkmaz
That's a much scarier team than what they have now.
Long term, sure, but not over the next 2-3 seasons. Especially next year when they have the off season to add to their role players and bench.
They’re over the apron as is, so they get to add a taxpayer MLE and vet free agents in a weak class, or try to make trades, noting that’s they are short a couple of seconds and (potentially) unable to trade any firsts through 2029. (Brooklyn has the option of this year’s first or next year’s first. If Brooklyn picks this year’s then they can trade 2023, but they’re otherwise prohibited from trading 2024-2029 due to other picks already owed).
They put a lot of eggs in the Harden basket. It might work, and they’re a better team now than prior to the trade, but I agree with Roy that I’m not sure they came out better for being so focused on Harden.
I think they will look vastly different next year. Perhaps it is a trade of Harris or they add Maxey to a trade to really get better (I think that would be a mistake, but teams going all in sometimes make those type of moves). This year because of when they made the trade, they didn't have a lot of options, but I do believe they will look a lot different next year with the only guarantee of being on the roster being Embiid and Harden (on a big new contract).
Haliburton definitely has the long term potential to be great, but this year both the Kings and Pacers have been better with Haliburton on the bench. He doesn't yet play winning basketball. He is a poor defender, he is very ball dominant (and not in the elite scoring way that Harden is), and he is a very poor defender. Long term, obviously Haliburton will be better than Harden, but not over the next few seasons and guys like Barnes and Curry are role players. They just don't drive the needle much and most of their value can be replaced by Philly in the free agent market. When you have a player like Embiid, who is in his prime and has injury concerns, you maximize your title chances and Harden was the best option for the Sixers to do that. None of the other potential Simmons trades were as good an option as Harden over the next couple of seasons, which is why they made the trade and made it when they did.
I'm not sure they're going to look too different, or that different will be any better. Harris isn't going to be easy to move with $77 million owed over two season, and with little-to-zero draft compensation available, the best they can hope for is other overpriced players. A ring chaser might go there, but Philly is going to have to get in line behind Miami and Golden State for certain, likely Brooklyn and the Clippers, and depending how the rest of the regular season and the postseason go, some or all of Milwaukee, Phoenix, Boston, and Chicago. I don't think Philly is unattractive for a vet, but I neither do I believe they're exceptionally attractive, and again, it's a really shallow free agent class (just look at the Free agents to pursue thread that's been active the last day).
Morey loves Harden, and was willing to risk it. There will be nights when Harden-Embiid are absolutely unstoppable. And there will be nights where they get paved. Same is true with Brooklyn, honestly. Last night we saw the unstoppable version of Brooklyn up against a Sixers nadir, but both of those teams are highly variable because they rely so much on two players making everything happen on offense, and play inconsistent defense. We'll see if Morey's move works, but I don't think he'll be able to turn around trade Harden from something that works better if Harden and Embiid aren't sucessful in the same way that he could have traded the pieces he could have acquired from other teams.
Flexibility may be a buzzword, but the Sixers don't have it at all right now.
