The Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers hooked up for a big blockbuster trade early in the 2023-24 season. After a long summer of James Harden to the Clippers rumors, both teams were able to agree to a deal that sent Harden to LA in a deal that netted Philadelphia some key players.
The key piece in the deal was the cap space that the Sixers created as well as acquiring draft capital so they could make bigger moves, but Philadelphia also brought in Nic Batum, Robert Covington, Marcus Morris Sr. (now with the Cleveland Cavaliers), and KJ Martin who all played a role. Batum, especially, was helpful and Covington was playing well before his injury.
Clippers star Paul George hopped on “Podcast P with Paul George” and gave his thoughts on losing Batum and the other key role players to the Sixers:
We started the year off hot. Everybody was playing well. There was the energy there. It was kinda like the first time of us all being healthy with Russ now. It was the emergence of what it’s like being with Russ now, with myself healthy, Kawhi healthy, and Russ full-time here. It was kind of like a fresh start of what we thought could work. Then we traded to get James, and it’s not James’ fault of why we struggled, but the lost part of that was we lost RoCo, we lost Nico. This was our glue guys. That was our defenders, and we played small. So they had the length that helped us play small.
Paul George says losing Robert Covington and Nicolas Batum really hurt the Clippers:
“We started the year off hot. Everybody was playing well, there was the energy there. It was kinda like the first time of us all being healthy with Russ now. It was the emergence of what it’s… pic.twitter.com/XzTdYkx0J3
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) June 19, 2024
Batum and Covington will enter free agency so it will be interesting to see if the Sixers bring them back in the offseason.
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