The Philadelphia 76ers got their man. They were able to swing a deal where they sent Ben Simmons out to the Brooklyn Nets and they were able to acquire James Harden who is a guy they have been coveting for quite some time.
Now is the time for reactions and pick a winner of this deal. At the outset, it looks like a win-win deal as the Sixers got their man in Harden and Simmons is now able to hit the reset button in his career and he can do his thing in Brooklyn. It looks pretty simple.
However, if one asks ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, there is a clear winner here and it isn’t the Sixers:
This could potentially go down as the worst day in the career of Daryl Morey, the worst day. Think about this for a second here. You gave up a shooter in Seth Curry. I hear that he can’t guard and Huerter got 27 on him in a playoffs. Stop it. The bottom line is he’s one of the premier shooters in the game. Okay? You think about him, he’s gone. You gave up to first round picks. How do you go from asking for first round picks to giving up two of them? That makes no sense to me whatsoever. And so when I look at it from that perspective, and whatever else they gave up, when you think about Ben Simmons and how he complements KD and Kyrie, what he brings to the table in terms of his playmaking ability, his ball-handling skills, his defensive prowess, there’s no question along with Andre Drummond, a big body that Brooklyn desperately needed, you take all of those things into consideration. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Brooklyn benefits from this trade. Now when you look at Harden, how long can he be that guy in Philadelphia? Because when KD, Kyrie, and Ben Simmons, and an extra big body on your front line in Brooklyn. I see Brooklyn as the clear winner in this deal.
It remains to be seen who will truly win this deal, but at the moment, everybody is claiming a Nets win in this deal. It makes sense as Simmons looks like he will be a very perfect fit next to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but the Sixers get the best player in the deal in Harden and the offensive duo of he and Joel Embiid can be very scary in its own right.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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