The Philadelphia 76ers have removed the cancer on the team by trading James Harden away to the Clippers for picks and bringing back fan favorite Robert Covington and three other players.
The trade of Harden relieved many fans who believed he was only going to cause problems if left on the roster. He outran his welcome in Philadelphia with his lack of effort on the court and this has happened multiple times for Harden. First with the Rockets then the Nets and most recently the Sixers, and it will most likely happen with the Clippers.
A Bucks resident, Sal Trovato said, “I think the departure of Harden was necessary and will hopefully lift some weight off the team’s shoulders. He became a distraction and was not setting a good example for young players like Maxey. If someone doesn’t want to play in Philly, the team and city are better off without them.”
In the trade, the Sixers gave up James Harden, P.J. Tucker and Filip Petrusev. Besides what’s been said about Harden he does have talent and can go for 50 points and get 10 plus rebounds and assists, but he is older so the points will not be a consistent high-point scorer. The Clippers already have a ton of talent, this trade improves their team, but will Harden be trustworthy in the playoffs? Tucker is not a stat sheet filler but will play hard and good defense while Petrusev has been moved to the Kings as well as some money and got nothing back.
The Sixers did get bench depth and solid options of the bench. The first player is Robert Covington who has had a previous tenure in Philadelphia and is a great three-ball shooter that can play some defense. When they gave up Tucker, they needed to replace him with some toughness and they got two guys to do that from the trade in, Nicolas Batum, who also can make three-pointers, and Philadelphia native Marcus Morris, who has been averaging over 10 points a game since his 2013 season. They also obtained a G-League player Kenyon Martin Jr.
The Sixers got picks as well, they are the Clippers’ 2028 unprotected first-round pick, two second-round picks and a 2029 pick swap. Second-rounders do not mean much but the unprotected first-round pick is in five years there is always optimism when you make these trades. Especially if an older team will collapse and lead to a good pick and getting it unprotected ensures that they can take it back if it’s a good spot like one through 10.
That’s not all the picks though they got the Clippers to send us the pick they got from the Thunder to be a 2026 first-round pick also unprotected and 2024 second-round pick and a 2029 second-round pick. Again, second means very little but the Thunder are a good young team who will probably make the playoffs in 2026 but most likely not be a top-five team in the playoff seeding which still has some value in that area of the draft.
The Sixers are also waiving Danny Green to make room for the one extra player they got in return for Harden. The Sixers have gained by moving on from a star who seems to only cause team problems.