Philadelphia 76ers: If James Harden is the goal, trade with Sacramento

The Philadelphia 76ers want James Harden.

Daryl Morey wants Harden, Joel Embiid surely wants Harden, and Tad Brown, the CEO of the Harris Blitzer Group, once described the three-time scoring champ as being ‘like a son to him‘ while the duo both called Houston home.

While many understandably assumed that the pursuit of Harden was behind the franchise once he was traded to Brooklyn, handing the Nets the best Big 3 in the business, a new set of sourced rumors suggests otherwise. According to Jake Fischer, Keith Pompey, and others, Harden intends to hit free agency for the first time in his career and could look to Philadelphia as a potential landing spot.

Now, because the Sixers are well over the cap, $36 million in 2022-23 to be exact, there are exactly three paths to get Harden back in a red uniform moving forward: A February trade, a summer sign-and-trade, and straight-up signing in free agency.

As of right now, the first scenario feels incredibly unlikely. While it makes the most sense for Brooklyn if Harden truly does intend to leave, as Ben Simmons is a perfect fit with the Nets’ current core and could help them out a ton right here and now, I would imagine Steve Nash and company would rather hold onto their Big 3 now in the hopes of winning a championship than cash out prematurely. Who knows, maybe they win it all, and any misgivings Harden has about his future go away?

If they don’t, however, Brooklyn would have to either sign-and-trade with Harden to recoup some assets for his services or allow him to walk in free agency, where very few teams have the cap space to sign him.

Could Philadelphia pull off a deal to sign-and-trade for Harden? Sure. According to Shams Charania and Sam Amick, the Sixers may just hold onto Simmons for that very reason, but Brooklyn doesn’t necessarily have to deal Harden to one of their biggest competitors for the Eastern Conference crown. They could play hardball, let Harden hit the open market, and force Philly to shed the contracts of Tobias Harris, Ben Simmons, and Danny Green to make a deal work.

Is that doable? Yes, almost any player in the NBA can be traded, and some team would surely take on Harris’ contract with enough additional assets attached to the deal. But would you like to know what is more doable? Trading players like Harrison Barnes and Buddy Hield, who could be included in a deal with the Sacramento Kings alongside Tyrese Haliburton at the 2022 NBA trade deadline. That way, if Harden does hit the open market, Philly can free up max cap space with ease and still walk away with an on-court upgrade now.

The Philadelphia 76ers need to make their roster more moveable.

Who is a better player, John Collins or Tyrese Haliburton? As much as I love Hali, I’d have to go with the former.

But is Collins an $19.285 million better player than Haliburton? No, I’d venture to say he is not.

Why, you may ask, is that relevant? Well, because to free up enough money to pay James Harden a max contract in free agency this summer, which would be worth $201 million over four years, the Sixers would have to get off of roughly $81 million in salary cap space to legally sign that contract.

Is that possible? In a word, yes. All the team would have to do is trade away Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and either trade or cut Danny Green, and the team’s ledger would be $84 million lighter, and roughly $47 million under the salary cap. The team wouldn’t have to trade a single pick to land Harden, they would be able to use their entire mid-level exception however they see fit to further fortify the roster, and would still have a few options on the margins to make the team better via picks, vet minimum deals and any trade exceptions they pick up.

But in the current NBA landscape, where very few teams have cap space, trading away that much money without getting matching salary in return is hard. Even if Daryl Morey were to make a deal with the Sacramento Kings that traded Harris and Simmons – plus two more contracts – for Haliburton, Harrison Barnes, Buddy Hield, and the expiring contract of Marvin Bagley, the team would then have to move off of everyone save Hali to remain in the running for Harden.

That, my friends, is doable.

Combined, Barnes and Hield make $43 million, or 1.16 Tobias Harrises. Barnes is a good two-way veteran combo forward who could fit onto most teams around the NBA, especially on an expiring contract, which his will be next season. If an under-the-cap team like the Detroit Pistons move on from Jerami Grant, folding Barnes into his spot, especially with some second-round draft capital attached, could make a ton of sense.

And as for Hield? Well, he has two years left on his deal and would be an upgrade for many a team across the NBA on the shooting department. If he was on the block and didn’t require much in way of a return, I could see a deal coming together rather quickly, whether with an under-the-cap team or via a multi-team deal where the Thunder take on, say Talen Horton-Tucker and Kendrick Dunn for a fee.

No matter how the individual deals get done, leaving the 2022 free agency period with Harden and Haliburton under contract would quite literally make the Sixers favorites in the East, would enter the 2022-23 season with two MVP-level talents, a complementary guard on a contract with an AAV of $4.46 million, and oh yeah, Tyrese Maxey and Seth Curry, who wouldn’t need to be traded in such a deal either.

On paper, Tyrese Haliburton is a better fit with Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid than John Collins. On the same paper, Collins is a better fit with James Harden than Haliburton. But to sign “The Beard” in free agency, which needs to be an option to maintain maximum leverage in a hypothetical sign-and-trade, landing a focal point on a rookie scale deal with easily moveable complementary pieces really is the best route to getting a deal done. Worst case, the Philadelphia 76ers walk away with an improved roster featuring a starting five of Maxey, Haliburton, Buddy Hield, Harrison Barnes, and Joel Embiid, with the available asset pool needed to further fortify the roster. Best case? They sign-and-trade Barnes and Buddy to Brooklyn for Harden on a supermax contract, with Maxey, Haliburton, Seth Curry, and Embiid still in place as the team’s nucleus.