Philadelphia 76ers: Jalen Rose admits the Nets should have kept James Harden

When the Brooklyn Nets traded a massive package of picks and promising young players to the Houston Rockets for James Harden, it was for one reason and one reason only: To form the best darn Big 3 in the Eastern Conference.

Sure, the Nets would likely be very good with the one-two punch of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving plus complimentary role players like Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert, and Taurean Prince, but the team wanted to bet big on a top-loaded roster and hope that the presence of multiple former MVPs plus one of the best scoring point guards of all time would be enough to breeze past the rest and hotshot Brooklyn to the level of dominance they hoped to achieve when they traded “the big one” to Boston for two average seasons of KG, PP, and Jason Terry.

Had the team stayed healthy, maybe that’s how things would have worked out, but alas, it just wasn’t meant to be; Durant, Harden, and Irving only played one game together during the Nets’ second-round bout against the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn was unable to overcome that deficit despite pushing the eventual NBA champions to a Game 7.

Unfortunate? Sure, but hey, it’s cool, right; the Nets would put the unfortunate end to their season behind them and focus on coming back bigger and better for the 2021-22 season.

… except that isn’t what happened. Between Irving’s vaccination status and a string of injuries that hit practically every player on the team, the Nets’ chemistry proved immiscible, and Harden surprisingly worked his way out of town just in time for the 2022 NBA trade deadline. With Ben Simmons all but certainly out for the remainder of the season and Seth Curry’s status less than ideal, the Nets are looking at a one-way ticket to the Play-In games, with no guarantee they make it into the first round, let alone out of the East.

Did the Brooklyn Nets win the James Harden-Ben Simmons trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, as so many folks declared right when the deal was done? Only time will tell, but ESPN’s Jalen Rose thinks BK’s basketball team probably made a mistake moving on from the former scoring champion before giving their Big 3 a full run in the playoffs.

Jalen Rose gives the Philadelphia 76ers a short-term edge on the Harden trade.

Trading James Harden – and Paul Millsap – to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and picks was supposed to provide short and long-term value for the Brooklyn Nets.

Over the long run, securing Simmons’ services has very little downside for the Nets. His contract runs through the 2024-25 season, he’s already a multiple-time All-Star, and, at 25, he has the potential to remain a foundational piece once Kevin Durant’s playing days are done. But if you recall roughly two months ago, when the deal was fresh, folks were buzzing about how well Simmons would look on the court alongside Durant and Kyrie Irving and how many of the team’s holes he would help to fill.

You see, the Nets are not a particularly good defensive team. Their defensive rating on the season ranks 20th association-wide, and they only have two players – Andre Drummond and Kevin Durant – with a positive Defensive Raptor rating, according to FiveThirtyEight. Adding an All-Defensive caliber player with a legitimate ability to cover opposing players one-through four would have bolstered that rating notably and afforded the team a bit more wiggle room once the playoffs roll around.

Similarly, the Nets aren’t what you would call a lightning-fast or a pass-happy team, as they rank 11th association-wide in pace and 10th in assists per game, which are solid marks but could obviously be better. Simmons is one of the hardest players to cover in the NBA today on the fastbreak and has averaged 7.7 assists per game, which would rank first on the Nets by a margin of 1.6.

Unfortunately for Brooklyn, they didn’t get that “BS Bump” in February or even March, and, according to Steve Nash, signs aren’t looking too good for Simmons to play in April either. Brooklyn will enter the Play-In Tournament shorthanded, may make it to the first round, but will struggle to get out of the East, as they’re giving up 116 points per game since the start of February without a light at the end of the tunnel.

That, my friends, is why Jalen Rose criticized the Nets’ decision to trade for Simmons during the regular season instead of once the season came to an end, as Brooklyn surrendered one of their three best players for a return that isn’t giving them nearly as much on the court.

As a Philadelphia 76ers fan, I have to say, I really agree with Mr. Rose on this one.

Had Harden remained in Brooklyn, it’s pretty hard to imagine Simmons returning to the court for the Sixers this season or Daryl Morey trading him for any other package with his favorite player potentially available the following offseason. That would have unquestionably kept Brooklyn a favorite to come out of the East, given them insurance for another long-term injury, and put a dagger in the heart of Philly righting the ship down the stretch.

Who knows, maybe once Irving became eligible to play home games, the trio would have come together in a way they hadn’t all season long, and Harden would be considered a lock to re-sign with the Nets this offseason. That one singular trade might have fashioned a dynasty that could have controlled the East for half a decade.

Had Ben Simmons immediately taken the court for the Brooklyn Nets, maybe things would be different. Maybe the Nets would be in first place instead of the Play-In Tournament, and the Philadelphia 76ers would be even more afraid to draw them in the first round. Instead, the Nets appear to have wasted a year of both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving’s primes, which will come to an end before we even know it.