By trading Harden and landing a couple of first-round picks from the Clippers, the Sixers have set up a bigger move.You have to play the long game in situations like this. There have been plenty of moments over the last few months when fans and media like have grumbled that thefor a package that includes a couple of first-round picks, the Sixers have put themselves in position to execute a pivot that would have been impossible three months ago. They didn’t just move on from Harden.
Remember where the Sixers were four months ago. They were staring at a seemingly irresolvable conundrum, a road to nowhere. They had two choices. Re-sign Harden and run it back with a team that had already failed twice at getting them to the conference finals. Or, let Harden walk without any ability to replace him with another star. Essentially, start over from scratch.
After all the controversy, all the posturing, all the frustration from the fans, the Sixers are arguably in a spot equal to or better to the one they would have been in had they never traded Ben Simmons for Harden in the first place.