The Timing Is What Makes the James Harden Trade Great

Andrew Unterberger is a famous writer who invented the nickname 'Sauce Castillo' and writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey As Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard. 

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Honestly, I would've been fine with just Robert Covington. A pick or two would be nice, of course, but the psychic benefits of exchanging James Harden (perpetual unscratchable itch) for RoCo (mensch and a half) would have been enough of a trade return for me -- especially considering I would've closed and bolted the door behind Uno back in June, without giving a second’s thought to a more beneficial way for the Sixers to play it. To instead get a number of real and quasi-real picks (and a pickswap -- oh how we've missed you) back for him instead is like going to the house on your block that unusually only gives out Good & Plentys on Halloween and walking away with a full bag of Hershey's Miniatures. 

Which is not to say that it's a particularly great trade return: only one totally unprotected first, some other picks that may end up being less valuable the more we know about them, and a whole lotta not much in terms in terms of actual on-court contributors. The Clippers get to ease the pain of their outgoing losses by retaining future Hall of Famer Terance Mann, while also adding P.J. Tucker and Filip "With an F" Petrusev to their rotation, at least which amounts to a loss of some degree for the Sixers. The deal sets them up well for the future -- well, better -- but it's not a home run for Daryl Morey; when all is said and done, it may be closer to one of those legged-out Brandon Marsh doubles. 

Rather, what makes it a full-on dinger for Daryl and Co. isn't what they got in the deal, but when they got it. The time to make this trade was right now. Not 10 days ago, not at the trade deadline: right fucking now. 

Let's start with this: Today is Tuesday. Come Thursday, there was a chance -- maybe good, maybe not good, but a chance -- that James Harden was going to suit up as the Sixers' starting point guard. This was going to be a problem whether he actually ended up doing so or not. 

If he did play, then maybe he plays poorly, gets booed, forces the team to make excuses for him while he lashes out in the media and gives the Clippers reason to reconsider how much they actually believe in him in the final piece. Or maybe he plays well, creates a quarterback controversy between him and Tyrese Maxey as the PG1, creates havoc (not the good kind) within Nick Nurse's reinvented style of play, gives fans their first reason since Game Four against Boston to overvalue him as a player and generally fucks up the locker room immediately. And if he doesn't play at all, well, then the story no matter what happens in the game is why isn't James Harden playing when is James Harden going to play do you think James Harden is going to play why won't you just tell us what the deal is with James Harden playing or not. It was a no-win for everyone, with the possible exception of Harden himself (because who knows what winning even is to that guy at the moment). 

Now we'll never have to know whether or not Harden was ever actually going to play for us, or how it would've gone if he did. Nurse no longer has to babble obliques in response to questions about his availability; Joel Embiid's shoulders can finally get an extended break from shrugging. The 2-1 Sixers get to vibe on uninterrupted in the three days off following their back-to-back weekend wins, like the Eagles coasting on the high of a big Sunday night W. Perhaps most importantly, Process Trusters can finally turn off their Woj and Shams alerts and breathe easy knowing that Sixers-related misery this season is likely to be kept on the court, at least until the next random tragedy. 

Meanwhile, Tyrese Maxey can resume victory-lapping off his Eastern Conference Player of the Week win -- prob should've been Jo but w/e he's got plenty -- and only needs to look over his shoulder when he's passing to an open Embiid at the elbow. Which isn't to say that Harden really hurt or sidelined Maxey when they played together; in truth, I'm sure learning from Harden in Uno's season and a half here is one of the biggest reasons Young Maximilian is now able to step into lead-guard responsibilities so confidently and competently. But this is Maxey's team now, at least as far as the backcourt goes, and any time that we spent not playing as such was going to be key development time wasted. 

And I don't think it's a coincidence that this trade comes after the most convincing three-game stretch of Maxey's career of running the Sixers' offense. When I wrote about the 2-1 Sixers earlier this week, I mentioned how important it was that the Sixers were now able to credibly tell both Harden and the Clippers that things were going just fine in the former's absence, but I forgot about the most important person to be reassured of this: Joel Embiid. No matter how much persuading Morey could've done to get Joel on board with moving on from Harden -- the guy who led Jo to two scoring titles and an MVP, if not to the third round of the playoffs -- I'd bet he needed to actually see that he could still thrive with Maxey as a two-man partner before being totally OK with the team dealing Uno, especially if they weren't getting much on-court help back in return. After a week of Embiid again putting up MVP numbers alongside a scorching Maxey and being a couple bad whistles away from a potential 3-0 start, I'm sure Morey has a much easier job selling him on the future, with the present now also looking fairly bright. 

Speaking of the future, though: I get a little twitchy whenever anyone mentions how much cap space the Sixers are going to have next summer. Nice to have, sure, but in case you need a reminder, here is a list of the medium-to-big-contract players the Sixers have landed (for the first time, and not just to immediately trade like Jimmy Butler) in free agency so far this century: 

Elton Brand
Nick Young
Kwame Brown
Gerald Henderson
Sergio Rodriguez
Jerryd Bayless
Amir Johnson
J.J. Redick
Al Horford
Georges Niang
P.J. Tucker
Patrick Beverley

And.... I think that's it? Not exactly a lot of missing-piece difference-makers there. Forget getting a Zack Wheeler or Bryce Harper-type showing from any of them; you'd be hard-pressed to find a couple who even provided adequate value for the dollars spent. (J.J. I guess? Maybe one of Georges or P.J.?) The list of franchises who have their fortunes changed by a big free-agency signing is always shorter than the ones left holding the bag, and next summer may be too late for the Sixers to make such a splash anyway: I've long operated under the assumption that Joel will not stick around past a seventh straight postseason embarrassment, and I would strongly encourage the Sixers to do the same. (Not to mention how shallow the FA pool is next summer to begin with; the Sixers might end up spending eight digits just to further ensure Furkan Korkmaz's lifetime imprisonment on their bench.) 

But the good news there is that Daryl now has three and a half months and some decently restocked coffers to hopefully not let it get to that. We have real draft assets to move now, and while the guys we got back today may not be much to speak of on the court -- I've tried every which way to look at 'em, but I can't squint myself into seeing any real rotation guys there -- at least they're expiring and very tradeable. If there's a guy who shakes loose between now and Feb. 18, Daryl can go get him, and he should. The time to make this Harden trade was absolutely right now. The time to make the next trade to actually get this team back in the hunt is as soon as humanly possible.