Brooklyn Nets will ship James Harden to Philadelphia 76ers for deal centered round Ben Simmons

The NBA’s largest commerce domino fell simply earlier than the league’s deadline Thursday.

The Brooklyn Nets will commerce guard James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers for a bundle centered round guard Ben Simmons, The Athletic and ESPN reported. Each shops reported that the 76ers will even obtain ahead Paul Millsap, whereas the Nets will get guard Seth Curry, middle Andre Drummond and two first-round draft picks.

The commerce will resolve simmering tensions for each groups, which entered the season with championship hopes. The previous league MVP Harden has reportedly grown pissed off in Brooklyn because the loaded Nets, beset by an damage to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving’s restricted availability because of his refusal to obtain a Covid-19 vaccine, discover themselves close to the center of the league’s Jap Convention.

Simmons, in the meantime, has refused to play for the 76ers this season after the one-time All-NBA participant shouldered a lot of the blame for his group’s collapse in final season’s playoffs. The 76ers and middle Joel Embiid, one of many main candidates for this season’s MVP award, have remained among the many prime groups within the East with out Simmons.

The commerce ends a short-lived experiment in Brooklyn, which traded away a lot of its future final yr to have Harden be a part of fellow superstars Durant and Irving. The trio performed solely 16 video games collectively.

The Nets, taking part in with out Harden and Irving for a lot of the sequence, misplaced to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks in final season’s playoffs.

Philadelphia regarded to enhance its roster round Embiid to maximise his stellar play this season. Harden, 32, will probably be reunited with Philadelphia’s president of basketball operations Daryl Morey.

As a Houston Rockets govt, Morey traded for Harden, who helped to make the group one of many prime franchises within the league through the 2010s.

The 25-year-old Simmons, the primary general decide within the 2016 NBA Draft, helped Embiid to steer the 76ers to perennial playoff rivalry. Their success adopted “The Course of,” years of deliberate shedding within the mid-2010s to build up prime draft picks and different belongings.

Simmons, lengthy maligned for his reticence to shoot, drew backlash from followers for his efficiency in his group’s Recreation 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in final season’s playoffs. At a vital second within the sport, the 6-foot-11-inch Simmons handed up a dunk when 6-foot-1-inch Atlanta guard Trae Younger was the closest defender.

Atlanta’s upset win over Philadelphia, and Simmons’ choice to not shoot, contributed to the guard’s deadlock along with his group this yr.

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