James Harden Gets His Way, Again

Introduction

(Photo Credit to Bleacher Report)

And just like that, James Harden is off to his fourth NBA team in only three years. After ending his almost decade long tenure with the Houston Rockets, James Harden forced his way to the Brooklyn Nets to form a big three with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, and after that failed, took his talents to The City of Brotherly Love, that being Philidephia, to try and win a championship with Joel Embiid. Now Harden Finds himself back in his hometown, donning the colors of the proverbial little brother of the Los Angeles Lakers, The Los Angeles Clippers. Today we are going to dive into how that trade changes both the future’s of the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers, how these new look teams stack up in their respective conferences, and why I personally think this trade will not go as well for the Los Angeles Clippers as many analysts think.

(It’s been 3 months)

Now before we take a deep dive into what this James Harden trade means for himself, the 76ers, and the Clippers, I wanted to take some time to address the elephant in the room. If you have followed me on Medium for the past year or so, you have come accustomed to me writing at least 3–4 articles monthly. I’ve covered the NBA, UFC, NFL, and occasionally even soccer on a consistent basis, but if you notice, my last article was written close to 4 months ago. I plan on writing another article to explain my hiatus, but in short, college happened. Writing articles in my spare time while doing virtual school is one thing, but finding the time to write cohesive articles in the midst of commuting, studying, and socializing in college is an entirely different beast. Still, in life we must do our best to try and find time to do the things we enjoy doing/that are important to us, so I hope to get on somewhat of a consistent writing schedule again as we get closer to the end of the school year. I also quickly wanted to mention that in the future, what I write about may look a bit different on this page. Sports is still going to be my primary topic of discussion, but I do plan on occasionally addressing real world topics and issues here as well. The world around us is constantly evolving and changing, and it is a disservice to myself and others to choose to never address those things. With all of that being said, let us talk about how much James Harden shook up the league.

The 2 A.M. Woj Bomb

Adrian Wojnarowski dropping news on blockbuster trades is nothing we have not seen before, but a trade announcement at 2 AM is something that is out of the ordinary, even for Woj. The details around the trade when announced were extremely vague since we did not know who the 76ers were getting from the Clippers, but one thing was clear yet again : James Harden got what he wanted. For James Harden and P.J Tucker, the Los Angeles Clipper sent the Philadelphia 76ers a package of Nicolas Batum, Robert Convington, K.J Martin, and Marcus Morris along with a few first and second round picks. All things considered, the Los Angeles Clippers won the trade by a mile on paper (and I’ll get into why I stress on paper in a second), seeing that they did not have to trade Terrence Mann or Norman Powell like many analysts speculated the Clippers would have. If anything, that shows how desperate Daryl Morey was to get rid of James Harden, but some can argue that his desperation to trade Harden may have stopped him from getting a huge haul in exchange for James. Still, the 76ers now have players that want to play for the organization, and James Harden yet again gets to start a fresh chapter. While this could turn out to be a great trade for the Los Angeles Clippers, I myself I’m not actually that moved by what James Harden brings to the Los Angeles Clippers. Sure, the Los Angeles Clippers now have one of the deepest teams in the league (I will admit that depth chart is insane), but the issue is, half of the team will have to augment their game even further to fit in with James Harden. Guys like Norman Powell and Bones Hyland already struggled to find their game on this Clippers team when fully healthy since they were relegated to 4th-6th options, and with the arrival of James Harden, it only means that they will have even less chances to find their game on this loaded Clippers team. We also have to consider that in the playoffs the Clippers notoriously struggle with playoff performance dips and injuries, and James Harden fixes none of that. For every playoffs since 2018, James Harden has either underperformed, or been injured. The injuries are not necessarily his fault by any means, but it can still be viewed as a negative to a player when they are injured when you need them the most. On top of that, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard struggle with the exact same issues, and adding James Harden to that duo could spell disaster if none of them are able to get going when it matters the most. Still, I do think if these pieces can fall together, the Los Angeles Clippers could be a real threat in the Western Conference.

The Philadelphia 76ers’s Side

We have already discussed the impact James Harden could have on the Los Angeles Clippers, but what about the Philadelphia 76ers? As aforementioned, the 76ers received Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, K.J Martin, and Marcus Morris, and in my opinion, I think that this is exactly what the Philadelphia 76ers needed. The 76ers have their star guard to fill in for James Harden in Tyrese Maxey, and they also get the much needed wing depth that they need on the defensive end. For years, Jayston Tatum has sparked the 76ers out of the playoffs, with the 76ers having no one other than P.J Tucker to try and stop the Taum train. Now though, the 76ers can actually throw multiple bodies on Jyaston Tatum, and the 76ers now have somewhat of a competent. Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris can be the stars of the starting unit, and now De’Anthony Melton can lead the bench unit of Batum, Morris, Covington, and Beverly. The bench being competent allows for Joel Embiid to be less worn out by the time playoffs come, which could greatly aid in the Philadelphia 76ers making a deep run in the Eastern Conference players. They now have the pieces needed to compete with the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, it just depends on whether or not those new pieces on Philly will actually show up when it counts.

How the New-Look Clippers Fit Into the West

I have already said that I have doubts about the success of the Los Angeles Clippers, but we do have to ask ourselves, what if they do? We all have to admit, a team with a starting lineup that consists of James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George is bound to be scary if healthy in any era of NBA basketball. The Western Conference does not have clear cut contenders outside of the Denver Nuggets, so the Los Angeles Clippers to me have a very good chance of becoming a top 3 team in the Western Conference. The Phoenix Suns have already shown us their lack of depth with the absence of Bradley Beal and Devin Booker and the Los Angeles Lakers have been struggling to beat bottom tier teams in the NBA. On the other hand, Teams like the Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks have gotten off to hot starts, but it is too early into the season to confidently say either of these teams will keep their hot streaks. Last year, the Los Angeles Clippers finished 5th in the NBA Western Conference, and I see no reason why the addition of James Harden cannot aid the Clippers having a solid run in the regular season, if they are able to figure out how to play together. The issue I see within this team lies within the playoffs, where Kawhi Leonard will most likely have to play the PF position as long as Russell Westbrook and James Harden remain starters, meaning that Kawhi Leonard may be tasked with guarding players such as Anthony Davis, Domantas Sabonis, Kevin Durant, Kevon Looney, Chet Holmgren, and even Nikola Jokic in the playoffs. Kawhi Leonard is already a player that unfortunately struggles to stay healthy during the playoffs, and forcing him to expend that much energy on the defensive end may not bode well for his health, and on top of that also leaves the Clippers exposed on the inside. Ivica Zubac will also be played a lot more due to the absence of Nicolas Batum, and it will be interesting to see how the Clippers adjust Zubac’s minutes as the season regular winds down so that he is not gassed by the time playoff times. The Clippers have the talent needed to outscore almost any team in the league on a nightly basis, but they need to be wary of their paint presence getting exposed in the playoffs seeing how many elite bigs the Western Conference has. The Clippers to me still do not have enough depth or basketball IQ to have a clear shot at taking out the Denver Nuggets, but I see no reason why they cannot make a solid run in the Western Conference.

Conclusion

With that being said, that is going to do it for me today. With this article, I hope to bring back the consistency in medium articles, because in all honesty, I missed this. With the NBA season back in full swing, expect many articles about the numerous storylines going into this season, but also expect articles on the NFL as we get deeper into the season, and UFC articles as well as real world topics being discussed from time to time. For any topics that do not make it to article form, expect to see those on my youtube channel, which you can see more about here. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this article, and I will see you all in the next one.