NyCeEvO wrote:I'll need to read and hear more from the Nets in the coming days to understand their rationale. Unless the Nets believe that Harden has truly peaked and on the decline health wise, I'm struggling to understand how they didn't get even more (e.g. Thybulle) in the deal.
Simmons was never going to play for the Sixers again, so giving them Harden strengthens a division rival tremendously. They'll have elite offense in Harden and Embiid and their team defense should be great with Embiid and Thybulle. We all know that Harden is a good post defender as well.
This is a head scratcher for me.
Harden (per Woj) clearly preferred a trade. It was going to happen at some point. Accommodating stars/players is good business and how we got to a place were stars want to come here. There are some fringe benefits as well:
1) Short term, we can win some games, maybe crawl out of the play-in. Harden wasnt going to play and is hurt anyhow
2) We are much more likely to financially keep the team together. What Simmons is owed 40% less then what harden would have gotten
3) While id rather play it out and settle for less, we would always get a better return now then the offseason... i dont buy there was a real risk we lose him for nothing, but it would have been closer to just simmons.
