James Harden trade grades: Sixers and Clippers pull off a deal, swapping star power for depth and draft picks

All that huffing and puffing and not showing up for 10 days seemed to work for James Harden, as he’s getting his wish to get away from Daryl Morey. The 10-time All-Star and seven-time All-NBA selection is headed back home to the LA Clippers in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. In return, the Sixers are receiving draft consideration and a handful of role players headlined by Marcus Morris. The draft picks going to Philadelphia are a 2026 first round pick (from LA, via Oklahoma City), a 2028 first rounder, two second round picks and a pick swap, league sources tell The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

The Clippers are also getting PJ Tucker in the deal.

We wondered how long Morey would remain stubborn on this one and it appears just one week into the season was long enough. The Clippers will now try to figure out how Harden fits alongside Kawhi Leonard and Paul George on the fly. The Sixers will need to figure out if the newfound depth can carry them to greater heights in the East. Let’s bust out the red ink and throw some grades on these trades.

The Clippers receive James Harden, PJ Tucker

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… can’t get fooled again. That’s where I am with the latest James Harden transplanting. This is going to be Harden’s fourth team since January of 2021, when he first found his way out of Houston. He ended up in Brooklyn with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to form a super team. And that lasted… a dozen games? The next season was a disaster for a bunch of reasons, and we saw Harden realize he needed to get out of Brooklyn too.

He ended up in Philadelphia to reunite with his old buddy Morey and team up with Joel Embiid. And for a while last season, it looked pretty good. Harden had taken a pay cut in free agency to help the Sixers add Tucker to the mix, and Danuel House too. He helped Embiid win the MVP award, and the Sixers looked primed to prove themselves in the postseason. Then they did what always happens with the Sixers and what always happens with Harden. They fell apart spectacularly.

Harden then thought he was going to get a big payday from Morey. He didn’t, so then he requested a trade, eventually called Morey a liar while on a marketing tour in China, and started his trade request antics to get out of Philly. Now he’s with Kawhi and PG on the Clippers, like he wanted when he first requested the trade from the Sixers. So what do we make of all this? Why is it going to work this time?

Normally when grading a trade, I’d try to just look at the straight up value of one trade package for the other. I’d think about the basketball fit on the court and if the personalities can mesh. I tend to be a little positive on most of these trades because I can see the basketball side of it. I assume these guys are going to try to make it work because it behooves everybody to do so. This time with Harden going to the Clippers though, I just don’t know if I want to be fooled again. Maybe this is the spot he’s going to feel happy and content in, finally.

This is already a team that has plenty of playoff questions, and we’re going to throw a guy into the mix who mysteriously disappears in a lot of big games and always seems to come up short? That’s supposed to make up for the potential absences by Leonard or George throughout the season? I actually have liked the way Russell Westbrook has fit in with the Clippers. Now that also changes big time with Harden in the mix.

I do think Harden still has plenty of game left. He can be a scorer. He can be a distributor. He can be a defe… did I mention how he can score and pass? I think he’ll work well with George. I think Kawhi can adapt to him and vice-versa. I think Ty Lue has a really good coach who has a plan for trying to get this to work. I’m just not sure I’m willing to blindly buy it all and assume this is the right move, even though they didn’t give up too much in the deal.

I actually like the idea of them getting Tucker here, almost as much or more than them getting Harden. Tucker might be a little washed in the later stages of his career, but he does a lot of the things the Clippers can use on both ends of the floor. The Clippers got better here. I think? Maybe? They won’t get a bad grade, but I just don’t know if all parties should get the benefit of the doubt anymore.

Grade: B-

The 76ers receive Marcus Morris, Nic Batum, Robert Covington, KJ Martin, and draft picks

After all that posturing through the media and talking about not doing trades that make zero sense for dealing Harden away, this is what the Sixers and Morey ended up getting. This is the deal that helps them build toward a championship? Or maybe after seeing Tyrese Maxey cook opponents for the first week of the season, the Sixers feel a lot more comfortable just filling out the depth of the roster with role players — potentially high-level role players at that.

Individually, I still like plenty of the pieces that Philadelphia got in the deal. Morris tends to enjoy a little rejuvenation whenever he moves teams. We know he can score and defend. We know he can spread the floor. He should fit nicely into whatever Nick Nurse is asking him to do. Batum can still be a solid playmaker by making the extra pass, and he shot the ball well from deep as a member of the Clippers. He’s at the end of his career, but asking him to give a solid 15-20 minutes per night should be doable. Covington isn’t nearly the defender he used to be. He still has good hands, but his rotations aren’t quite there anymore, and he won’t resemble much the player Morey had in Houston years ago. But if he can knock down 3-pointers like he did last season, he can find a smaller but effective role.

KJ Martin might be the part of this deal I like the most for the Sixers. I thought he was a savvy pickup by the Clippers this past offseason, and I love his athleticism on the wings. He plays bigger than his size, he’s strong, he can fly through the air, and I think you can turn him into a decent shooter. Other than Morris and Martin, I don’t know if any of these acquisitions make a big splash or even a small splash. To not get Terance Mann or Norman Powell seems egregious here.

It feels like the Sixers are settling for some role players and draft compensation. It doesn’t exactly live up to all the talking done about only getting a deal done to help them build toward a championship. Although, that’s probably something you had to say for Joel Embiid’s sake. The Sixers didn’t make a bad trade. They just didn’t make the trade we assume Morey would try work out. When he was faced with the Ben Simmons situation, he patiently waited months for the Harden deal to materialize.

This time? He waited only a week, and ended up with a first-round pick down the road that might be worth something. I just wonder if Morey will still be there making the pick when it comes around.

Grade: C-

(Photo of James Harden: Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)