The biggest trade at the NBA trade deadline was when the Philadelphia 76ers acquired James Harden from the Brooklyn Nets. Philadelphia gave up Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, and Andre Drummond in the deal, but it seems it was well worth it.
Harden basically just replaced Curry in the starting lineup as Simmons was sitting out for the foreseeable future for the team. It has only been two games that Harden has played for the 76ers so far, but he has averaged 28 points, 13 assists, and eight rebounds in those two games that both resulted in wins.
The usage for Joel Embiid has not gone down much either as he has scored 34 and 37 in his two games alongside Harden.
Philadelphia was good before Harden, but most people did not take them as a serious championship contender until this move went down. Now they look like they could be the best team in the East over Chicago and Milwaukee.
This duo of Harden and Embiid is already being compared to Kobe and Shaq when they won multiple championships together on the Los Angeles Lakers.
It will be interesting to see how this team looks the rest of the regular season and in the playoffs. A sleeper team in the East could be the team who traded Harden away in the Brooklyn Nets, which would provide an interesting playoff narrative between these two franchises.
Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joel_Embiid_2018.jpg
