#thisleague UNCUT: James Harden traded (again)

home to Los Angeles. The Clippers now just rack. They have extended it to four future Hall of famers who all played their high school ball in southern California, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook now to be joined by James Harden. You know both of these sides. You know, we heard so much in recent weeks about how the Clippers were not going to put Terrence Mann in this deal.

The Sixers were not going to do the trade unless they got either Terrence Man with an unprotected first round pick or two future unprotected first round picks. It's the Clippers who win that face off. Yes, the Sixers did ultimately get two future first round picks in the trade, but one of the two is far from unprotected. It'll be the worst of three selections that currently belong to the Oklahoma City Thunder in twenty twenty six. The worst of those three picks will go to Philly. We are

gonna break it all down now. Chris Haynes is here with me. You know, Chris, really, when you think about it now, he got a lot of this rolling last week when he reported the chaos that erupted in Philadelphia when James Harden, after a ten day absence, rejoined the team, showed up at practice after missing a bunch of time, wanted to fly with the team to Milwaukee, went to the airport, was told that he could not get on

the team plane. And now this week, it was today, on this Halloween, that James Harden was supposed to return to the practice floor and supposed to join the Sixers for full speed practices. And instead, what we've seen here is the Sixers deciding, after a pretty chaotic month of October, no we don't want to go forward with this James Harden situation anymore. Things are going well, Tyrese MAXI looks like an All Star. We are going to do this

trade now. So now I'm going to bring in Chris Haynes after that extended bout of Halloween rambling for me, mister Haynes, what do we think? What do we think that this guy? I have tons of thoughts that I'm going to unload on you here in a moment, but I'm going to give you the floor first. Just give me your immediate reactions to the fact that after months now, the Sixers and the Clippers finally got a hardened deal done.

player of his caliber. Obviously, there's stinguwaighting circumstances to why that's the case. But James got to La, he got to the Clippers, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi, Leonard, Paul George, ty Lou. You know, I can say that James as spoken to Kawhi, spoken with Paul George, You've spoken with Russ and Tyere already spoken with those four that I know for sure already, and they're ecstatic. They they're talking about their partnership, what they what they're trying to do.

And ultimately, you know, within all those conversations that he had, championship kept coming up. So that's the mindset that they're in. And uh, you know, I'm I'm looking forward to seeing how it's going to work. You know, it's it's definitely a great storyline. You know, all those guys you know playing being from southern California, so you know that's going to be cool to see. But I think Ali from the Sixers standpoint, I was told Stein that the ownership

group got involved. Why did they, I don't know, but I do believe that they didn't feel like it was worth bringing James Harden back in the fold or trying

to bring him back into the fold. Not to say that, not to say that James was going to ever play a game another game for the Sixers, but you know, I think the episode just got tiresome for everybody, and I think for whatever reason, they felt like they need to cut it right now, and so they ended up getting, you know, got some two first round picks, you know, out of the deal swap, and you know, Sixers aren't done.

You know, they're gonna try to flip that into bringing in a key player, maybe a star player, borderline star type player, because they have to. You know, from here on out, it's about appeasing Joel Embiid and putting the right roster around him. So ultimately, James Harten got his way, Daryl Morey got some assets in return to try to improve the roster even more. So now we've got to see what Daryl go you know, what he does from here.

in the recent past. And if Chris Paul stays in that role and continues to lead the bench, I mean he is going to address a major shortcoming that the more modern Warriors have faced. You know, we can go on and on and on about how deep the West is, but we will get we will we will get to both how this impacts the Clippers and the Sixers. But I want to start with what you said about James Harden because I wrote a call about this already I posted on my sub stack. It is it is amazing

what James Harden has pulled off here. And people are going to point to his resume and say, no championship rings, and that is the fairest of criticisms. It's fair and it's factual. But James Harden the Beard. He is the NBA's undisputed champion when it comes to getting what he wants. He opted in, He picked up the player option thirty five point six million, and appeared at that time. He picked up the player option and demanded a trade in the same swoop, and all the know it alls league wide,

including myself, said, you just forfeited all control. You don't have a lot of leverage. There isn't a market for you. You're thirty four. Now, You're not the James Harden who forced his way out of Houston to Brooklyn, or even went from brook Brooklyn to Philly. And with all the naysayers being very loud, James Harden again for the second time in his career, more than a decade since the last time, he wins Halloween. He is the champion of Halloween.

He gets the trade to the team. There was only one team on his list, and he got the trade to the Clippers. And I remember, I will never forget what it was like in October twenty twelve, how stunning it was just a few days before Halloween when Oklahoma City abruptly traded him to Houston. Halloween came, Harden got a new deal. On the same day as Opening Night. He torched the Detroit Pistons thirty seven points, twelve assists, six rebounds for steals, and now eleven years later, he's

the He wins Halloween again. He scoops up all the treats.

just didn't want to mess with that. They didn't want to bring the unpredictable Hardened back into their team program in fear it's already been a chaotic October with the scene you described in your story about him trying to get on the team plane to fly to Milwaukee. They clearly just didn't want to deal with that anymore. And here we are.

I think with everything that's going on right now, it seemed like there's just good vibes right now with the Sixers. It probably would Lightweight probably would have been irresponsible to bring him back. And you know, it's funny. I remember when you know, Dame Dame Damian Lillard is going through his situation where he tried to get traded to Miami, and obviously he did got to the Bucks, and then everybody was like, well, this is the tide changing now,

is it? Is it? Empower player? Empower is over? Well?

some practices. I can't produce a Ryan. You have to tell me when the Clippers next game is, but it's gonna He's not gonna be available for their for the Clippers next game. I can tell you that it's gonna take a few practices to get them, to get them acclimated.

winners and losers. Right now, to me, there is only one party you can say that is indisputably triumphant, and that's James Harden himself. Because, yes, Damian Lillard, we all know Miami was his first choice. He's happy in Milwaukee. But we can't sit here and pretend that the Bucks were his first choice. Donovan Mitchell a year ago, everybody was expecting Donovan Mitchell to land with the New York Knicks. No, he got traded to Cleveland. In that scenario, and one

I forgot hat tip to our buddy Jake Fisher. I probably shouldn't have forgotten this since this involves a player who plays in the city in which I reside. But Kyrie Irving, you wouldn't have said that the Dallas Mavericks were at the top of his initial list when he wanted out of Brooklyn. That would have been the Lakers.

But Kyrie ended up getting traded to Dallas. So we've seen recent examples, multiple recent examples where star players didn't get to go where they were hoping, and James Harden, with seemingly no leverage, gets to go precisely where he wanted to go. But if we're now talking about the teams, I think in both cases, you know we're going to need six months to decide if either the Clippers or the Sixers can be classified as a winner in this situation.

If you force me today to grade it, I would say, I think, underline, think that I like it better for the Clippers than the Sixers as we speak, because, for one, I think it was clear to them that they knew they didn't have an around Kawhi and PG to get out of the West the way this team is currently built, and we know for so long they've needed a point guard,

a floor leader, and organizer. And no matter what criticisms you want to level at James Harden, the man averaged almost eleven assists per game last season and certainly helped Joel Embiid a huge amount in Joel Embiid's quest to finally win the MVP Award. B The Clippers are thrilled that they didn't have to include either Terrence Man or Norman Pouinis Powell in this deal, and they were able to get it done with Covington, Batoom, Marcus Morris and

all the draft compensation. And the Clippers also get PJ. Tucker in this thing. And I remember it was way I mean, it must have been June when you sat on this podcast, and I remember you were the first person I heard say it. Don't be surprised if PJ. Tucker ends up with the Clippers with James Harden. And you called that shot about four or five months ago.

They are the ultimate win or bust championship or bust team. It's their last year in Staples Center, and yes, I'm still calling it Staple Center. It's their last year at Staples as the Lakers co tenant. There's gonna be a lot of questions about what this means for Russ, who's gotten off to a good start this season. But the Clippers have a lot riding on this season, a lot

to figure out. But my sense is that, you know, they're hoping that all these veterans, because of the contract uncertainty that they all face, that it's going to motivate them to coalesce quickly and form a contender quickly. We'll see if that's the way it actually plays out.

but something tells me that I wouldn't. I'm just saying I would not be shocked to see him out there against the Lakers.

I think you can't just reflexively assign them a trade grade from the jump, because we know they're going to try to take the draft picks they've acquired and turned that into something else to form a new star trio. Who's going to be the third star who joins Joe l Embiid and Tyrese Maxi, you know, and there's already names out there like o Jannanobi from Toronto, Zach Levine

from Chicago. Though, I think if you've really studied Darryl Mory's history, something tells me that he has a list of even loftier targets, because that's just the way Daryl Morey has always operated. Now, the question will be, though, can they pull this off? They're also going to have a lot of cap space in the summer, But the question will be, as always, this is still all about Joe L. Embiid, Is he going to be okay with this trade? Is you know, how does he feel about

his Philly future? There have been murmurs around the league. I'm sure you've heard them too, that the relationship with Darryl Moray has been dented to some degree. You know, to what degree I think is hard to pinpoint, but you know, what is the state of his relationship with Darryl Moray after this saga? After losing some talent here?

There's no question that although the Clipper veterans coming in, all these guys can play and be contributors, but none of the players that Philly is getting in this deal in the short term you would classify as stars. They've got a new coach and Nick Nurse Maxy, the reigning Eastern Conferences Player of the Week is certainly, you know, played even better than Philly was hoping. But really, what only Joel Embiid knows the true answers to all these

questions and how he feels about his future there. He turns thirty in March and can just the subtraction of the hardened saga cannot become additioned by subtraction until the Sixers can make the move they make to bring that new third star in. And I can't answer that question on Halloween.

he gave me something on James at that time. It was like, listen, you know, I gotta control what I can control, and I got to worry about the guys that are in uniform now, he said, but we are a better team with James Harden. And so from that standpoint, my hope is that he comes back. But you know, he's the way he said it, Steinn, it was like he was fatigued, that's the way. That's the way he came off. He was fatigued with just everything that's going around.

By the way he was answering my questions and and I, you know, I know Joel so I you know, so I got that feel. So, you know, look, at the end of the day, the move was made, but there's still work to be done. What is Daryl going to do on the flip side to improve his roster? Because nice pieces, nice core pieces that you know, they got our guy, Nicholas Patuno over there.

he is, how as the GM. You know, one of the reasons Darryl Mory was so successful as the Rockets GM was because the whole thing was built around James Harden. But in Philly, the whole thing was built around and remains built around Joel Embiid. You can't have two players like that that you try to shower with all the love.

The Sixers were always going to be Joel Embiid's team, So I question, I questioned from the start, why make Harden the guy to put all your energy into going after And Darryl Mory spent the first fifteen months of his Sixers' reign trying to get James Harden. He did, he succeeded. But a year and a half later, the love triangle of Joel Embiid, James Harden and Darryl Mory it imploded. And now the Sixers have to start over. Where they are. Incredibly fortunate is that Maxi again, they

had high hopes for him coming in the season. Tyresee, Basey looks even better than the Sixers dream scenario coming into the season, and so that is one absolute saving grace. And now let's see they've got assets to go out and make another trade. But again, how long will that take?

And does Joel Embiid stay plugged into the program? These are the things that the Sixers can't answer today, and they need to get answers to as soon as possible to keep themselves on a title track because Milwaukee and Boston at the top of the East, both these teams look so formidable. All right, everyone that is going to do it for this emergency Halloween edition of This League Uncut. You don't typically see blockbuster trades at this juncture on

the calendar. But somehow, when the story of James Harden is written, people will look back and see that twice the man was the centerpiece of a late October blockbuster. Truly remarkable. That is going to do it for Chris and I. We're gonna be back again soon. We've still got another pod or to plan this week. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to the show if you haven't already For Haines, this is Stein. We'll be back with you soon, and.