LA Clippers receive James Harden from the Sixers.

The 76ers has had enough of the James Harden saga. They made their final decision by trading him to the Clippers. It is very evident that the 76ers can pay more attention to the new season.

Harden, a 10-time All-Star and the league’s current assists leader, became openly angry with the Sixers and Morey, his longtime supporter and current president of basketball operations, in the offseason. The 34-year-old Harden requested a switch to the Clippers after the team reportedly expressed their interests in his skills.

The 76ers are working to surround reigning Kia MVP Joel Embiid with capable and willing players in order to get past the Eastern Conference playoffs for the first time since 2001, and Harden’s departure is the latest development in that endeavour. In 2022, Harden was purchased by the Sixers in return for Ben Simmons, a similarly disgruntled former All-Star.
But Harden didn’t deliver the breakthrough Philadelphia had hoped for due to injuries and poor postseason performances. Harden chose to exercise his player option for the 2023–24 season rather than exercise his right to free agency this summer.

With Harden gone, the 76ers’ situation has become simpler. The former MVP missed some of training camp and had not yet been on the pitch this year. Nurse informed reporters on Sunday that he anticipated Harden to practise with the squad on Halloween prior to Thursday’s game against Toronto.

Rather, Philadelphia will now exclusively rely on guard Tyrese Maxey, 22, to be their second-best player behind Embiid. Through the first three games of the season, Maxey is averaging 30.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 6.3 assists. In the meantime, the Clippers add Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and another seasoned player to their lineup. Before briefly reuniting with Westbrook in Houston, Harden spent his first three seasons in Oklahoma City with him.

The Clippers wanted to bring Harden to Los Angeles because of injuries to Leonard and George and because they needed another guard who could set the floor with them. The team intends to try and at most duplicate their historic run through the Western Conference finals in 2021 before moving to a new venue in Inglewood for the 2024–2025 season.