2023/24 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "THANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

og would be perfect for them def

tho not sure how hed feel about being a #3 option even if that is his natural spot

i can’t watch the video now but appalling shams is reporting that this was finalized by harris and ballmer.

i was pretty surprised that the sixers/daryl morey would do this now, maybe that explains it.

that's interesting. the narrative that harden returning to play was "untenable" and thus a trade needed to be made expeditiously is the exact opposite of what we understand morey's thinking on this stuff to be, so that seems plausible

i could def picture a scenario where the owners had the same reaction as the rest of us -- "wait this trade is seriously being held up over terance mann?" -- and basically just forced the GMs to figure something out and then called in the trade themselves

i think on its face the sixers got decent value it's just when you take the whole past & potential future scope of all the moves combined where you're kinda like, yeesh

Butler remains the great "what if" of the Sixers

yeah i dont think they were gonna get much better for harden, i mean its not impossible that some other team would decide they need him but its also not impossible that the clippers decide they dont need him

i cant believe teams are stilll coughing up anything valuable to employ harden.

yeah i wouldnt want him on my team for the minimum

kawhi and pg prob wanted him

Makes me think less of them

nba players love stars and are unclear on the concept of aging

do think hardens playmaking will help the clips, but the rest of it idk

ideally he would lean even more into being a point guard than he did in philly considering the clips have guys who can score the ball, which would make his playoff choking less of an issue too

more likely one of kawhi and pg are injured for the offs and harden and russ are your 2nd and 3rd options eesh

i’m a harden disbeliever to my core but if the theory is that as your third option there is a less chance of him driving your championship hopes off a cliff & maybe more of a chance he finds a role in which he can contribute without shitting himself… i guess i can kinda squint and see that? but that’s more to me if he just falls in your lap. they actually gave up real pick assets for him!

xp yes lol. we will be seeing PG, russ and harden shoot a combined 11-60 in game 5 of round 1 with kawhi watching on the bench

i mean they had to give up something, the players they sent over are cooked so its gotta be picks but yeah this is too much

- 2026 LAC first-round pick via OKC
- 2028 LAC first-round pick
- Two second round picks
- One pick swap

- 2026 LAC first-round pick via OKC

btw does this mean la somehow got one of the picks they traded to okc for pg back

I didn't know that the Sixers owner was a Harris and thought that Tobias was really throwing his weight around.

Not sure if this is true, but:

This 2026 pick that the Thunder are sending the Sixers will be the least favorable pick out of a few of the picks that the Thunder possess that year, I'm told. https://t.co/pzZvSQeERB

— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) October 31, 2023

Because they are seemingly always involved in a trade that features draft picks, the Oklahoma City Thunder will help clear the path for the Clippers to trade an additional pick to the 76ers. The Thunder will pick up 2027 first-round pick swap rights, in exchange for sending a protected version of the 2026 Clippers first-round pick they own to the Sixers. (This is likely to end up in a “last favorable” situation of the 2026 picks Oklahoma City owns.)

LA Clippers acquire
James Harden, P.J. Tucker, Filip Petrusev

Oklahoma City Thunder acquire
2027 first-round pick swap rights with the LA Clippers

Philadelphia 76ers acquire
Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, Kenyon Martin Jr., Marcus Morris Sr., two first-round picks (protected 2026 Clippers (via Thunder), 2028 Clippers), two second-round picks (2024 Pacers, Jazz or Cavs (TBD), 2029 Clippers) and a 2029 first-round pick swap

https://www.spotrac.com/news/clippers-finally-acquire-james-harden-2057/

thunder dumping their worst pick for a swap that could maybe pay off, which i guess is something you do when you have a million picks

just posting this for the future pick info (assuming it's correct)

The Clippers are a truly hilarious franchise.

Kawhi, PG, Harden & Russ are all FAs after this season.

Here’s what their future 1st round picks look like:

‘24 to OKC
‘25 swap w/ OKC
‘26 to OKC
‘27 swap with OKC
‘28 to PHI
‘29 swap with PHI

They’ve also traded 6 2nds away.

— nick wright (@getnickwright) October 31, 2023

Harden was legitimately pretty good last year: his shooting percentages were right in line with his better years, and his defense was nearly as good as it was in Houston. obviously there's still a ton of risk there - he gets hurt a lot and he might singlehandedly kill you in the playoffs and then demand a trade, but idk I think there's some upside as a 3rd option there

he had a great regular season def and even was pretty cooperative as far as trying to be more of a facilitator and less of a scorer

its pretty funny how second round picks have value in pushing trades over the line but not much value as actual picks, teams want to feel like theyre getting an extra treat

if you evaluate james harden on paper he has very few flaws

there was a funny discussion between bomani & nick wright last week about how in 30-40 years there will be ppl arguing about basketball who never watched james harden or jimmy butler play who will be unable to believe us when we say that actually if you watched them play there's no question as to who you'd rather have if you needed to win an important basketball game

and hopefully these discussions will be taking place on ILH

if you evaluate james harden on paper he has very few flaws

sorta depends on whether that paper describes his habit of trade demands and team sabotage

i'll still be here, unless i die

Super pumped to not have to hear about this Harden trade business anymore. Praise to Ballmer for making it happen.

ya was pretty tedious

glad to have it and the dame one over.

idk personally i think someone else on the sixers needs to demand a trade now

it's coming

maxey shd demand a trade to the spurs

Korkmaz is still waiting.

sixers could have another trade coming if they dont think theyre going to be able to get anyone in free agency

so the sixers get a bad first from okc so they can do a face-saving “see? they DID get two firsts for harden!!” lol

https://i.imgur.com/nd8ZHuZ.png

Would be interesting to see Lavine on a good team

lavine/maxey is a no go backcourt for me

yeah not a great match for sure

seems like something morey would do tho

loving your slow 24 min revelation on this topic

lol did actually think about both of those things before posting the screenshot

the heat and sixers feel like they're in the same place right now w/ the caveat that the heat can at least justify a level of stasis based on recent history. but continuing to reduce the talent around embiid while expecting him to push you further ... not sure the math is justified on that one