Sixers keep up the good mood, and things look better for the future now that James Harden has been traded.
When Nurse woke up, the team was very different. Harden was gone, along with forward P.J. Tucker, who had played the first three games, and backup forward Filip Petrusev.
However, the deal still needs to be officially completed, which could happen as early as Tuesday afternoon.
People in the Philadelphia area were generally relieved that the standoff among Harden and the Sixers was over.
But for Nurse as well as the 76ers, it was said that Harden’s on-again, off-again presence over the past few weeks wasn’t too much of a problem for their daily work.
After a great first three games during the season, Tyrese Maxey has officially taken over Harden’s job as the team’s point guard going forward.
“I believe our group is ready,” Maxey said. “I believe we’ve kept the main thing before everything else, which is what I believe has set us all on a good path.”
Our coach keeps our minds on the right things, and we have some outstanding guys who are focused and ready to go out and play or show what they can do.
Still, the 76ers no longer have to worry about what will happen with their team like they did when Harden chose to move to the Clippers in June instead of declining his $35.6 million citizen option for the season.
Harden has lied about 76ers president for basketball business Daryl Morey at an advertisement in China since then.
He also missed media day and the first day of training camp at Colorado State, and he left the team for personal reasons in the middle of their preseason.
Now that the season is over, the team can focus on a bright future with Joel Embiid, who is the league’s current MVP, and Maxey, who was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week after averaged 30.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, as well as 6.3 assists whereas shooting 50% from the floor and 14-for-25 from 3.
League original sources told Yahoo Sports that Lawrence Frank’s office tried to trade Harden with the Clippers again two weeks ago, when the Sixers were about to play their last preseason game.
The Clippers offered to trade their 2028 first-round pick for two future first-round picks from a third team and a pick swap with the Sixers.
Sources say that Philadelphia made it clear to Los Angeles that in addition to the Clippers’ original offer, they needed to include both Terence Mann and a second first-round pick.
However, Philadelphia was not happy with the two picks who Los Angeles was offering instead of its 2028 pick.
It was said that James Harden was finally moved from the Los Angeles Clippers early Tuesday morning. The deal had been in the works for four months.
The aging contenders and the former MVP were first seen as interested in each other in June, when Harden might be a free agent but decided to stay in the Philadelphia 76ers for one more year in the hopes of being traded to his hometown team.
Harden finally got what he wanted at the start of the season. He is now with the Clippers, along with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The 76ers are getting new players around Joel Embiid as well as Tyrese Maxey.
There are still some issues that have to be worked out before the deal is official, but here is what has been said about the trade so far.
Deals this big don’t happen very often during the season because it’s harder to match salaries and fit players on the squad.
But it looks like the Clippers or 76ers made it work. Now it’s time to see how well both teams did in their huge move. We finally got the Clippers as well as 76ers to move, and here’s how each team did.