76ers finally trade Harden to LA in this proposed three-team blockbuster

Why this trade won’t cut it for the 76ers

The 76ers will be welcoming a handful of objectively good assets in this trade, but frankly, no one projects or even profiles to be someone who can readily fill in a position of actual need. Between Hield, Mann, and Powell, the team can only trot out a couple at most with some roster overlaps still to be abated, while Morris Sr. will definitely not be overtaking anyone in his position anytime soon.

For a team that has relied so much on the Joel Embiid-James Harden two-man game, pinning a scoring-first guard like Tyrese Maxey to set the table for all of these players could be too much, especially if it means forfeiting some of his scoring volume with so many mouths to feed even outside him.

At the end of the day, it will be inevitable that the coaching staff will find itself craving for a true playmaker, and those players are absolutely none of those. And for a team with an abundance of players with scoring mindsets, this could mean some degree of anarchy on the floor unless the offense becomes concentric between Embiid and Maxey, and the playoffs last season already showed how predictable the team can be especially in the clutch.

Nevertheless, while the lack of a playmaker could bite the team in some way even if this deal materialized, the Philadelphia 76ers should look at this as a must-do deal if ever offered on the table. Not only does it give the team a more than adequate stop-gap basketball-wise, but it also allows them to retain flexibility for next year while adding draft capital along the way.

Grade: A