The Clippers Trading For James Harden Is Either Going To Finally Get Them Over The Hump Or Will Be A Complete Disaster With No In Between

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It probably happened sooner than most thought, but now that' he's a Clipper, James Harden finally got what he wanted. If you're interested in the Philly perspective, I suggest giving both Jordie's and Smitty's blogs a read since I think they both summed things up nicely in terms of how I imagine every Sixer fan feels today.

What I want to talk about is the other end of this trade and what it means for the Clippers. For starters, let's go back over the final trade package in terms of the actual players. The picks are whatever for the Clippers right now. What they care about is the actual basketball talent.

Right off the bat, it's big for them that they ultimately won the standoff around Terrance Mann. Not having to include him in this deal is a win for LAC (which we'll get to more in a second), and guys like Batum/Morris/Covington are all expiring contracts. Essentially, they swapped some of their expirings for two of Philly's expirings and then threw in a young guy and some picks to make it all work. They didn't have to take on any long term money, and in terms of actual basketball talent, I think it's fair to say the Clippers come out of this trade on the right side. That doesn't mean the Sixers lost the trade, it just means both sides got a lot of what they wanted. The Sixers finally get out of the James Harden business, get some OK plug and play talent who gives you more than Harden was at the moment, and they now have the future flexibility to continue to shape their roster.

The Clippers got high end (in theory) talent and a proven NBA vet to help maximize their current win now window. Now we can debate whether or not you think James Harden actually helps anyone "win now", especially when that winning needs to come in the postseason, but there's no denying that when Harden actually tried last year in PHI he was still pretty effective. The issue is always he's never there when you need him in the biggest moments, and thankfully he's now the #3 guy on the Clippers for those situations. It's tough when he's your #2 and Embiid is your #1 and you find yourself in a huge playoff game, but a healthy Kawhi Leonard is an entirely different animal.

It's also no secret that the Clippers needed guard help. It's why they were interested in trading for Malcolm Brogdon this summer. Having to rely solely on Russell Westbrook and Bones Hyland in such a competitive conference isn't what I would call ideal, so this trade does address their scoring/playmaking issue at that position. This also allows Westbrook to move to a more reserved role, which might be the best thing for him at this stage of his career. On paper, this team has a high ceiling if everything goes right

But here's the thing. These are the Clippers. When has everything gone right for them? That's what makes this trade so intriguing to me. It's clear they've gone ALL IN for this season in their attempt to finally even make an NBA Finals, and it's not as if they have a long runway to get that done. It has to happen now. Why?

Well, Kawhi (player option), George (player option), Harden, and Westbrook (player option) can all be free agents this summer. When it comes to Kawhi (age 33 season) and George (age 34 season) and Westbrook (age 36 season), are we sure Steve Ballmer is going to offer big extensions to these guys? What if they underachieve again this season? That's the risk. 

You already pushed all your chips in for this Kawhi/PG13 era, now you've given up even more assets for an aging player who generally has done more harm than good in every spot he's been, and you're other PG is about to be 36. There may not be a more valuable asset in the entire league right now than a future Clippers unprotected 1st round pick. If the Clippers don't make the Finals or win the whole thing, who is to say all these guys even stay in LA? What type of contract do you think the Clips offer Harden after this season? I can almost bank on it not being the max level he wants, especially when they could also have to extend both Kawhi and George this summer or risk losing them for nothing.

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Who knows, maybe not that Harden got what he wanted he'll go back to having the right attitude and caring about basketball again and everything will work. Kawhi and George are healthy, Westbrook is accepting his role, and there is talent on this Clippers roster. It can work. But it's one of the biggest gambles we currently have in the entire league. Even someone like PHX who also took a win now gamble isn't in the same sort of position of risk considering all their pieces are signed long term. It's not as if they are at risk of suddenly losing all their talent while also not really having any future assets to reload. That's basically where the Clippers are after this trade. It has to work, or they're fucked. Both from a potential asset perspective and the financial angle of what this move is going to do to their books. 

You could make the case that maybe they were better off using those contracts to trade for multiple pieces they may need come the trade deadline or maybe if they waited until February they could have done this move with fewer picks as opposed to going all in on Harden right this second, but we know Steve Ballmer is addicted to big names and making big splashes. Unfortunately so far, it's been nothing but disappointment. 

Who knows, maybe we look back on this trade it it turns out everyone got what they wanted and both sides won. Time will tell. But what we do know is the West just got even tougher (in theory) and now that the Sixers can be done with this drama and fully invest in Embiid/Maxey, maybe they're better off as well. The dark cloud is gone, but now there are also no excuses. 

It's going to be fascinating to see how it all plays out.