Re-grading last year’s monumental Harden-Simmons trade

Philadelphia 76ers: A-

Conversely, Harden has been about as perfect a regular-season fit for the Sixers as possible. He and Embiid form one of the league’s most unstoppable pick-and-roll duos. With Harden feeding him, Embiid has leveled up his offensive game to become perhaps the league’s pre-eminent scorer.

Harden also took a much-ballyhooed discount (he’s making only $68 million in two years — what a sacrifice) to allow the 76ers more roster flexibility, resulting in the deepest, most flexible roster Embiid has ever been around.

While PJ Tucker has been a slight disappointment for the Sixers so far, he’s a playoff player, and his worth can’t be judged until then. Keeping the 2022 pick and flipping it for Melton is a huge win. Melton is a shot of adrenaline on both sides, and he’s played so well that coach Doc Rivers has been forced to put Tyrese Maxey, who’s scoring 20 points per game while shooting 39 percent from three, on the bench.

Paul Millsap was a bust as a backup center last season, but like Andre Drummond for the Nets, he’s off the team now.

There’s also the fact that if this was the Ben Simmons that Philly would’ve eventually gotten, he might have been entirely unplayable next to Embiid. Simmons has not been a value-add player this season, but his unique foibles were somewhat mitigated next to Irving and Durant. In Philadelphia, his presence would have been an albatross. So there are some addition-by-subtraction bonus points scored here.

The only reason Philly doesn’t get an A+ here is simple: we’re still not sure what Embiid and Harden can do in the playoffs.

Harden’s playoff struggles are well-noted, but quietly, Embiid hasn’t exactly torn up the postseason, either. At one point, Simmons and two first-round picks were valuable trade pieces that theoretically could have been used to find a star who could lift a team in the playoffs instead of dragging them down.

But that said, this Sixers team is very, very good this year, and Embiid’s never been better. If JoJo can crack the playoff code, Harden’s inconsistencies in the playoffs won’t matter, and with Maxey and Tobias Harris, the scoring load doesn’t weigh heavily on The Beard anymore.

Most trade grades last year generally gave high marks to both teams, and it was widely considered a win-win (or at least, a not-lose-not-lose). But twelve months later, we know this isn’t true. Philadelphia definitively won the trade; to truly be a success, however, Harden needs to help them past the second round.