NBA Trades: This Blazers, Heat, 76ers, and Clippers swap would alter NBA
By Cal Durrett
NBA Trades: Would the Los Angeles Clippers agree to the trade?
Back in the summer of 2019, it looked as though the Los Angeles Clippers were going to be the team to beat in the West for years to come. Four years later, the Clippers have yet to even make it to the Western Conference Finals and have been passed by several teams, namely the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns.
While they could be a top-four team if their two best players, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George, manage to stay healthy, the team can’t rely on that to happen. As a result, they should jump at the chance to acquire Harden to help prop open their title window.
Harden isn’t the same MVP-caliber player he once was and probably isn’t going to help them much in the playoffs, but he could definitely help them in the regular season. With Leonard and George usually a safe bet to miss around 25 games a season, having Harden in addition to Russell Westbrook would allow them to keep pace in the West during the regular season.
Then, when the postseason comes around, hopefully, their best players will be healthy and the Clippers will be in a better position to compete. In this trade scenario, giving up Covington, Morris, Batum, Coffey, Preston, Boston Jr., and two first-rounders seems like a lot, but those players would be expendable if it meant a meaningful upgrade. Harden is.