The trade that everybody was waiting for happened when most of us were sleeping.
James Harden is finally on the move to his preferred destination, going to Los Angeles to join the Clippers. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski announced the framework of the deal around 3 a.m. ET, which is centered around expiring contracts and draft picks. The Thunder's draft pick was roped into the deal as well, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania.
Here's how all three teams involved fared in the swap.
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James Harden trade details
76ers receive:
- Marcus Morris
- Nicolas Batum
- Robert Covington
- Kenyon Martin Jr.
- 2026 protected Clippers first-round pick via Thunder
- 2028 Clippers first-round pick (unprotected)
- One first-round pick swap in 2029
- Two future second-round picks in 2024 and 2029
Clippers receive:
- James Harden
- P.J. Tucker
- Filip Petrusev
Thunder receive:
- 2027 pick swap with the Clippers
76ers grade: B+
The Sixers were in a tough spot with Harden, whose market had almost completely dried up. There was little interest outside of the Clippers. While they didn't get the player who they were targeting in Terance Mann, this does help them moving forward.
This is an addition-by-subtraction move for the Sixers first and foremost. They are no longer at risk of Harden posing a distraction, which he has done in the past when trade demands drag on. And Tyrese Maxey has exploded in Harden's absence, averaging 30.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists in the Sixers' first three games.
Moving Harden allows Maxey to continue to flourish in his new role and the team can continue playing more quickly in a more egalitarian style under Nick Nurse.
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The Sixers are also getting some decent role players back who will help them this year and then go off their books to open up cap space down the line. Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris and Robert Covington are all older players who can spread the floor with shooting and have veteran playoff experience.
Covington may be the best of the three, and Morey seems to have an affinity for him — this is the third time that Morey has acquired Covington over the course of his 11-year career.
KJ Martin is the most interesting of the players acquired by the Sixers. He'll be a restricted free agent next summer, and he showed some real promise while with the Rockets as an athletic wing with some two-way potential. He can fly in for some weakside blocks. Like his father Kenyon Martin, he's a great play finisher. And while he's not a great shooter, hitting 33.8 percent of his 3s for his career, he has shot a better percentage earlier in his career.
This is a nice amount of draft capital, too. Given the age of their star players, those 2026 and 2028 Clippers picks have a chance to be very good down the line. For the same reason, that pick swap has real value as well.
It's tough to see a top-30 player go out the door without receiving one back. But the assets that the team acquired, along with that draft capital and potential cap space next summer, allow them to make another move down the line. This seems more like a "to be continued" trade than anything else.
Clippers grade: C+
Harden's fit on this team is going to be a little bit weird. It immediately raises the question of what will happen with Russell Westbrook, who took a huge pay cut to come back to the team and played well for them last season. Harden and Westbrook already have history playing together, so we know a little bit about what that might look like.
Both Harden and Westbrook need the ball in their hands, and this takes away the nice fit that led to Westbrook's career resurrection after a disastrous stint with the Lakers. It might make sense to move him to the bench in order to let him continue to be the lead ball handler in those units.
This could end up working nicely, though. Harden is still a fantastic passer — he led the league in assists last season. The Clippers were playing a rough style of basketball, depending far too heavily on isolations from Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. While both are extremely talented scorers, they were less than the sum of their parts.
Harden has shown that he is willing to take a backseat to better players, as he did with Joel Embiid in Philadelphia. He can play the facilitator role for this team and get everyone the ball in their favorite spots. And he has better shooting around him than he did with the Sixers, which should make him an even more dangerous passer.
P.J. Tucker should also help despite declining considerably over the years. His defense isn't what it once was, but he's still above average in that department. He's a good offensive rebounder and 3-point shooter, hitting 40.5 percent over the past two seasons. But he can be too reticent to let them fly, leading to teams not guarding him.
This trade has a decent chance of blowing up in the Clippers' face given that a bunch of egos could end up fighting each other for shots. And the cost could be extremely high if they are bad in 2027 through 2029. But this team wasn't going anywhere anyway. This gives them more championship equity than they had in the past.
Thunder grade: A-
The Thunder are making a bet that the Clippers are going to be in the lottery in 2026 and 2027. That's not a bad bet to make given that Leonard, Paul, Westbrook and Harden may all be off the team by then. Even if they remain, they will certainly be worse than their current levels and on their last legs in the league. The Clippers have few assets to rebuild in those years. They may very well be among the worst teams in the league.
The Thunder retained that massive upside by placing protections on that 2026 Clippers pick that they shipped out. If it's at the top of the draft, they will still get to use it. And there's a very high chance that the pick swap they made in 2027 ends up conveying into another lottery pick for them given that they will be on the upswing while the Clippers are declining.
The returns on this won't be known for a while, and it could end up as a zero move. But this has nice upside for the Thunder, allowing them to get two shots at the very top of the draft.