James Harden is leaving for the Philadelphia 76ers and Ben Simmons is leaving for the Brooklyn Nets, the network reported Thursday. ESPN and the portal The Athletic.
This event in the NBA came less than two hours after the transfer market closed and was revealed by Adrian Wojnarowski (ESPN) and Shams Charania (The Athletic), two of the best-sourced journalists in the league.
In addition to Simmons, who has not played with the Sixers all season due to an open and very tough confrontation with the franchise from Philadelphia (USA), the Nets will receive Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first-round draft picks.
In exchange, the Sixers take with Harden one of the best scorers in the league to escort center Joel Embiid, who is performing at a magnificent level and sounds like one of the favorites for regular season MVP.
The Sixers will also add a veteran to their interior game in Paul Millsap.
Nets coach, Steve Nashassured a few days ago that they had not planned to transfer Harden.
But rumors in the league suggested that the player wanted to meet with Daryl Morey, president of basketball operations for the Sixers and with whom he already worked on the Houston Rockets.
Harden was named MVP with the Rockets in 2018 but failed to win the championship ring then.
This season he is averaging 22.5 points, 8 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game.
This operation ends the stellar trio -and finally disappointing- of the Nets that formed Kevin Durant (injured since mid-January), James Harden (three games in a row without playing due to discomfort) and Kyrie Irving (cannot play home games due to injury). not be vaccinated against coronavirus).
Those from Brooklyn are going through a very serious crisis of results with nine straight losses and are right now ninth in the Eastern Conference with 29 wins and 25 losses.
Now they will receive Simmons, who was in the eye of the hurricane in Philadelphia (especially for his controversial decisions in the playoffs and his zero outside shot) and that last season he averaged 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists.
The Nets will also bolster their outside game with the experienced Seth Curry and their interior rotation with another veteran in Andre Drummond.
For their part, the Sixers are fifth in the East (32-22) and have a spectacular Embiid who this season is averaging 29.4 points, 10.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.
This shocking operation shakes the waters of an increasingly competitive and disputed East.
In this sense, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks also made a move in the last hours of the market and signed the Spanish Serge Ibaka, who will try to achieve his second ring (after the one he got with the Toronto Raptors) with the current NBA champions. (D)
Source: Eluniverso
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