What do the 76ers do From Here?

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The Philadelphia 76ers have a difficult situation on their hands as James Harden is refusing to show up to practice and trying to make the situation as uncomfortable as possible so he can get traded. The 76ers are in a tough spot as they can either comply with Harden’s demands and trade him for a relatively small package or they could wait it out, but possibly hurt the camaraderie of this team. 

Philadelphia has seen this play out before when they had difficulties with Ben Simmons. Many were clamoring for the 76ers to just trade Simmons to get it over with but they ended up staying put. Simmons was eventually dealt months later for a haul that included, ironically, James Harden. Morey is known to be stubborn when it comes to these trade demands so it is certainly possible that Philadelphia plays the waiting game. Similar to the Simmons situation Phili may wait until the trade deadline and hope that teams are desperate enough to throw a larger package at them for Harden.

If the 76ers do trade Harden what does that mean for the rest of the roster? Embiid not having a second star is not an ideal situation. It is very difficult to succeed in the NBA with only one all-star type player on the roster. Without Harden this 76er team will struggle to compete for a championship and they may need to go in a different direction. This could be a similar situation to Brooklyn where as soon as Kyrie Irving was traded, Kevin Durant was soon to follow. Getting an enormous haul for Embiid now may be the ideal scenario for Phili to maximize the assets they can have and to rebuild to win a championship down the line. Without enough talent surround Joel Embiid, trading both Embiid and Harden may be the 76ers best course of action for winning a championship in the future.