The last few days have been full of headlines around the Brooklyn Nets and their players. For starters, there seems to be a feud brewing between Kevin Durant and NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith. The two have exchanged a lot of words, with Stephen A. being the last one to give a reply to KD.
Since the feud doesn’t affect the franchise directly, they won’t get too concerned about it. But there is another matter which can change the future of the team. It’s around none other than the former MVP James Harden.
Over the last few weeks, with Durant injured, Harden has taken an additional role for the team. It doesn’t help that Irving is only a part-time player as well. Anyway, during the said time period, the Nets have dropped to the 7th seed and are struggling to win games.
This has led to the Beard apparently wanting out of Brooklyn. Although Kyrie recently assured that isn’t the case, fans can’t completely believe it until the trade deadline passes.
Speaking of the trade deadline, it is rumored that the Philadelphia 76ers are interested in trading for Harden. The main bargaining piece will, of course, remain their disgruntled star, Ben Simmons. However, Bill Simmons recently revealed in his podcast that the Nets also want Seth Curry to be involved in the deal.
“So here’s what I heard. This is from the same source that has given me some good intel over the past couple weeks. Brooklyn is open to it, but [Seth] Curry has to be in the deal. You can aggregate this, I don’t care. Brooklyn is looking at this year because they have Durant and Durant, we assume, is going to be healthy pretty soon and the east is wide open and they want a chance to win. For them, the trade that makes sense for them is Simmons and Curry for Harden. This is what I heard.
I think that would make sense for a lot of reasons except for Philly. I watched Philly today, I watched their whole game, I like the team they have! If I’m adding somebody, I’m not adding something that blows up what I’ve built over the past couple months. Maxey, Curry, Embiid, Harris has been fine. But what they really need is like.. I think Bradley Beal makes so much more sense from them because he just gets the Korkmaz minutes and some of the Danny Green minutes and they keep everything else that they have. So if I’m them, I could get Bradley Beal for Simmons and picks, that’s the direction I’m going.”
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Throughout the season, the 76ers have been trying to trade Ben Simmons. After all, the 25-year-old has made it completely clear that he doesn’t want to be a part of the 76ers in the future.
But, as Bill later added, adding Harden to the current mix might ruin the entire chemistry of the roster. That is the last thing the Sixers want to do at this stage of the season.
