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The trade for James Harden has propelled the Philadelphia 76ers into championship contention.
All of the drama surrounding Ben Simmons is now gone and the team can focus on playing basketball. With Harden in the lineup, the Sixers are 3-0 and while two of those wins have come against the New York Knicks, the early returns are promising.
Harden looks far more energized than he did with the Brooklyn Nets, and his presence is already being felt by the other players on the roster, with Matisse Thybulle being one of the latest beneficiaries of playing alongside the star guard.
Lost in the fuss is Tobias Harris’s shifted role with the team. With the addition of Harden, it looks like he has now become the fourth option behind Joel Embiid, Harden and Tyrese Maxey. There are now questions about his long-term fit with the team, especially considering he’s in the midst of a $180 million deal.
Offloading him in the offseason could be a great way for the team to make key upgrades. After trading away Drummond, the Sixers are in need of a backup center, and while they’ll be able to address that in the short-term, they’ll need a long-term answer once the season concludes.
When it comes to trades, there are a variety of different options Philadelphia could explore. A potential option would be shipping him to the Dallas Mavericks.
Harris to the Mavs
In a conversation between Heavy’s Sean Deveney and Steve Bulpett, the idea of sending Harris to Dallas in exchange for some much-needed depth was floated.
“One team that has had interest in him in the past that I’ve heard, and has put themselves into a position to make a move for someone like him is Dallas,” Deveney said. “I think that would be a team to watch, they’ve had an interest in Harris for a while now.”
The Mavericks pulled off a move that could save them cap space in the long haul by splitting Porzingis’s massive deal into two more manageable ones in Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans.
For the Sixers, getting somebody like Dinwiddie or Tim Hardaway Jr. would be a dream scenario as it’d replenish some of the depth lost in the Simmons trade. Hardaway is under contract until 2025 on a $75 million deal and Dinwiddie is signed until 2024, so both would be here for the foreseeable future.
“If you were to put up Tim Hardaway Jr. and what he does, and Spencer Dinwiddie as well, there’s no question they’d like some depth in the backcourt and they need depth on the wings,” Deveney continued. “That would be something that, obviously, would leave you short at power forward, but the Sixers are in a better position to deal with that than to deal with the lack of depth.”
Not So Fast
GettyTobias Harris could be shipped out of town.
Bulpett warns that might not be an easy thing to make happen as he feels Harris feels more like the final piece to a championship puzzle.
“If you’re Dallas, you’d be putting a lot of eggs in Tobias Harris’s basket,” Bulpett said. “To me, he is the guy you make the move for to get you over the finish line. I don’t quite see him as being that in Dallas.”
That doesn’t mean the Mavs wouldn’t be interested, but it could be easier said than done for the Sixers.
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Proposed Trade Sees Sixers Flip Tobias Harris for $75 Million Wing