[I have been writing a book about the last 15 or so years of the Sixers tentatively titled Darkest Timeline. The premise is to go through all of the bad or simply wrong decisions of the franchise year by year and trying to imagine how things plausibly could have been different had a different choice been made. I figure I will publish modified excerpts every once in a while.]
In the summer of 2012, a blockbuster trade rocked the NBA. The Sixers traded Andre Igoudala, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless, and a 1st round pick for Andrew Bynum. It didn’t go well to say the least. Later that summer, a similar trade return landed James Harden in Houston and broke up a budding dynasty. What would have happened if the Sixers were competently run and sniffed out a James Harden trade in August instead of doing the Bynum deal?
Why Did the Thunder Trade James Harden?
History has crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder for needlessly breaking up their proto-super team of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden just months after going to the NBA Finals. On October 27, 2012, James Harden was traded from the Thunder to the Houston Rockets for basically two first round picks. It is very clear that OKC did not need to trade Harden. They wanted to trade Harden. Why?
In the 2012 off season, OKC apparently offered Harden a 4-year contract extension worth $55m. He says he wasn’t given time to consider the offer while OKC says he simply turned them down. There is probably some truth to both under all of their likely omissions. Apologists for the Thunder play up that there was no way small market Oklahoma City could afford to keep all three of their star trio. However, this ignores that Harden was under contract for the 2012-13 season and would have been a restricted free agent the year after that. Their hands were not tied. They were afraid of a possible, eventual, problem and decided to blow up the youngest superstar core ever assembled to solve it.
In a chicken or the egg situation, it really doesn’t matter whether OKC canvassed the league for a trade partner and engaged Houston or if Daryl Morey, the Houston Rockets GM, picked out OKC as a team with a problem they didn’t know they had and convinced them to be proactive. Either way, OKC was game to make a deal and seemingly panicked. Instead of opening the bidding on Harden, they secretly negotiated with Houston resulting in a lackluster return. The Harden trade was seen as a steal the minute it happened. Sure, Harden wasn’t The Beard yet, but he was a top 3 pick who looked like there wasn’t a thing he couldn’t do with a ball in his hands. He was just a star on a team with too many stars, if such a thing is possible.
Harden immediately shined in Houston. His first week as a Rocket was legendary as he scored 37 in his debut with 12 assists then scored 45 the next night. This was the start of a run that included scoring titles, all-NBA teams, an MVP, and the invention of the step-back jumper. It also had playoff collapses, foul grifting, and an ugly divorce that saw him quit on the team.
What if the Sixers Traded for Harden Instead of Andrew Bynum?
Obviously, the Sixers of yore had no one in their brain trust with the creativity or foresight of Daryl Morey. Whether it be convincing a competitor to deal their star or knowing to hold on to your assets for a star to come to you, the Sixers were never going to be on the right side of a trade back then. But what if the Bynum trade never happens? What if the Sixers were still loaded with all the assets they lit on fire in that ill-fated trade months earlier? Let’s say the Sixers beat Houston for James Harden. What does that trade look like? Probably something like the Sixers 2013 and 2015 first round picks, Moe Harkless, and either Lou Williams or Thadeus Young. Andre Igoudala doesn’t need to be included for salary purposes in this deal. If you are Philly, you do that in a heartbeat. It is on par and maybe even a little better than what Houston was offering.
Your hypothetical 2013 Philadelphia 76ers starts with James Harden, Jrue Holiday, Andre Igoudala, Thadeus Young, and Nikola Vučević. Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes, and Lavoy Allen coming off the bench. That’s a pretty good and FUN squad. Holiday, Igoudala, and Young are all Swiss army knife type players perfectly suited to play defense and receive the benefits of James Harden gravity. The real 2012-13 Sixers went almost impossibly 34-48, missing the playoffs by 4 games. Houston went 45-37 with Harden, which would have been good enough for the 5 seed in the East and a date with Brooklyn in the first round. The aging, disgruntled Nets would have been run off the floor by the Harden-led Sixers. Unfortunately, the party would clearly have ended in the next round with the juggernaut Miami Heat dominating their way to a second straight title. That is a great foundation though.
Would it have mattered? In the East, Lebron James was at the height of his powers with the Heat and then with the Cavaliers, winning championships in 2013 and 2016. In the West, Kawhi Leonard1 was disassembling the best laid plans of the San Antonio Spurs leaving way for the Golden State Warriors to ascend to their own dynasty. Aside from Lebron, the only willing challenger to the Warrior throne was ironically James Harden and the Houston Rockets, albeit with one very big caveat. He never showed up when he absolutely needed to in the playoffs. He infamously went 2 for 13 from 3 in Game 7 of the 2018 Conference finals when they had the Warriors on the ropes.2 As with 2023 playoffs, you simply cannot count on James Harden when you need him to come through.
Was his supporting cast in Philly better at this point? Holiday is a better version of Eric Gordon, 2015 Finals MVP Andre Igoudala wouldn’t be on the Warriors, and Vučević would either be solid or subject to a trade bonanza at some point as he was later for the Magic. The hypothetical argument that this Sixers could have taken the Lebron teams or the Igoudala-less Warriors looks achievable on paper, but are you really going to bet on James Harden versus Lebron James or Steph Curry? At best you are looking at this team getting to the conference finals instead of the second round, but Lebron James went to 8 straight finals out of the East. Does anyone believe James Harden would be the guy who disrupted that?
Philly Front Office 
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