You’ll never catch Sean Marks sitting on his hands, that’s for sure. If there’s a favourable deal to be done then this fella is going to make it. With the Brooklyn Nets’ championship ambitions teetering after a horrid losing streak and with still injuries piling up and one of their key players effectively only there on a part-time basis and nobody sounding particularly happy about anything right now... he had to act. It didn’t necessarily have to be a headline trade or anything but he had to do something. This team needed reinforcement on a physical, mental, and spiritual plane.

Enter The Trade Gawd Adrian Wojnarowski...

There’s a hilarious aspect to the breaking of this trade, by the way. Woj had gone on ESPN yesterday to rather emphatically deny that a Harden-Simmons trade was close, despite his ESPN colleague Brian Windhorst saying the opposite. Woj isn’t normally one to get played like that so you wonder if he was knowingly taking sides in the matter – eg, Sean Marks was trying to negotiate a better return for Harden so wanted it known publically that his team was willing to walk away from any discussions and keep Harden basically as a rental for the rest of the season before he inevitably used his opt out clause after the playoffs. Could be that Woj took a short term hit in order to get the long term gain. Or maybe he grabbed the expired milk out of the fridge instead of the fresh bottle. Whoopsadaisy.

Aaaanyway, James Harden has been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers along with Paul Millsap. The Brooklyn Nets have, in return, acquired the services of Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and two first round picks (unprotected in 2022, protected in 2027). There was talk of Brooklyn continuing to be active traders even after this deal but that didn’t happen apart from waiving DeAndre Bembry in order to make room on the roster for the extra player.

Thus ends the KD/Kyrie/Harden era in Brooklyn. For all the stunning promise of that team, of that trio, and the unprecedented offensive juggernaut that they were going to form together... the three of them only ended up playing 16 games together. Granted, they were 13-3 in those 16 games so it’s not like the experiment was failing. But between injuries and Irving’s ridiculous vaccination holdout it just never felt like they got it going. Sixteen games, man. We hardly knew ye.

The Ben Simmons saga has supplied an endless stream of drama for the gossip fiends since the season began. Hilarious drama too. Definitely don’t act like the Nets are making things any more harmonious by bringing him into the fold (but they’ll hope they aren’t making things any less harmonious either).

Simmons was awful in the last playoffs. In a pressure scenario, Eastern Conferences Semis against the Atlanta Hawks, he completely wilted. Didn’t attempt a field goal in five of the seven fourth quarters and in that decisive game seven he infamously turned down an open dunk at one stage which teammate Joel Embiid later mentioned as a turning point in the game as Philly went on to lose. Simmons shot 34.2% from the free throw line that series. His confidence was absolutely shot. Then when asked after the series if Ben Simmons can be a point guard on a championship team, his coach Doc Rivers responded: “I don't even know how to answer that right now”.

Simmons took all the scapegoating (which was far worse, if less consequential, from fans) extremely personally. Too personally, to be honest. While it’s always rough to single out individuals in a team sport... Simmons’ poor performances were easily the biggest issue for the 76ers in that series. There was truth to the situation. Thus despite still having four years left on his contract, the dude decided he no longer wanted to play for Philadelphia. Probably fair enough for all sides involved, although after sitting out preseason training camp as arranged he hasn’t exactly endeared other teams towards his professionalism by making himself a ghost. And then also complaining about the Sixers ghosting him in return. Like, what do you want, bro? Doc Rivers with a boombox standing under your bedroom window at night?

To be fair, that lack of self-awareness should fit in nicely within that Brooklyn Nets unit...

As I say, the Ben Simmons thing has been sports tabloid fodder all season. The James Harden trouble came much more out of the blue. After all it was only last season that he was traded to the Nets in the first place. Why did he suddenly want out?

For one thing the Nets have been trash lately. Kevin Durant has been out injured since mid-January, he’s expected to return after the All Star Break, and leading up to the trade they’d lost nine games in a row. Nine of them. Including some ugly blowouts – particularly after Harden began sitting with a hamstring complaint (which might not be a real injury, might have been more like an unofficial trade demand). Kyrie Irving is obviously only playing away games and that has, according to suggestions, been something that James Harden has held against him more than most on that roster.

Irving’s return was pretty much a player-driven thing amidst a flurry of injuries and covid cases within the group. They were shorthanded (Joe Harris hasn’t played since November, for example) and they wanted help. Team management eventually agreed. Irving has only been there during those short-handed days so it’s not necessarily an attack on him to say that since he returned the Nets have gone 6-13. In fairness they were 4-2 in games he’s played up until the current losing streak - in which he’s played in six of the defeats (so, 4-8 with him in the line-up).

Harden plus Kyrie (especially without Durant) is a tricky combination. Two ball-dominant point guards having to share duties, a balance made even trickier as Harden would often have to drastically change his approach from night to night depending on whether Kyrie was available. If Harden is out there playing through injury – which regardless of his latest complaint, he definitely was for most of his Brooklyn tenure – then you can accept him not having a lot of sympathy for Kyrie’s voluntary absences.

To be honest, it feels like Harden just wasn’t enjoying his basketball with the Nets. The fit wasn’t great and it was a huge change from what he was used to with Houston all them years. His general manager in the Houston days, who traded for him from Oklahoma City once upon a time (giving up the pick that became Steven Adams in the process), is Daryl Morey who is now the GM at the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers had a want-away star of their own. It made too much sense for the idea not to gather steam, the NBA media scene was absolutely drooling over the prospect, and in the end the two general managers, Marsky and Morey, were able to shake hands on something that should benefit both teams nicely enough.

Don’t really care about the Sixers point of view. Best of luck to them and it’ll be hilarious if these two teams meet in the playoffs. This article is about Sean Marks and the Brooklyn Nets, although do gotta take pause to acknowledge an all-timer of an NBA Twitter contribution from Joel Embiid. If you know you know.

So how do Brooklyn get better from having traded away the objectively best player in that deal? Ben Simmons, if they can fix his confidence (and that might take an exorcism, who knows) is a rare defence-first all star. His lack of shooting, his lack of willingness to even try to shoot, has probably doomed his chances of being a point guard in this league which is a shame given his genuinely astounding passing abilities. But the Nets already have Kyrie Irving (half the time) to patrol the point. Irving is also a legendary shooter. As is Kevin Durant. And not only did they have a legit excellent treble-drilling role-player in Joe Harris but they also signed Patty Mills in the summer and now they’ve just picked up Seth Curry.

Across the last five years of the NBA, Joe Harris has the very best 3P% of any player with at least 500 attempts. 45.0% is his mark. Second place is Seth Curry with 44.0% across that time. The Nets literally now have the two best three-point shooting role players in the entire NBA. Also, Kyrie Irving is 21st on the list at 40.2%. Meanwhile Patty Mills is shooting 42.4% from deep this season and you’re never gonna worry about Kevin Durant from any range. Point being that even if shooting/spacing remains an issue for Ben Simmons, the Nets have plenty of shooting/spacing around him to alleviate that as much as possible.

That ain’t to say that this isn’t a risk both on and off the court. Who knows how long it’ll take before Ben Simmons is ready to play an NBA game again? He’s been keeping himself away from the action for long enough now that you can’t simply expect him to slide in and play immediately. Especially not when he’s likely to have to play power forward in a very different role to what he did with his last team.

And where’s his mental state at after everything? Adjusting that offensive/defensive balance of the team like this is going to be a struggle but the bigger struggle might well be adding another off-court sideshow to the Nets environment. But if he’s happy and engaged in this fresh environment then that’s a step up from what James Harden appeared to be.

“I think everyone got what they wanted”... KD is a master at chucking out a subtle truth bomb in his quotes. In the same TNT chat he also added that he’s just “happy we've got guys who want to be a part of this”. There’s been a lot of star player movement over the last couple years, everybody getting itchy for change, but perhaps the KD/Kyrie/Harden era will prove to be a cautionary tale that simply amassing the most talent in one place doesn’t guarantee success. Still gotta have commitment. Still gotta have sacrifice. Still gotta have that team-first mindset.

Also Doc Rivers traded away his son in law, lol. He once said that even if Seth Curry was a bum then bringing him to Philly was still one of his best ever moves as it meant he got to see more of his grandchildren. Now he’s traded him. He also traded his son Austin not that long ago too. Fair play, that’s a coach who is all business right there.

By the way, amazing Aussie NBA move here. Ben Simmons combined with Patty Mills. How about that? There’s been a sneaky deal Aussie connection with the Nets since Sean Marks has been there, actually. Kyrie Irving was born in Melbourne of course. Mitch Creek played a few times for them in the 2018-19 season after impressing for the G-League side. Deng Adel also spent time with that G-League side a year later, though never played NBA. And the coach of that G-League team is Australia’s own Adam Caporn. Gonna need Marksy to scoop up a kiwi or two next though.

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