“Winner Stays” is a sports debate column.
There are few types of sports content as engaging as a good debate, and that’s exactly what “Winner Stays” is all about.
Here’s how it works: Each week, two of Annenberg Media’s many excellent sports journalists will go head-to-head in debate over a certain topic. When we tweet the article from the @ANNMediaSports account, we’ll let you — the readers — decide who argued their point better via a simple Twitter poll. You’ll have 24 hours to cast your ballots. That week’s winner will stay on and debate someone new the following week. And so the cycle continues.
Returning columnist Sam Reno and Eli Kleinmann bring you edition No. 2.
Topic: Who won the James Harden/Ben Simmons trade?
Sam Reno: 3-point shooting and defense. It’s how you win games — especially in the playoffs — in the modern NBA, and the Nets just added both at an elite level.
Ben Simmons is the best perimeter defender in the league, and if not for the existence of Rudy Gobert, he’s likely already a multiple time Defensive Player of the Year.
There’s never been any denying of the offensive talent of this Nets squad, but they’ve needed every ounce of it to make up for their lack of effort — and ability — on the defensive end.
A season ago, the Nets had the eighth-worst defensive rating in the association. They lost that second round series to the Bucks largely because Milwaukee had the defenders to wear down Kevin Durant while Brooklyn could not do the same to the stars on the other side.
The 76ers had the second-best defensive rating in the NBA last year with Simmons leading the line. In 2022, they sit just eighth — still great, but a far cry from the immovable object constructed by the All-NBA guard’s presence.
Simmons has a definable impact on his teams’ ability to keep the ball out of the basket, and when paired with Brooklyn’s shooting, both on the roster and coming with him, his offensive shortcomings are sure to be minimized.
By adding the fifth-greatest 3-point shooter by percentage of all-time in Seth Curry, the Nets can surround Simmons with a closing lineup of Kyrie Irving, Joe Harris, Durant and Curry — all elite shooters and floor-spacers.
One team added arguably the best perimeter defender and perimeter shooter in the world, while the other added a disgruntled star who has proven incapable of gelling alongside superstar talent. There’s a clear winner here, and they play in the Big Apple.
Eli Kleinmann: If someone offers you four quarters or a dollar bill, which one are you taking? Unless you’re trying to buy a gumball, it’s obviously the dollar bill, and that’s exactly what the 76ers got in this trade. They had to give up assets to get that superstar piece that was missing from their roster.
There is no doubt that Philadelphia wanted to keep Simmons, who was turning into a superstar, but the reality was that Simmons was not going to play for the 76ers again.
Instead of losing Simmons for almost nothing like Portland did with CJ McCollum, the 76ers got a superstar in return. It helped that Harden wanted out of Brooklyn, but for Philadelphia to go out and make the deal happen sets them up as a championship contender.
For years experts questioned if Philadelphia could win a championship with Simmons and Embiid because of the lack of shooting. Well the 76ers solved that issue by trading for an elite shooter and one of the best scorers in the league.
With the addition of Harden, Philadelphia has four scorers who average over 19 points per game with Tobias Harris,Tyrese Maxey and Embiid on the roster.
Sam mentioned that the defense has taken a step back, but keeping Simmons was not going to translate to improvement because Simmons was never going to step back on the court for the team that drafted him No. 1 overall.
By acquiring Harden the 76ers will look to improve the offense however — one that with an elite shooter in Curry ranked 20th in the league. Harden should quickly improve that with his scoring.
Losing Curry is not ideal. He is a quality role player and an elite shooter, but the 76ers have pieces on their roster that can fill in.
Ultimately, it takes giving up valuable assets to get a superstar in the NBA, and that is what Philadelphia did to get one of the NBA’s best players.
Samuel Reno: Sure, the Sixers added a star. But to win a title, a team can’t get those perimeter shooting and defense contributions from its stars alone. Just look at the last three NBA champions.
The 2019 Toronto Raptors got their floor-spacing from Danny Green, Fred Van Vleet and Marc Gasol. Green also gave them an All-Defensive worthy season alongside the efforts of Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam.
Down in the bubble, Markieff Morris, Rajon Rondo and Kentavius Caldwell-Pope all shot at least 38% from deep on more than three attempts a night. The Lakers also had the league’s best defense – spearheaded by LeBron James and Anthony Davis with contributions from Alex Caruso and Kyle Kuzma.
Last year’s Bucks relied on Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday at both ends with extra shooting from Pat Connaughton and Bryn Forbes. Milwaukee also had Giannis leading the best perimeter unit in the league alongside those two and P.J. Tucker.
Back to the Nets and the Sixers.
By adding Simmons to a group that includes the likes of Jevon Carter, Bruce Brown and the versatility of Durant, Brooklyn’s perimeter defense improves to serviceable at worst – a massive improvement from the last season-and-a-half.
Plugging Curry into the arsenal of long-range weaponry that is Durant, Irving, Mills and Harris makes that offense downright lethal no matter how poorly Simmons shoots it.
On the other hand, the Sixers significantly downgraded both. Losing Simmons leaves Matisse Thybulle as Philly’s only reliable perimeter option, and as lockdown as he may be, he’s nearly just as bad of a 3-point shooter as Simmons.
And sure, Harden can shoot, but he can’t space the floor for himself. While guys like Harris, Maxey and Georges Niang have shot well this season, none of them have proved they can sustain that effort come playoff time.
Every title contender has at least one superstar, but the last three titles have been decided by the perimeter contributions – or lack thereof – of those around the lead guys.
The Nets added more quality depth. The Sixers gave away the little they had. Point Brooklyn.
Eli Kleinmann: The NBA is a star driven league. That does not diminish the importance of having good role players, but teams are not able to win titles without multiple star players.
When you mention the past three championships, they also all have multiple stars on their roster.
In 2019, the Raptors had Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry who have combined for 11 all-star appearances.
A year later, Lebron James, the greatest player of his generation, and Anthony Davis, a top-10 player, led the Lakers to the title.
Last season it was the Bucks led by two time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
But he was not alone. Alongside him was Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton who have gone to four all-star games between them and Holiday has been named to three All-Defensive teams during his 12 years in the league.
The common denominator to win a championship in the NBA is having more than one star player, and the 76ers just added their second.
While Curry was a valuable role player, the 76ers have replacements. Tyrese Maxey has emerged as an excellent scorer for the 76ers. The second year player is averaging almost 17 points per game and is shooting 39% from behind the arc.
But Maxey is not alone. Georges Niang and Danny Green are both shooting over 37% from 3-point range. The 76ers still have depth which is why they were willing to give up some of it to acquire a game-changing player in James Harden.
Just a few years ago, there was discussion that Simmons could be shipped to Utah for Donovan Mitchell. At that time, if someone said that Philadelphia could acquire Harden for Simmons instead, everyone would have said pull the trigger.
The only thing that has changed since then is that Harden was on the Nets and Simmons was refusing to play, making it all the more beneficial for the 76ers to make the trade happen.
Ultimately the addition of Harden puts Philadelphia in an excellent position to win a title, which was not being said before the trade.
The 76ers traded a player who was likely never going to return to the floor for a certified superstar. What more could you ask from a trade? Nothing.