With James Harden and Damian Lillard likely to be moved, why not look at a deal that gets this done in one fell swoop?
NBA free agency has opened, and a massive wave of moves have already been agreed upon that will be signed soon. With that in mind, there are still massive dominoes to fall, and most of them have to do with the NBA rumors in the trade market, not the signings in free agency.
We already knew coming into Saturday morning that the Sixers and James Harden are reportedly working together on a trade. Harden is opting into the final year of his contract with a handshake agreement in place for Philly to find him a new home.
Then, Saturday came with more superstar trade news: Damian Lillard, finally, formally wants out of Portland. He and the Trail Blazers have been together since the start of his career, and Lillard has stuck it out in the smaller market far longer than other stars have tolerated. But after Portland drafted Scoot Henderson with the third overall pick instead of trading that pick for an established star, it gave Lillard all the evidence he needed: His time with Portland is best cut short.
Additional context for us to consider: The Sixers are one of the teams interested in Lillard out of the gates, and the Clippers are interested in Harden, with preemptive approval from their two stars, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.
From there, it's easy to envision a world in which a three-team trade could come together. I've drafted a quick one, let's take a look.
The three-team trade that gets James Harden and Damian Lillard new homes
So, knowing the Clippers would be open to Harden, and Philly wants Lillard, why not try to do this all at once?
Here's what I have in mind:
The first-round pick here comes from the Sixers, and the second-round pick comes from the Clippers (via the Raptors).
The architecture here is relatively simple. In addition to the draft capital, outgoing for the Clips is Hyland, Batum, and Powell. Not pictured in the graphic above is Amir Cofey, who goes to Portland to balance salary.
Outgoing for the Sixers is Maxey and Harden.
Outgoing for the Blazers is Lillard.
Why the Blazers would do this trade
Short answer: They have to?
The Blazers have few options, as is the case with most teams when a star requests a trade, now that Lillard has asked for a trade. They'll still get good value, but ultimately less than they'd like.
So, they retool with a cast of role players and draft picks to help them navigate into the future without Lillard. They'd certainly like to get more draft picks than they receive as a part of this deal, but they can easily look to flip Powell, Batum, or Maxey in exchange for picks this season. Competitors could use any of those three as a part of their playoff push.
In my opinion, the Blazers should hold onto Maxey and try to re-flip the other two. Maxey, alongside Jerami Grant and Scoot Henderson, can become a primary or secondary scorer almost immediately and be a star focal point of the Blazers' next chapter.
While I think this deal ultimately gets the Blazers stuck in the middle, they've glued themselves in that position with the 5 year, $160 million Jerami Grant deal anyway. Unless Grant takes a huge leap forward as the first option in Portland, that deal will be proverbial handcuffs for Portland in the next few years.
Batum previously played in Portland, so if they kept him around it would be a reunion for him and the place he had his career breakout.
Why the Sixers would do this trade
The Sixers get Damian Lillard here, which is incredible 1-for-1 compensation for a player like Harden. Harden is probably past his prime, and after multiple failed superteam experiments that he's had a hand in, there are probably fewer teams out there for Philly to ring up to try to sell his services to.
Philadelphia needs to be careful with Joel Embiid. Embiid, who won the MVP this past season, feels dangerously close to forcing a trade request card of his own if the Sixers don't pull off a move that returns incredibly high value in exchange for Harden's request. Lillard would be a swing big enough to keep Embiid's faith and attention firmly in Philly for at least one more season.
Moreover, the Clippers stars are rumored to be interested in playing with Harden, which might be half the battle in convincing a front office it's worth it to bite the bullet on the risk associated with Harden failing to get the job done as a primary star on the biggest stages.
Bones Hyland is a nice piece to get here as well, even if he's not the main course. Hyland is entering his third year and has real potential as a role-playing piece around Embiid and Lillard. He's not as good as Maxey, who the Sixers give up in this deal as well, but it might give the Sixers more of a streamlined approach to its roster building anyway by focusing the scoring firmly on Lillard and Embiid.
Why the Clippers would do this trade
Los Angeles has to move a lot to get this done, but if they want Harden, that's going to be the requirement.
In fact, if the Clippers try to engage Philly in a two-team deal, they'll almost certainly have to give up far more than they do in this three-team deal.
Involving Portland is the cleanest way to facilitate this and get the Sixers what they want without Los Angeles needing to give up either Paul George or Kawhi Leonard, which appears to be a non-starter for the Clippers.
Essentially, Los Angeles flips Batum, Powell, Hyland, and a second-round pick for Harden. If they're confident in the upside of adding Harden to the mix, that's great value.
There will be outside voices that think it's giving up too much for Harden, who has repeatedly proven to be a wonky fit alongside other stars, but the Clippers don't seem to be thinking along those lines.
It all will come down to how the front office feels about their chances at a title in adding Harden.
There are a number of ways this could go, though, because the Clippers have also expressed early interest in Lillard themselves. That might lend credibility to the idea of working with the Blazers and cutting the Sixers out of the picture completely.
