James Harden trade grades: How did the Sixers fare?

You have to believe that, given the short window in which the Sixers have a chance to win with Joel Embiid, there’s another move or two in the near future. Until that move happens, if it happens, it’s impossible to properly grade the trade of James Harden to the Clippers. However, it does achieve a few imperatives.

First, it excises a locker room cancer with a ridiculous beard and horrible fashion sense. Second, it allows this core group to grow together without distraction. Third, it opens up minutes previously occupied by P.J. Tucker, Daryl Morey’s second-biggest mistake. Finally, it creates massive salary-cap space for next season.

» READ MORE: David Murphy: James Harden trade gives Sixers enough pieces for another star hunt

What it does not do is add talent to a team built around Embiid, whose shelf life is limited and who is at the top of his game.

This really should be an “incomplete,” considering it is the trade to set up the desired deal for a star-caliber player to push the Sixers into the tier with the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks at the top of the Eastern Conference.

» READ MORE: Mike Sielski: The key to the James Harden trade isn’t who the Sixers got. It’s who they already had: Tyrese Maxey.

Not getting Terance Mann is a loss for the Sixers, who earlier this month considered his exclusion from any package a nonstarter. But the draft picks are (and always were) the most useful assets here. And perhaps eliminating the Harden distraction now — especially given how sharp the Embiid-Maxey-led Sixers have looked during the first week of the season — is best for this group’s collective psyche in the short and long term.

Still, let’s revisit this at the February trade deadline or next summer, when Daryl Morey aims to compile those assets to take the big swing to reinvent this team. Again.

But passing.

The Sixers were unable to get Terance Mann, the player they coveted from the Los Angeles Clippers. Nor did they get Bones Hyland, Norman Powell or Mason Plumlee in a package for James Harden. But the Sixers still received a passing grade on this test. We won’t fully know what the grade is until Sixers president of basketball operation Daryl Morey flips the draft picks he received in the deal.

The elephant in the room that Harden created is gone. So are concerns about him being able to fit in Nick Nurse’s free-flowing offense. This trade was all about addition by subtraction. And for that, the Sixers will receive a high mark. How high? We may learn that in a couple of months.