The Sixers should trade Tyrese Maxey — and Ben Simmons — for the Nets’ James Harden | Marcus Hayes

When did Tyrese Maxey become Allen Iverson? When did he turn into Steve Nash?

As the NBA trade deadline arrives Thursday, and with Nets star James Harden a candidate to land in Philadelphia in a package that contains Ben Simmons, how is Maxey — a second-year combo guard averaging less than 17 points and five assists per game — considered untouchable?

It seems that it has come down to this: Is Daryl Morey willing to trade Tyrese Maxey for James Harden, and maximize Joel Embiid’s limited prime? Plenty of other tumblers would have to fall into place to accommodate such a trade, but Morey’s the president because he’s a master at unlocking deals like this.

Simmons would be part of the deal too, of course, but as he boycotts the season because his feelings are hurt, Simmons is a sunk cost. He’s a couch on the curb. The only question is how much it’s going to cost you to get someone to haul it away. If the price is Maxey, that would be a bargain. Look what you’re getting back.

Harden — nine-time All Star, three-time scoring champ, one-time MVP, all-time whiskers cultivator — one day will be a Hall of Famer for the NBA. Tyrese Maxey won’t be a Hall of Famer for Kentucky.

If the goal really is pairing Embiid with a superstar to make an immediate run at the NBA title and to maximize Embiid’s prime over the next four years, why would a player like Maxey be unavailable in any deal? Players like Harden come along once or twice a decade. The Sixers picked Maxey 21st overall last year. If you know what you’re doing, you can replace a Tyrese Maxey.

If you can’t, you should be fired.

Look, I appreciate the Maxey Mania, but it exists less because Maxey is a revelation and more because Maxey is the anti-Ben.

Sixers fans endured four years of Simmons’ unwarranted, unrewarded smugness and performative cowardice, his repeated rejection of their love, and they now despise him. Maxey’s just the opposite. He plays fearlessly, joyfully, and with a gratefulness of soul perfect for a city currently enraptured with Jason Kelce, the Eagles’ Pro Bowl center, basketball superfan, and noted Ben Simmons critic.

But if, for a moment, you put aside the affection, what exactly is Tyrese Maxey, and what could he become? Today, is Maxey a top-100 player? OK. Top-50? No. Will he ever be top-50? Maybe. Objectively, today he’s not even a top-10 point guard, and maybe not top-20.

That sounds harsh, but consider this: The coaches named Toronto’s Fred VanVleet to the All-Star team. You know who’s not an All Star? Tyrese Maxey. You wouldn’t trade 27-year-old Fred VanVleet and Ben Simmons for James Harden?

It’s fun to watch Maxey play hard and fast, but plenty of questions remain. An incomplete offensive player, what is he without unstoppable giant Joel Embiid on the floor? Locked up, maybe. A flawed defender, what is he defensively without the big guy’s elite help? Even worse, maybe.

That said, Maxey is a delightful player with a bright future who is eager to improve, all of which makes him valuable, and likable.

But not untouchable.

Morey treats Maxey like they share the same blood.

Last January, several reports claimed that the Sixers’ unwillingness to trade Maxey torpedoed a trade with Houston for Harden that also would have cost them Simmons and Matisse Thybulle. Harden ultimately went to Brooklyn. At the time, incredibly, Maxey was a 12-game rookie averaging 11.0 points and 2.7 assists per game. Untouchable, indeed.

Admittedly, a calendar year later, Maxey is a very good player. But, the way Embiid dominated last spring, the Sixers wouldn’t have lost to the Hawks in the second round last season if they’d traded for Harden. For one thing, Simmons wouldn’t have been around to choke, over and over again.

» READ MORE: Ben Simmons’ constant refusal to shoot cost the Sixers another NBA playoff game | Marcus Hayes

If the Sixers’ stance is that they’re happy to take their chances in the playoffs this season with Maxey along, then gamble on adding Harden after the season, super. That way, you have both Maxey and Harden. Realistically, that gamble effectively forfeits any hopes you have of winning a title this year; they won’t beat Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference playoffs, they’d be a bad bet against Miami and Brooklyn, and Chicago and Boston would give them fits — and Embiid would be very displeased.

The Sixers covet Harden — Morey has effectively made a career off Harden’s stardom — but maybe you, the fan, want to keep Maxey because you think Harden is cooked. If so, this discussion is over. You win. And you might not be wrong.

He’s 32. He’s averaging 22.5 points per game and shooting 41.4%, both his the worst numbers since he became a starter for Morey in Houston 10 years ago. Yes, 10 years. He’d already played three seasons in Oklahoma City, and he’s been in Brooklyn for the last season and a half. This is his 13th campaign. He’s high-mileage old, like Russell Westbrook, who, at 33, is getting benched, justifiably, in L.A. Maybe The Beard is cooked, too.

But if you think that, you disagree with Morey, 98% of the NBA, and me.

After all, what have the past 10 years been about but snagging someone like James Harden?

The entire point of the Process, which really began with the disastrous Andrew Bynum trade in 2012, was to acquire assets — multiple superstars — who could win NBA titles. Maxey and Simmons are incomplete assets whom you can flip for a superstar to pair with Embiid.

This moment is the entire point of the Process.

If you’re arguing that Tyrese Maxey is too precious to part with today, then you’re admitting the trades of All-Star players like Andre Iguodala in 2012 and Jrue Holiday in 2013 were pointless. The thinking was that excellent two-way players like Iguodala and Holiday, whose ceilings Maxey might never approach, were of little use for a team with title aspirations without two top-15 talents on which to build the franchise. You would be stuck in second-round purgatory forever.

James Harden is a top-15 talent. He should remain so for the next few seasons, especially if he’s paired with Embiid.

Which makes the “untouchable” Tyrese Maxey completely expendable.