Sixers’ Daryl Morey adores James Harden. Could that go too far in a Ben Simmons trade? | Mike Sielski

On the second official day of Daryl Morey’s first, and so far only, partnership with James Harden, an Associated Press photographer snapped a telling picture of the pair. Then the general manager of the Houston Rockets, Morey had acquired Harden in a thunderous trade with … well … the Thunder, sending two players and three draft picks to Oklahoma City for a player who to that point had started just seven games in three NBA seasons. But Harden already had been an Olympian, and both he and Morey sensed that the presences of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in OKC had prevented the full flourishing of his skills and production.

So Morey chased him and got him, completing the trade on a Saturday night in October 2012. At the introductory press conference the subsequent Monday, the AP captured on film the two of them shoulder-to-shoulder and smiling wide, as if they were running mates on a presidential ticket.

“We’ve studied him — believe me,” Morey said that day. “I still think he’s an underrated player. He’s absolutely someone who, when they see him step into the role of a star for the Houston Rockets, people are going to realize just how good he is.”

People did. In his eight-plus seasons in Houston before the Rockets traded him to the Nets, Harden went to eight All-Star Games, won an MVP award and three scoring titles, became the superstar Morey always believed he would. The Rockets never did win a championship during that period, never even reached the NBA Finals, as Morey cycled through stars who, one by one, eventually tired of playing second fiddle to Harden: Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Westbrook. But Harden’s emergence as the league’s most prolific offensive force was all the reason Morey needed for a trust in Harden that, by all indications, hasn’t wavered over the subsequent decade.

» READ MORE: With the Nets open to a Ben Simmons trade, the Sixers’ pursuit of James Harden receives a shot in the arm | Keith Pompey

Ever since the 76ers hired him in November 2020 as their president of basketball operations, Morey has kept up his pursuit of Harden. He tried to trade for him last season in a deal that would have included Ben Simmons, an overture that likely acted as the spark for the standoff between Simmons and the Sixers. Now the Nets, as first reported in The Athletic, are open to any offers Morey might make for Harden before Thursday’s trade deadline. And even if there’s nothing finalized within the next week, even if Harden remains out there as Morey’s primary quarry in the offseason, it’s hard to shake the feeling that trading Simmons for the maximum possible return is the less-important mission for Morey — that acquiring Harden, for whatever it takes, matters more.

The difference between the two tasks is subtle but significant. Yes, the Sixers would have to include Simmons in any deal for Harden. No, Harden is not the only player the Sixers could acquire in a deal for Simmons. Several teams reportedly have been involved in Morey’s Simmons-related talks: the Kings, the Hawks, the Wizards. And those are just the ones whose potential interest has been made public.

Is Harden the best player the Sixers could acquire for Simmons? As of now, sure. And Morey’s history with him is all the more reason to think that, whether by Thursday or sometime this summer, Harden and Joel Embiid will be drawing up pick-and-roll sequences and strategies together. During a podcast in 2019, Morey compared Harden to Michael Jordan, stripping away the context of their respective eras of basketball — particularly the emphasis on the three-pointer in the modern game and Harden’s reliance on it — to assert: “It’s just factual that James Harden is a better scorer.” After he traded for Paul, Morey credited Harden almost as much for the deal’s consummation as he did himself.

“James was everything,” Morey told ESPN in 2018. “Not only is he a great player on the floor, but he’s someone who’s just focused on winning and is willing to do anything to make it happen, whether it be meet with people, call them, text them, whatever is required. He makes my job easy.”

In a way, Morey’s affection for Harden, both as a player and as a person, is completely understandable. Harden has been the walking, talking, step-back-shooting validation of Morey’s analytically oriented approach to building a team. Morey bet on Harden when Harden was just 23, still a player on the rise, and they served as the fulcrum of a franchise that could have won a title. And maybe should have.

But Harden is 32 now, has been sitting out games recently with tightness in his left hamstring, the aches and pains and strains of age manifesting themselves more and more. Given his status and style of play, acquiring him would demand radical changes to the Sixers’ roster and system. Morey has to be careful to balance the short- and long-term ramifications of such changes, and he has to consider the possibility that trading Simmons — and any other resources — for the best available player isn’t necessarily the best move for the Sixers to make.

What if, to get Harden, Morey would have to surrender budding star Tyrese Maxey? How good would Harden and the Sixers have to be, and how long would they have to be that good, to justify such a shakeup? What would be the cost of sending Simmons to the Nets? Would being in a lineup with Durant and Kyrie Irving cover up his weaknesses, especially his mental block about shooting, and augment his strengths: his defense, his speed, his passing? In what would be the bitterest of ironies, would Simmons make the Nets better than Harden would make the Sixers?

» READ MORE: Sixers showing why Daryl Morey has to fill the Ben Simmons-sized hole on this roster | Mike Sielski

Nearly 10 years after the trade that established his bond with a player he has never stopped believing in, Daryl Morey can’t afford to get the answers to those questions wrong. He chased James Harden then, and he’s chasing him now, and it’s on him to make sure that smile-filled photo doesn’t turn out to be the symbol of his own miscarriage of judgment.