The Sixers wanted Jrue Holiday. Daryl Morey’s goal was to give himself a chance at the next one.

The future is not yet written. But at least we know there is one. In the NBA, a window of opportunity is never really open and never really shut. Most of the time, it’s sliding from Point A to Point B. A front office’s job is to keep finding semi-solid objects to prop it open. Prop, slide, slip, replace. That’s more or less the process.

Daryl Morey has done it three times now. The first time was his first act as Sixers president. When the veteran executive arrived from Houston, people were saying all of the same things about the roster as they were saying all of this summer. The Sixers were stuck. The only choice was to start over. They’d panicked when they traded for Tobias Harris in the winter of 2019. They’d panicked some more when they traded Jimmy Butler for Josh Richardson, used his money to sign Al Horford, and then extended Ben Simmons. It didn’t work. Game over. Thanks for playing.

» READ MORE: Murphy: Harden trade gives Morey, Sixers enough pieces for another star hunt

In came Morey. Within a couple of months, Horford and Richardson were gone, replaced by Danny Green, Seth Curry, and Tyrese Maxey. The Sixers ended up a win away from the conference finals and immediately got stuck again. Simmons wanted out. Nobody wanted him in. Except, voila, here came James Harden, and then P.J. Tucker. And, now, there they go.

”Look, we’re really excited for what this trade brings as far as our ability to keep improving the team going forward,” Morey said on Wednesday afternoon, 36 hours after landing a robust package of draft picks in a deal that sent the disgruntled Harden to the Clippers, “both in the draft capital we got that we thought was extremely important for our ability to keep improving and being a championship-caliber team.”

It’s a funny game. Back in June, after another Game 7 loss left the Sixers a win shy of the Eastern Conference finals, the conventional wisdom said they were either stuck with Harden or stuck without anything to replace him. Morey’s big gamble had failed. Five months later, three games into the regular season, in the middle of a Monday night, Morey traded Harden for pretty much the same package he’d spent to acquire him. In fact, the two first-round picks he acquired from the Clippers for Harden have a decent chance at being more valuable than the two he used to acquire him two years ago. At the end of the day, the Sixers walked away from the sequence of trades having netted a first-round pick swap, two second-round picks, and $40 million in cap space that they can spend on free agents next summer instead of spending it on Simmons’ 2024-25 salary.

You can argue the comp isn’t completely equal. It depends on the value the Sixers could have gotten for Simmons and Curry had they traded them for something other than Harden. Plus, the individual values of the veterans they received from the Clippers: Kenyon Martin Jr. and Nicolas Batum figure to contribute in some form. Robert Covington Jr. and Marcus Morris, who knows?

» READ MORE: The Sixers will stockpile assets in the James Harden trade. How could they cash those in?

The key point: the Sixers will have three first-round picks at their disposal during the run-up to the NBA trade deadline. They’ll have a fourth on draft night. They could have upwards of $50 million to spend in free agency next summer. In short, they have more than enough to replace Harden, nee Simmons, nee Horford, nee Butler, with another star who teams with Maxey and Joel Embiid to create Sixers 5.0.

From the moment Harden opted into his contract and requested a trade, Morey and his front office were determined to land a deal that would put them in position to compete in future trade markets. They would have loved to make a competitive offer for Bucks star Jrue Holiday, who ended up going to Boston for Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams, and a couple of first-round picks. Next time, they’ll be in a position where they can compete.

“We set a bar in June really when James requested the trade and said, ‘Look, if we can get it to here, that generally allows you to go out and get a player,” Morey said. “Having a player like Jrue go for a similar package was encouraging. So we set that bar and it came together where the Clippers met that price.”

In the meantime, they have a team that has a pretty good chance at getting back to where all of their previous postseasons have ended.

How good are they right now?

They aren’t all that different from the 2020-21 team that went to Game 7 against the Hawks. Maxey in his current form is a massive upgrade over Simmons and Curry. Harris is still here. In Paul Reed, Kelly Oubre Jr., and now Martin, they have a trio of athletic reserves on the bench. They also have De’Anthony Melton Jr., plus a coaching upgrade in Nick Nurse. Their 2-1 start — including a close loss to the Bucks — shouldn’t surprise anybody. Boston and Milwaukee are well ahead of the rest of the conference right now. The competition for the third and fourth seeds is deeper than it was a couple of years ago. But the Sixers are right there with the Knicks, Cavs and Heat in the on-paper rankings.

Can they add an impact player before the trade deadline?

» READ MORE: James Harden trade grades: How did the Sixers fare?

The more pertinent question will be whether they should. The last year-plus has seen a huge amount of reshuffling through the NBA. Harden, Damian Lillard, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Bradley Beal, Chris Paul, Donovan Mitchell, Kristaps Porzingis, Holiday. . .who’s left? The Bulls’ Zach LaVine is a player whose future is the subject of perennial speculation. The scoring totals may be gaudy, but do they really need a ball-dominant, indiscriminate, score-first, defense-last guard alongside Maxey? The Raptors’ O.G. Anunoby has a skill set that is perfect for the Sixers. Injuries and price tag are the big questions there. Anunoby and the Pacers’ Bruce Brown can both become free agents after the season. As far as big-ticket items go, that’s the profile the Sixers should be looking for.

“Look, I think you saw against Milwaukee, we can hang with anyone,” Morey said. “Part of becoming a great team and a championship team is to be realistic. There are some really tough competitors in the East, Boston and Milwaukee in particular. Right here as we sit now, I’m not willing to concede anything to them.

“But you ask 100 people, they’ll say they are better with us. So let’s see how it plays it out, see where our weaknesses are. Now, we have assets to address any issues, and we will address those if we see them. But let’s see how it plays out.”

» READ MORE: Among the Sixers’ positives from the trade: A better bench and no more Harden drama