Sources: Brooklyn Nets trade James Harden to Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry

It took 16 months, but Daryl Morey finally traded Ben Simmons for James Harden.

The Philadelphia 76ers executive traded Simmons, along with sharpshooter Seth Curry, to the Brooklyn Nets for Harden, according to Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes. Harden will reportedly opt into his $47.3 million player option in a commitment to the Sixers through next season. Brooklyn also receives Andre Drummond and two first-round picks, and Paul Millsap is headed to Philadelphia, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported.

The Nets will have their choice of Philadelphia's first-round pick this year (currently No. 22) or next, per Wojnarowski. Brooklyn also receives a top-eight protected first-round pick from the Sixers in 2027. If it does not convey, the pick is also top-eight protected in 2028 before converting to two second-rounders in 2029.

Two weeks after resigning from the Houston Rockets in October 2020, Morey went to work in Philadelphia trying to pry a disgruntled Harden from his former employer. By his own admission, Morey made little effort to forge a relationship with Simmons before offering him in a trade for Harden three months into his tenure. Simmons requested a trade from the Sixers at last season's end and never again played for Philadelphia.

Morey was still pursuing Harden from the Nets at Thursday's deadline, and whatever chance he had to develop a rapport with Simmons was lost during a wild year in between. Imagine how you might feel about working for someone who has done little but try to get rid of you from the moment he became your boss.

Simmons is not without blame in all of this, either. No player escapes trade rumors, and at the time this one started, Harden was the three-time defending scoring champion and a top-three MVP candidate four years running. Being linked to a deal for Harden could have been considered a badge of honor in the right light.

Harden is now a 32-year-old fringe All-Star with chronic hamstring issues in the midst of his least efficient season since Morey's Rockets acquired him as a 22-year-old sixth man from the Oklahoma City Thunder. It is evidence of how drastically the perception around the NBA has changed for both players in a year's time.

Simmons slights from Sixers center Joel Embiid and coach Doc Rivers were overblown. Embiid cited his co-star's shaky decision to forego a late game-tying layup as the turning point in a second-round Game 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. He was right. Asked in the aftermath of that defeat if Simmons could be the point guard for a championship team, Rivers conceded, "I don't know the answer to that." He was right.

Those are hard pills to swallow, but they are necessary to cope with the reality that Simmons needed to be better for the Sixers to win a title. That serves as motivation for some and not for others. We will find out if half a season at home has pushed Simmons to become a paradigm-shifter, but the championship demands from Kevin Durant and Steve Nash in Brooklyn will be no different than those of Embiid and Rivers in Philly.

There was plenty of middle ground between the Sixers and Simmons, but neither side seemed interested in reaching it. He could have returned a better player, even as he requested a trade, as both sides quietly went about their business. Simmons could have addressed Morey's chief concerns about the roster — defense, rebounding, playmaking and transition — and Morey could have leveraged that value in trade discussions.

Both sides chose a lose-lose path instead of a win-win proposition. Simmons refused to report to training camp, eventually showed up unannounced, hoping to alleviate his mounting financial losses, and reportedly refused to participate in practice drills, warranting his dismissal. The Sixers leaked every iota, anonymously questioning Simmons' mental health hurdles and publicly litigating his diminished value around the league.

The Nets are prepared to ease Simmons' transition to Brooklyn after an eight-month absence, but the former No. 1 pick already got on the same page with Durant in a phone conversation, according to Haynes.

Morey's public declaration that he would wait out the four years and $146.6 million left on Simmons' deal if it meant landing a top-30 player in return felt every bit as ridiculous as Simmons' willingness to set eight figures ablaze in his pursuit of a change of scenery, but Thursday's deal respectively satisfied their desires.

The question now is whether either side really won the trade.

Simmons' strengths as a switchable defender and pass-first facilitator complement the scoring mentalities of Durant and Irving on paper, but the Nets have been a paper tiger. Durant is recovering from a strained left MCL after missing the 2019-20 campaign with a torn right Achilles and half of last season with a strained left hamstring. Irving only plays road games, because he refuses to meet New York City's vaccine mandate, which means the playoff onus on Simmons, who wilted in last year's postseason, will still be significant.

The Nets also acquired Curry's 40% 3-point shooting, which will help space the floor for their new All-Star trio, whether or not fellow marksman Joe Harris returns from injury. Curry is no small loss for Philadelphia.

Harden is still averaging 22.5 points, 10.2 assists and eight rebounds this season, albeit on 41/33/87 shooting splits and fewer free-throw attempts than in his prime. That is better than the zero Simmons gave the Sixers this season, even if Harden does little to address Morey's defensive concerns on the 76ers.

Harden has failed to develop quality working relationships with superstars Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving — all since 2016. Harden complements Embiid on paper, too, but the 32-year-old has been most successful in his career as the focus of his team's offense. How Embiid fits into that equation as the league's 27-year-old MVP favorite this season is not easily resolved.

The possibility of Morey's Sixers and Simmons' Nets meeting in the playoffs is in play, and then we might have an answer for who won their standoff, but swapping one problem for another is not always a solution.

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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach