The Philadelphia 76ers worked hard on acquiring Bradley Beal this season, before the James Harden deal happened, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports.
Joel Embiid wanted Bradley Beal over James Harden, according to The Ringer's Bill Simmons. A few weeks ago, Simmons said he has intel that Embiid felt like Beal was a better fit than Harden.
"This is what I've heard and I've had pretty good intel throughout this whole thing," Simmons told ESPN's Zach Lowe on the Bill Simmons Podcast. "This is what I was hearing in the moment: That Embiid really wanted Bradley Beal. And was pushing really hard for it and was talking to him all of the time, and was pushing, pushing, pushing.
"And part of the reason the trade stuff took so long was because there was the Sixers side that wanted Harden—obviously Daryl [Morey] because Harden is his guy. But Embiid really wanted Beal because he felt like he was a better fit and was pushing, pushing, pushing, but then Beal gets hurt. But then Embiid is still pushing. 'No, no, no, Beal, Beal, Beal' still working on him. And then Beal is like 'I'm out' and he gets surgery and that's how we end up with the Harden situation."
A couple of weeks later, former NBA player Andrew Bogut also said he was hearing Embiid was trying to recruit Beal to Philadelphia to join him and Harden to create a big three.
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Simmons also added that Harden saying Philadelphia was his number one choice all along is not true and Harden did in fact want to go to Brooklyn.
With Harden, Philadelphia got off to a hot start with four straight wins, but since then—as competition has stiffened—the Sixers have slowed down a bit, going 4-4 over their last eight games (Harden was inactive for one of the losses), which includes a blowout loss at home to the aforementioned Brooklyn Nets.
In 11 games as a Sixer, Harden is averaging 22.4 points, 10.5 assists, and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 43.0 FG% / 34.8 3P% / 87.0 FT%.