Clippers trade for James Harden

Months after it felt inevitable, one of the biggest moves of the NBA season has finally occurred: late on Monday night, the Los Angeles Clippers agreed to trade for Philadelphia 76ers disgruntled star James Harden. The news was first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The return has not yet been reported, but for months the teams have been negotiating over draft capital and Terance Mann, with the Clippers amusingly seeming to view the young second-round pick as untouchable.

UPDATE: According to Wojnarowski, the Clippers are sending Marcus Morris, Nic Batum, Robert Covington, KJ Martin, multiple draft picks, and a pick swap to Philadelphia. LA is also receiving PJ Tucker and Filip Petrušev in the deal.

Harden, who has made demanding a trade a near annual tradition, asked out of Philly after just a year and a half, shockingly going straight to the media to say that his relationship with Sixers GM — and former Houston Rockets GM — Daryl Morey was irreconcilably broken.

From there it was a matter of time before a move was made, as the Sixers didn’t want to budge without the right price, and Harden bounced between being involved with the team and being absent — he hadn’t appeared in any games yet.

The move will have potential implications for the Golden State Warriors, who will wake up from their cross-country flight to the news, after dispatching of the New Orleans Pelicans just a few hours earlier. LA now has a superstar quartet of perimeter-oriented players, pairing Harden with Russell Westbrook for the third time, this time alongside the team’s best players, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

That’s a team with an obscene amount of talent, and an equal amount of questions and concerns. The Warriors first face the new-look Clippers on November 30.

We’ll see if Harden is still playing for them then.