Huge news for the NBA happened today as James Harden has been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. So, what does this mean for NBA 2K22?
We decided to run our own NBA 2K22 Simulation through MyNBA to see just how well the Philadelphia 76ers will do with James Harden.
Spoiler alert, it doesn't turn out well for either party.
NBA 2K22 Harden to the Sixers simulation
Inquiring minds wanted to know how this Harden to the Sixers trade would work in NBA 2K22. So, we decided to take it upon ourselves to trade him.
We're going to give you the exact instructions here, this way you can try the simulation yourself. The key is using protected rosters and forcing the trade yourself. We ran two simulated seasons, but feel free to run as many as you want.
We'll start by saying that we ran this NBA 2K22 simulation on a next gen system (PS5):
- Open up MyNBA
- Toggle "MyNBA Setup Options" on - this is so you can have custom rosters
- Use Injury-Free Rosters - only way to complete the Harden/Simmons trade
- Under "Fantasy Draft Setup" turn on "Protect Players"
- Take control of every NBA team - keeps teams identical to their NBA roster
- Once you simulate the "Draft" head to the Front Office tab
- From there select "Trades"
- Trade Ben Simmons for James Harden - since you control all teams this will be easy
- BOOM James Harden is on the Philadelphia 76ers
Now that we've gone over how to make the rosters, let's check out how well it went over in James Harden's first full season with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Season 1 Philadelphia 76ers results
Surprisingly enough, James Harden didn't play a huge role in the 76ers offense. As always, the offense ran through Joel Embiid, and rightfully so.
Still, they finished the year with a 51-31 record and got the No.1 seed in the Eastern Conference. James Harden averaged 19.4 points per game during that NBA 2K22 season.
They head to the playoffs with the No.1 seed and breezed all the way to the NBA Finals in their first year with James Harden. This is where things got sticky for them.
They faced the Utah Jazz for the NBA Championship and were eliminated in seven games (4-3). However, this is just the start of their NBA 2K22 downfall.
Harden's last season with the 76ers
That's right, Harden didn't last more than two seasons with the 76ers in our NBA 2K22 simulation. The second year with Philadelphia was much worse than the first as well.
This time, the Philadelphia 76ers suffered from a few injuries that gave them some trouble throughout the year. Primarily Seth Curry and Tobias Harris. By the end of the year, Philadelphia was eligible for the "Play-In" game with a 38-44 record.
Unfortunately, in the games leading up to the "Play-In" game, both Harden and Embiid were injured. Without them, the Sixers were easily beaten by you guessed it, the Brooklyn Nets, led by Ben Simmons and Kevin Durant.
At the end of the season, Philadelphia decided to move on from Harden and traded him to the Cleveland Cavaliers where he signed a monster NBA 2K22 contract.