National Basketball Association

Nets vs. Sixers: All the beef with Simmons, Harden, Embiid, Durant

Updated Mar. 10, 2022 12:16 p.m. ET

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

When was the last time a regular-season NBA game felt like an event?

It doesn’t matter that Ben Simmons won’t be suiting up Thursday when the Brooklyn Nets head south to take on the Philadelphia 76ers. For one, we’ve been told that not only will he be in attendance but also plans to watch the game from the bench. And besides, Simmons’ Philly return isn’t the only spicy storyline that will be featured in this game.

This matchup is stuffed with all sorts of beef. I don’t know if you could find two teams that seemingly dislike each other more, from top to bottom.

With that in mind, let’s get to this week’s Starting Five and look at the five beefs I’m most excited to see play out in Philly.

1. Ben Simmons vs. Sixers fans

Let’s get the caveats out of the way first. If someone throws an object at Simmons, they deserve to go to jail. Anyone who crosses the line of acceptable trash talk should be banned.

That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to watch the spectacle of Simmons’ return to Philly play out. Sports, at its heart, is entertainment, and good entertainment requires a villain. That’s the role Simmons will be playing Thursday.

"I don’t think he’s naive [enough] to think he’s not going to get some boos. I hope he enjoys it. It’s a part of the game," Nets coach Steve Nash told reporters earlier this week. "It’s great. He’s on our team. He needs to be with his teammates and get the whole Philly thing out of the way a little bit. Maybe it never goes away, but the first time, it’s always nice to kind of deal with it and move on."

I agree with Nash on the last point: It could be helpful for Simmons to be on the sideline for his first trip back to his former city. That doesn’t mean his welcome will get any warmer if these two teams do, in fact, meet in the playoffs (please, God, please!!). But at least he’ll have a better idea of what to expect — and, perhaps more importantly, how his mind and body will react.

2. Ben Simmons vs. Joel Embiid

Sixers fans weren’t the only ones seemingly giddy to see Simmons go.

Need proof? I present for you Exhibit A:

And Exhibit B:

And, well, if you prefer more direct thoughts, Exhibit C:

What’s more, you can see just from watching the Sixers play how much Embiid seems to be enjoying having James Harden as his prime running mate, as opposed to Simmons.

And for good reason. The game is just easier for Embiid. He’s getting his points (30.8 in six games since the All-Star break, with the Sixers going 5-1) but not having to work as hard for them. That is allowing him to devote more energy to defense, an area in which he was already a stud.

For example, the other night against the Chicago Bulls, the Sixers had Embiid jump out high on DeMar DeRozan pick-and-rolls, a method of forcing the ball out of DeRozan’s hands. We’ve rarely seen this from Embiid in the past, partly because it would be unfair to have him do so and carry the load on offense.

And despite some occasional growing pains, Embiid and Harden have already formed a dominant pairing. The two have played 128 minutes alongside each other. In that span, the Sixers have outscored opponents by a blistering 30.7 points per 100 possessions.

As for Simmons, I think it’s fair to say he’s just as happy to no longer be teammates with Embiid. I reported this at the time of the trade, but Embiid’s decision to blame the Sixers’ Game 7 loss to the Hawks last season on Simmons left Simmons feeling betrayed.

"I never did that to him when he didn’t play well in the playoffs," Simmons told associates in the months afterward. Embiid, as has been reported elsewhere and as I can confirm, tried reaching out to Simmons a few times over the summer, only to be rebuffed.

Again, Simmons’ not being on the floor for this matchup means we won’t get to see these two go at each other on the court. But given Embiid’s nature, would it shock you if he figured out a different way to troll his former partner?

3. Kevin Durant vs. James Harden

Harden basically quit on the Nets. We know he was frustrated in Brooklyn by the fact that the franchise — and, more specifically, the offense — didn’t revolve solely around him. We know that, according to NBA reporter Marc Stein, Harden and Durant were "hardly communicating" with each other by the end of Harden’s stint with the team. We know Durant wanted nothing to do with Harden during the All-Star Game.

And we know that since Harden arrived in Philly, his hamstring issue has magically healed. He has averaged 24.6 points, 12.4 assists and 7.6 rebounds in five games — all wins — with the Sixers. His field-goal percentage has climbed from 41.4 to 53.1 and his 3-point percentage from 33.2 to 44.8. His bounce is back.

So is his lethal step-back.

At the same time, Durant has also bounced back. No other player is able to shed rust quite like him. After missing 21 straight games due to a knee injury, Durant returned to the floor and somehow dropped 31 and 37 points in his first two games. And no matter what he says in news conferences, you know Durant is eager to go at Harden.

What will that look like the first time Harden is switched out onto his former teammate? I cannot wait to see.

4. Joel Embiid vs. Andre Drummond

The most underrated part of the Harden-Simmons mega-deal was that we, as fans, will be treated to multiple more rounds of the league’s most one-sided rivalry.

For those who need a refresher, I think this post from Embiid should cover it.

Or there's this:

And there was the time Drummond called Embiid fat and out of shape.

Embiid and Drummond had to briefly tuck their feelings away after the Sixers signed Drummond in the offseason to be Embiid’s backup. Then again, Embiid wasn’t exactly hiding his disdain.

Thursday will mark the seventh time the two big men have faced off. According to Stat Muse, the Sixers have won five of the previous six games, with Embiid averaging 27.7 points on 53% shooting and 10.3 rebounds.

Now, Drummond is basically the only true center the Nets have. Against most teams, the Nets could get away with a small frontcourt. But that doesn’t work when facing Embiid, which is probably one of the reasons the Nets asked for Drummond in the deal. Here’s hoping this is the first of many matchups to come.

5. Daryl Morey vs. Sean Marks

I don’t think I’m breaking any news when I tell you that these two franchises are not exactly on the best of terms. That’s probably more so going from the Nets to the Sixers, given the way everything went down (you don’t have to go digging very deep to find an NBA executive clamoring for the league to investigate the Sixers for tampering), but this is one of those times when I wish NBA GMs did the equivalent of the NFL coach postgame handshake.

Would Marks shake Morey’s hand?! Such a silly question — yet I’d be all-in!

Either way, these two teams are going to be linked for a while because of the moves made by Sean Marks and Daryl Morey. This should be just the first of many battles between these two refurbished teams.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.