James Harden is out injured right now for the Philadelphia 76ers, but there's no denying that he's been a much bigger contributor to his team than Ben Simmons has for the Brooklyn Nets. At this point, it's hard to argue against the notion that it's the Sixers who have ended up winning that blockbuster trade deal from last season.

This is exactly what an anonymous Eastern Conference executive thinks of the Harden-Simmons trade nine months later. According to the unnamed source, the Nets really dropped the ball when they agreed to a deal with the Sixers:

“They dug their own hole on this,” the executive said, via Sean Deveney of heavy.com. “They were sort of just over the barrel with the James Harden stuff, the Sixers had them in a no-win position. They should have held out more on Harden but they looked around and figured they were not going to do better. It is tough to trade away a star like that—we’re not going to do better, let’s take what we can get.

“In the end, they got really, really screwed by the Sixers because they did not have any leverage with Harden. But if they took a harder line on trading Harden, they’d be in a better position. They could have waited it out until the summer, or at least bluffed it. But they caved to Philly in the deal and they’re paying the price.”

That's harsh. Then again, you can't say that the executive is completely wrong here. The Nets pretty much allowed James Harden to force his way out of the team, and you have to say that they weren't able to get the best deal out of the trade.

It's also worth noting, though, that the Nets had very few options at that point. Harden clearly wanted out, and he was set on doing whatever he can to make it happen. We've all seen him do this in the past, so perhaps Brooklyn felt it was a better idea to just let him go instead of dragging out the saga.

Finally, you have to consider the fact that Simmons has been playing much better basketball of late. He could be turning a corner for the Nets, so who knows, perhaps the Nets can still somehow emerge as the victors in this deal.