It's safe to say the Philadelphia 76ers got the better of the trade between them and the Brooklyn Nets involving James Harden and Ben Simmons. The Sixers have morphed into legitimate championship contenders while Simmons has been unable to stay healthy for the Nets. Harden was left off the All-Star team this season which was probably the biggest snub in the league. He has without a doubt had an All-Star caliber season as one of the key cogs that makes the Sixers offense run. On Thursday in the Sixers win against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Harden finished with 12 assists. With that mark, Harden has become the first player in Sixers franchise history to average ten or more assists for a season as per the Twitter page StatMuse.

James Harden has overcome an early injury to help the Sixers rebound from a slow start and climb to the top half of the Eastern Conference standings. This season Harden has been averaging 21.8 points per game, 6.2 rebound and a league-leading 10.8 assists with shooting splits of 45 percent shooting from the field, 39.8 percent shooting from the three-point line and 87.2 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

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With Thursday's win, the Sixers now stand at 46-22 and in third place in the Eastern Conference standings. They are now only a half a game back of the second seeded Boston Celtics. The Celtics have not been playing their best basketball as of late and it's entirely possible Harden and the Sixers catch them in the standings before the regular season ends.