"I was speaking to a bunch of folks about [Harden] Sunday evening," said Dave McMenamin on the Dan Patrick Show. "The signals right now is that he will be back with the Philadelphia 76ers."
Harden had a softer than expected free agency market with the Houston Rockets pivoting to Fred VanVleet. The Sixers have evaluated trade options for Harden, but there doesn't appear to be a return package for him they would seriously entertain.
"As of right now, with certainly no momentum appearing on a deal to the Los Angeles Clippers. And Philadelphia obviously still needing what he does without finding a replacement for him. It looks like there's a pathway for him to come back to the Sixers next year."
Yeah, this is looking the most likely end scenario at this point. Just no value in the trade market for Harden. Best to keep him and let him leave as a FA next summer. They have other big contracts coming off the books then as well creating large cap space to retool around Embiid and keep contending.
This is also similar to what I see for Damian Lillard (weak trade market, no high quality offers only mediocre ones) however the team situation is different.
POR are not a title contender like Philly. They are not even a playoff team or even a real playoff hopeful. They are a lottery team. So keeping Lillard is a win-now move like keeping Harden is but it has little justification for the benefit of the team. POR are better off trading him for a weak package and rebuilding properly. Using whatever future picks / prospects they can get for Lillard. Bottoming out. Creating opportunity for Scoot to takeover at PG and be the new franchise player. Get a higher lotto pick next summer. The team will turn around their rebuild quicker this way.
Have people somehow forgotten how harden performed for his last two teams when he didn’t want to be there? He showed up extremely overweight on the rockets and said his teammates were not good enough in a press conference forcing their hand. For the nets he just stopped regularly being in contact with the coach and front office and went off to Atlantic City or Vegas after requesting the trade. Now he will magically be a good soldier for a team he believes broke their agreement? Really crazy idea to me, especially when you consider he has less at risk than ever. In the past when he did all this stuff he was still trying to land a 4 or 5 year max contract down the line. Now reentering free agency at 34 or 35 he isn’t gonna get much more than a two year 45 million dollar deal even if he plays great
I saw somewhere that Philly offered Harden a choice of a 1yr $40mil deal or a 2yr $80mil deal. Whichever he preferred.
That is what set him off. The lack of a long term deal. Just an interesting point of comparison with what Harden is likely looking at next summer which likely will be no better than what Philly are offering right now.
Harden reiterated his trade request today. It seems possible he may start season with them but the idea
Of him being a good soldier for the whole year seems a bit ridiculous to me. Here is the story
"I'll just be clear with you: he felt betrayed," added Shelburne. "He felt like he was going to get a max extension from them either last year and decided 'Okay, I'll leave some money on the table.' And then this year when they were not communicating with him before free agency, because they have the largest tampering fine in league history. But generally speaking, there was no wink or not saying we're going to take care of you. He got upset and that's why he opted in rather than letting it play out and reach free agency."
Harden has little leverage. If he pouts and acts unprofessional, it will just hurt his already reduced market value in free agency next offseason. Harden isn't an idiot or crazy. He has all the incentives to be a good soldier. Note the wording that he has requested a trade not demanded one.
“I don’t think they’re close on anything. James Harden has spoken to [president] Daryl Morey since the first trade request, and I think there was a cooling off period … They’ve spoken again, and [Harden] still reiterated he wants to be traded. Now, this isn’t a demand, it’s a request. I think the Sixers have said, ‘Okay we will try to trade you,’ but there is no hurry to do this,” Shelburne said. “I think the Sixers understand here that they have the leverage. James has picked up his option, this is an opt-in … He’s going to be a free agent, so at some point, he needs to play, whether that’s in Philadelphia or elsewhere.”
This was kind of a swing and a miss eh old friend? https://twitter.com/ohnohedidnt24/status/1691532904210292736?s=20
"Somebody said to me ...". That's some quality reporting there. What has Harden done except say he isn't showing up to camp? Big whoop. As long as the Sixers continue to stay firm, Harden has no leverage. They did a pretty good job of that with Simmons.
Come on tazz don’t be like that. You literally said harden isn’t an idiot or crazy and has incentive to be a good soldier. You thinking repeatedly calling Morey a liar in China and saying he will never play in an organization that he runs again any of this? You were pretty clearly objectively wrong on at least some of this. (It has also starting creating chaos as current teammate pj Tucker publicly supported him and Embid has started doing weird stuff on Twitter. I respect you as a poster cause you generally seem like you can admit when you were off on something….
Maybe you'll prove correct that Harden is an idiot but it is still the offseason. He was being pretty quite until Morey said the trade talks with the Clips had stopped. He has already hurt his low market value. It appears even the Clippers interest is very tepid. Tucker supporting Harden isn't a surprise. As for Embiid, the Sixers acquiescing to Harden and trading him for a bunch of junk isn't going to help them keep Embiid and could accelerate Embiid requesting a trade himself.
The Sixers don't need Harden to win in the regular season. They can afford to wait regardless of whether he plays or not. They waited until the trade deadline to trade Simmons.
Topic: Free agency starts / reported signings (merged) (Read 126812 times)