James Harden remains to be in search of the NBA superteam of his goals

On Thursday, James Harden notified the Philadelphia 76ers that he’d be foregoing loose company and selecting up the $35.6 million participant choice on his contract for the 2023-2024 season as an alternative. However he wasn’t doing so as a result of he sought after to stay in Philadelphia. He knowledgeable the Sixers, in step with a supply conversant in the occasions, that he sought after to be traded. 

Why he is requested out of Philadelphia is unclear. For greater than two years now, Harden’s said motives were a contradictory mess. 

First, he compelled the Rockets to business him in the course of the 2020-2021 season. Then, at the day a deal was once finalized with the Brooklyn Nets he advised the workforce’s most sensible decision-makers, “I’ll wish to come again to you guys” in step with more than one other folks conversant in the dialog. He’d most effective requested out, he had stated, as a result of he felt the workforce “wanted a reset.” He was once proper. The Rockets’ identify window had closed, however a lot of that was once as a result of he had coerced them into numerous dismal offers, maximum particularly swapping Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook. It did not subject. He sought after the Nets and the Nets sought after him. 

Not up to a yr later, historical past repeated itself. Harden had grown pissed off with lifestyles in Brooklyn: now not being the middle of the offense, Steve Nash’s training, the best way Kevin Durant held the kind of organizational energy Harden as soon as held in Houston, Kyrie Irving lacking video games because of his refusal to get vaccinated. He began loafing and pushing for some other business — this time he had his eyes at the Sixers. It did not subject that three hundred and sixty five days previous, after being requested via Rockets proprietor Tillman Fertitta at the morning of the business closing date which of the 2 groups he most popular, Harden had stated the Nets. 

In Philadelphia, Harden bumped into identical issues. As soon as once more, he wasn’t the middle of the whole lot.

“I am getting traded to a scenario the place the whole lot was once aimed at Joel, the whole lot was once Joel, Joel, Joel,” Harden stated of his first yr with the Sixers all through a wide-ranging interview with FOX Sports activities in October. “Which I am getting, that is how they had been taking part in all the yr, and so I used to be making an attempt to slot in. It was once by no means, like, ‘Right here, you might be James Harden, that is how we would like you to run the display.’ That is the type of position I used to be taking part in.” 

He had taken a $15 million pay minimize to go back to the workforce, declining his $47.3 million choice and as an alternative signing a two-year, $68 million deal, with the second one yr being a participant choice. He’d completed so, he had stated, in order that the Sixers may bolster their roster; that further cap area was once used to signal P.J. Tucker. Harden, it appeared, was once certainly prioritizing profitable.

However you might want to inform he was once suffering with what that intended. In Would possibly, after finishing a primary spherical sweep of the Brooklyn Nets, Harden shared with newshounds his solution to the season. “I advised myself this yr, that it is simply, I am all large on sacrifice. Whether or not it is the cash or my position, simply letting the whole lot pass and simply sacrificing — after which seeing what it provides me,” he stated. 

Harden had spent the yr, in step with buddies, taking into account a Houston reunion. He wasn’t two-timing the Sixers, suiting up for one workforce whilst laying the groundwork to play for some other. It was once simply that the pull which Houston had on him — it is the place his circle of relatives lives and the place he is maximum comfy — was once exhausting to forget about. 

However the Rockets, it sort of feels, have cooled at the concept. They have got the cap area — just about $61 million in room this offseason, essentially the most within the NBA — however during the last few months, their executives have made transparent to other folks all the way through the league that they were not offered at the concept of a Harden go back. They have additionally indicated to brokers this low season that they have got no purpose of providing contracts that stretch longer than two seasons.

James Harden opting into his $35.6M deal, Clippers and Knicks to interact in business talks | SPEAK

Without a mega-deal coming from Houston, Harden had no be offering to leverage towards the Sixers. There aren’t any different suitors in the market, no workforce with cap area that will each need Harden and be sought after via him. Which is most probably how we have now reached the purpose of a business request. If there is no one bidding towards the Sixers, there is no want for them to return with a robust be offering. 

In the meantime, Harden most likely concept he’d be capable to play the Sixers and Rockets towards every different and finally end up with a four-year, $200 million deal. At one level he had the Sixers involved. As just lately as overdue Would possibly, in step with more than one resources, he’d but to percentage his intentions with them. Or even once they fired head trainer Document Rivers — with whom Harden clashed — the Sixers’ entrance workplace was once nonetheless apprehensive that Harden would bolt. 

He turns 34 in August. He is coming into the general section of his occupation. He is nonetheless nice, however now not as nice as he as soon as was once. There may be not anything fallacious with that, however is Harden keen to simply accept that new truth? Or, extra to the purpose: What’s it he desires from his ultimate years within the NBA? Is it a identify and an opportunity to solidify his ancient status? Is it cash? Is it with the ability to play the manner he desires? One thing else? 

The Los Angeles Clippers are on the most sensible of Harden’s listing. Additionally they reached out to the Sixers this week a few imaginable Harden business, in step with more than one league resources. You’ll see why they would attraction to Harden. They are in L.A. He may play along a couple of stars in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. After all, so did the Nets. And, from Dwight Howard to Chris Paul to Russell Westbrook to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and now to Joel Embiid, you might want to put in combination a All-Megastar workforce simply with the superstars Harden has damaged up with. 

“Issues simply do not determine,” Harden stated in that interview ultimate yr. “This is a part of the trade. Like, you understand, Dwight, we had our years — it did not determine. CP, we had our years — it did not determine. Russ, we had our years and did not determine. Successful treatments all that so if we win then the whole lot is just right.”

Within the interim, the ball, to make use of a deficient cliché, is now within the Sixers’ courtroom. We all know from the Ben Simmons saga that Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey is not only going to make any deal, that he is comfy looking ahead to the proper one to reach. We will be able to suppose, in response to Morey’s historical past, that obtaining some draft selections and wage filler like Norman Powell and Marcus Morris from the Clippers is not going to do — a minimum of now not till Morey has a separate deal for some other superstar (Zach LaVine perhaps?) in a position to move.

We all know the playbook. Morey goes to insist, each in private and non-private, that he has no drawback conserving directly to Harden for the season. (Even though it’s price mentioning that for sophisticated wage cap causes the Clippers would take pleasure in getting a deal completed prior to July 1.)

No matter occurs, Harden’s contract with the Sixers can’t prolonged. This time subsequent yr he will be a loose agent, loose to signal anywhere he likes. Perhaps issues pass neatly for him in L.A., or anywhere his subsequent forestall is. However historical past says in a different way.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA author for FOX Sports activities. He’s the creator of “Tanking to the Most sensible: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Maximum Audacious Procedure within the Historical past of Skilled Sports activities.” Practice him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.

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