According to ESPN’s Wojnarowski, the one-time NBA MVP James Harden keeps his $35.6 million player option with the 76ers to negotiate a trade out of Philadelphia.
According to Wojnarowski, the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks will try to initiate trade talks with the Sixers. Shams Charania of The Athletic said, “The 76ers made it clear throughout the process that the franchise did not see a long-term future with James Harden.”
Since Harden signed a two-year deal with the Sixers last summer, he will not be available for an extension this offseason, as Spotrac’s Keith Smith reported. He will be a free agent in the summer of 2019.
Harden’s All-Star Streak Continues Amidst Injury Challenges
The 34-year-old James Harden made his 10th consecutive All-Star team this past season with the Sixers, averaging 21 points, a league-high 10.7 assists, and 6.1 rebounds per game. Injuries have become a recurring problem for him, and this season was no exception, as he missed 24 games due to a strained tendon in his right foot and a painful Achilles tendon in his left foot. Harden had yet to make an All-NBA team since he was a member of the Houston Rockets in 2020 when soft-tissue ailments also hampered him.
Assessing Harden’s Playoff Struggles and Team Dynamics
Harden’s playoff performance has remained the same. He played poorly in his lone postseason game for the Brooklyn Nets, an Eastern Conference semifinal loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. He blamed a strained left hamstring for his poor showing in Philadelphia’s second-round loss to the Miami Heat the following year. This year’s performance in the conference finals against the Boston Celtics was inexcusable due to his advanced age (12.5 points per game on 21.8% shooting from the field and 12.5% from deep).
Since January 2021, Harden has appeared in games for three different clubs. Because his favored playing style necessitates him holding the ball for complete possessions, he has scorched superstar pairings with Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving during the previous seven years. If he were to leave Philadelphia, he would have to include league MVP Joel Embiid among his former teammates.
Doc Rivers Reflects on Coaching James Harden, Sixers’ Coaching Change
During an appearance on a Bill Simmons podcast, Doc Rivers described coaching James Harden as “challenging” this past season.
“We were fighting two things,” Rivers explained, pointing to Harden’s advanced years as the major cause of his tendency to halt an offensive. “James is so good at playing one way,” I said, “and the way I believe you have to play to win, in some ways, is different because it’s a lot of giving up the ball, moving the ball, coming back to the ball.”
This offseason, the Sixers dismissed Rivers and hired Nick Nurse, a former head coach for the Toronto Raptors.
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