The Philadelphia 76ers and James Harden are gearing up for an uncomfortable training camp in September.
With the free agent market not materializing in his favor, James Harden decided to opt into the final year of his contract and demand a trade from the Philadelphia 76ers.
Well, that was at the start of July. Now it's mid-August and no trade has materialized for the former MVP, with even his preferred destination — the Los Angeles Clippers — unwilling to part with more than table scraps. The Sixers and Harden are now staring down the barrel of a long and uncomfortable standoff.
Unlike the Ben Simmons standoff, however, this one will be conducted in full view of the public. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Sixers have ended trade talks and will bring Harden into training camp next month. The Sixers agreed to seek a trade with Harden initially, but with no available deals that keep them in contention, Harden will fulfill his contractual duties to Philadelphia… for now.
Philadelphia 76ers prepare for rocky training camp with unhappy James Harden
The Sixers are well aquatinted with unnecessary drama. The Simmons snafu was only the tip of the iceberg. Philadelphia has been a constantly revolving door of new stars, coaches, and GMs since Joel Embiid arrived. From the Bryan Colangelo burnergate, to the mysterious case of Markelle Fultz's shoulder, to the mind-boggling decision to let Jimmy Butler walk in free agency, Philadelphia fans have been through a lot over the last decade. This is a drop of water in the Atlantic Ocean.
Still, it's an unfortunate culmination of the Harden experiment. The basketball fit absolutely works. Maybe the Sixers haven't reached the mountaintop, but Harden led the NBA in assists last season while Embiid topped the scoring charts. There isn't a more potent offensive duo in the NBA, both capable of stressing defenses with skill and physicality at all three levels.
Harden and the Sixers can absolutely contend together. The Sixers were a fourth-quarter collapse away from beating the Celtics in six games — largely on the back of two heroic Harden performances. That would've set them up as favorites in the conference finals, and who knows what would have happened.
The Sixers have squandered golden opportunity after golden opportunity during the Embiid era and now, a cute approach to free agency has left them in a real bind. The Sixers could've easily re-signed Harden to a long-term extension, but instead Morey tried to leverage the market against Harden to limit his contract size. That's all good and well, but this is the result. Whether the Sixers should have paid Harden a max contract over three or four years or not, the alternative was always going to be this — a disgruntled star in the final year of his deal with a lengthy track record of sandbagging his way to new teams.
Harden is in a tricky spot himself. If he wants one more lucrative contract to sail into the sunset with, he has to put up numbers. Deliberately tanking his value might not bode well for future contract negotiations after three trade requests in as many years. In fact, the best way to make a trade happen might be to restore his value with another strong regular season.
The lack of interest in Harden around the league is understandable — he's 33 years old with a lot of NBA mileage and all the aforementioned baggage — but he's also a top-20 player coming off a season in which he averaged 21.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 10.7 assists on 60.7 TS%. It's a little baffling that nobody is willing to offer more than, like, Norman Powell, Robert Covington, and pocket change.
This situation will continue to evolve throughout training camp and into the regular season, from the looks of it. Expect some interesting comments from Harden once the cameras are on him. Meanwhile, he has a group of teammates who genuinely want him to stick around. That starts with Joel Embiid. Maybe the new regime under Nick Nurse is enough to convince Harden to give it the old college try for one final season in South Philly.