James Harden Rumors: 76ers Honored Clippers Trade Request, 'Never Got Close to' Deal
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Saturday that the Philadelphia 76ers plan to bring James Harden to training camp and were no longer discussing trades involving him after "periodic offseason conversations" with the Los Angeles Clippers.
It reportedly wasn't for a lack of trying.
A team source told Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia that "while the Sixers honored Harden's request to explore a trade with the Clippers, they never got close to a deal. The Sixers don't feel a Harden trade would make sense unless it supports the organization's priority of maximizing its championship odds, a source said."
Harden, 33, didn't seem to take the news well that the Sixers weren't planning on trading him, calling Philly's president of basketball operations Daryl Morey a liar on a video that went viral Monday morning:
The Sixers and Harden find themselves at a tough crossroads. Philly needs to maximize Joel Embiid's prime years and remain a championship contender, so giving away Harden for pennies on the dollar doesn't make much sense. But the Clippers weren't incentivized to make fair offers, knowing Harden requested to be dealt to Los Angeles which in turn limited Philly's ability to create a bidding war.
Whether there even would have been a bidding war for the 33-year-old Harden is debatable. If there was significant interest in his services, he would have hit free agency this summer and received a max deal.
Instead, he opted into his $35.6 million player option and demanded a trade. And per Wojnarowski, "Harden is unhappy with Sixers president Daryl Morey over the lack of a long-term maximum-level contract offer, sources said."
But if the Sixers knew Harden wasn't going to get a max deal in free agency, why offer a supermax for a player who has clearly lost a step and didn't have any leverage?
Harden might point out that he took something of a discount a year ago, signing a two-year, $68.6 million deal that allowed the Sixers flexibility in free agency. The Sixers probably would counter that, at this point in his career, Harden didn't actually take much of a discount, given his current market.
It's all a mess, which has been a recurring theme for these Sixers in the post-Process era. But Morey waited until well into the season before trading Ben Simmons the last time he was faced with a disgruntled star who wanted out.
Don't expect this situation to be resolved anytime soon, in other words.
