i prefer harden sign max deal with sacramento, indiana or some other lesser team...perhaps that would be an ideal situation for his revival and improved play...he gets to be no 1 option again and a forgotten franchise makes the playoffs and becomes somewhat relevant again
its one thing to occasionally tank half a season, a year or even 2, it seems to have always been tolerated, quite another to be tanking for half a decade or so... what would happen with the league if 25 teams started doing that because they are always better off tanking then peaking in Conference finals... there would be no nba
It seems like these former rockets Harden Paul are cursed. Paul disappeared in game 7 vs Mavs. Paul is old. But Harden is only 32. I expect Harden to bounce back after a full off season.
This discussion on first take between JJ/Bev/SAS is interesting...sure it will be linked here. It was about if Harden deserved the max, got pretty heated...summary, Beverly has a lot of love for Harden.
Watching this right now and SAS saying that he gave Harden his props for the past decade and Bev saying that’s wrong and I’m here for it. He knows very well how the Warriors were the darlings of the league and James didn’t get his dues from media for a long time.
Pat Bev is either - trolling. Hardens best friend/employee/fan. Or trying to sabotage the 76ers. Dude not only said on national TV that Harden was the best PG this season AND that he deserves a max contract, which will be 5/274 million. That contract would be the richest and worst in the history of the NBA as Harden (who won't be making any All NBA team this year) continues to age and decline. Equally as absurd in today show, Stephen A called Jimmy Butler a deadly shooter lol.
It will be interesting to see if James dedicates himself to basketball again this off-season and comes into next year in great shape. You would think he would considering it’s a contract year. But then again, this was a contract year. Does he even care anymore? If not, the backend of his career will taint the greatness of his peak years in Houston. and not like a strippers taint, James.
It’s not a contract year, right? I thought he missed the deadline to opt in so they have to sign him to a deal, thus this discussion. Or am I off?
Bev is definitely not being objective. He’s sticking by the players code and wants a James to put as much money in his bag as he can. Nobody would pay James that much money in the back end of his career, but the Sixers are banking on him coming back strong (which he should) and give them 2, maybe 3 years of high quality play before his contract looks like Westbrook/Wall.
He has until June 9th to opt in. Had he performed well this year, he would have likely opted out to go long term. But after the decline he showed - he’s a near lock to opt in. I’m not even sure Philly would extend him now unless it was at a significant discount
Got it. Thank you! Tough position for the Sixers, honestly. You’re prolonging another year of potentially giving him the super max anyways. Someone will give James a super max regardless of whether or not it’s the 76er’s. I can’t see them saying yeah let’s let him play one year and then let him walk if he doesn’t take a paycut next offseason.
Supermaxing Harden is a recipe for disaster. He'll only start taking things seriously when it's too late and his body can't. He should've came in fit for the nets then load balanced himself to make a case against Kyrie.
I do agree that Harden did get disrespect during his prime run but it wasn't from Stephen A. Yeah, Stephen A loved the Warriors but he always was supportive of Harden. SAS didn't start getting on Harden until very recently after this BKN and PHI stuff. Pat is right that Harden should have won 2 MVPs, that's a fact. The media changed the narrative on what it takes to win MVP TWICE on Harden. One season it's team success, then the next it's stats, and really the NBA should consistently have a players voted MVP, I bet that's at least more consistent. But SAS has been pretty good on Harden, you won't find many bad things said about him until recently.
He did come back from significant injury One which he "insanely" tried to play through for "the good of the team" While Kyrie was taking 2 week sabaticals and burning sage I would feel some kind of way if I was risking it all . . .. but people want to side with the guy that may or may not show up and routinely demonstrates that "the team" is not a priority in their life. Rocket River
