Bill Simmons: “In the whisper circles, everybody seems to think he’s going back to Houston.”

Not that I know of, but you'd think that there would be more than just one team offering Harden the 4 year max, so I don't see it as a "big money" type thing. If Philly could offer him a proper 5 year deal, which they can't, then it would be more of a big money leverage thing.

Harden's best case scenario is getting what would amount to a relatively trivial amount of money more from Philly after taxes.

Now sure, if they were lowballing him, that's how other offers could help, but I just don't think Houston would be the only place to offer the standard 4 year max.

 

I am not sure how many teams will offer a nearly 34 year old James Harden the full max.

Let's say 4 teams?

Out of those 4 teams, how many of them are going to be true title contenders? How many of those teams will allow Harden to have the ball in his hands and making decisions?

The number is really low - probably one, the Sixers.

So amongst the teams with cap space, that are not contenders, the only one that is believable as a landing spot is Houston, because Harden has a history in Houston and has remained connected to the city.

That is basically the leverage.

Having said that, the usually tight lipped Harden maybe figures this is his last contract and wants to be located by his business interests in the Houston and plans on settling down long term in Houston - but I don't think that is nearly as likely as it is that the Sixers ultimately offer the max and he stays in Philadelphia and figures he can force a trade later if he wants out.

 

Sounds like LeBron when he went to LA, business stuff first, bball second although he won a 'ship with AD.

 

He bailed on the team. Pass!

 

I wish this Morant situation was more troublesome. And it became clear he and memeohis needs to part ways but that don’t seem to be the car. Becsue if so the. We should offer anybody not named Green and those future Brooklyn picks for Morant

imagine if we got Green and Morant and hopefully Wemby next season

 

KPJ gotta go in this scenario. Maybe Jabari too. Team needs an NBA caliber defensive 3 and 4 if we're even going to ponder letting Harden near the team. Probably a bench revamp too. We are looking at serious changes, moving out of a tanking mode into a play-in contention mode.

 

I appreciate the well thought out response. I guess my main issue is that I'm not certain how much I consider the 76ers a legitimate contender. They are certainly a good team, but I don't think their odds are that good of winning it all.

If the Sixers come up short this season, which I think is VERY likely, what move can they make to make them better?

Being stuck on a Philly team that isn't good enough while getting torn to shreds by the fans and the media isn't exactly the way I'd choose to spend my final quality seasons.

 

No state tax

 

He won a *championship by total fluke.

 

Listen, Harden is my favorite player, I still follow him on the Sixers. BUT we can look elsewhere maybe sign some role players idk. The point is, its pointless to have James Harden(who is still amazing) taking up so much of your cap space just because you have money to do so.

 

Only chance I could see Harden coming back is if the Rockets get Wembanyama and he sees the Rockets as a possible contender. If he comes back to this team he's not the same player and this team can maybe win 30-40 games. He'll quit before then because he can't handle losing. He'll fake an injury and force a trade. Rockets will have no leverage and will likely have to give up draft picks to get rid of him like Westbrook. No thanks.

 

1: Harden - Washington - KPJ
2: Green - Christopher - Harden - KPJ
3: KPJ - Brandon Miller (Rockets pick) - Tate - Rudy Gay (FA)
4: Smith Jr. - Eason - Taylor Hendricks (LAC pick) - Gay
5: Sengun - DeAndre Jordan - Garuba

 

Harden is coming home and he's not coming alone.... there I said it!

Go Rockets!!!
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If we don't get #1, and land #2, do we pass on Scoot for Miller so it's a better fit with an older Harden? I have a hard time believing Harden, Green, KPJ and Scoot will be on the same team.

I think there's going to be a lot of roster changes if Harden is in our plans. I'm not sure anyone is safe if we get Wemby. If there's some win now moves to be had, and it takes Green, Alpi and Bari and more to make those moves to bring in..say..2 all stars? I think they'll do it. From reports, it seems Green and Harden are getting tight, so not sure if Harden would allow him to get traded.

Without moves and from what i've seen out of this organization....It's Alpi that will get moved to the bench, especially if Wemby and Harden are here. They will try a KPJ/Green/Harden backcourt with the idea that Wemby and Bari will eat everything up that gets by the perimeter defense.
If it's Miller we draft, I can see Alpi staying with Bari, and 1 of Green or KPj head to the bench. Leaving emotion out of it, i think both could thrive off the bench, but i have a hard time seeing Tilman/Stone letting Green get demoted before KP who is already on a friendly contract. Say what you will about draft position+rookie contracts, but it carries a lot of weight on bad teams for the potential aspect of it.

No idea what we do if we draft Scoot and sign Harden. Do we really ask Scoot to come off the bench for Harden or do we trade Green/KPj? Or do we ask both Green and KPj to come off the bench for Scoot(I'd imagine that would not go over well)?

 

Why is it pointless? We don't have control of our picks for the next 3 years, so literally the only point of our team is to win games and create a development-conducive environment for our young players.

I think we can all agree that being miserably bad is not a good development environment. Never playing competitive games or even having practices with high-level NBA players is not the way.

We need to use our cap space (and maybe trade picks) to get better players so our young guys can develop fully. Harden is one path to do that. He's not perfect -- there are defensive concerns and pace/stylistic concerns, and you probably have expiring bad money on the books in 2026/27, after the cap has gone up -- but name a clearly superior and realistic path? We should explore every option, but signing Harden as a FA costs us no assets, doesn't block development of any important prospects, and is the best current player we would have access to this summer by far.

 

With how much starting-caliber players are commanding these days in salary, that's likely to end with paying $20M a year to guys like VanVleet though.

There's also value in concentrating free agent spending on one player, in that it leaves more minutes available to continue developing young players. Even if we could get three or four good rotation roleplayers for the price of Harden's contract, which is unlikely, is that really the best bet for the future of the franchise? Wouldn't that just end up with guys like Tari and TyTy sitting on the bench instead of playing and improving?

 

Depends on what you think the point is.

If the point is to be entertaining, sell tickets and hope and be better than an absolute dumpster fire of a team, bringing in star players even if you can't win much makes a lot of sense.

 

Why the **** would we bench Green or KPJ for a rookie that’s 6’2 and has a suspect 3 ball when we will be in win mode immediately for Harden

Henderson would park his ass on the bench his first season and learn from a real one

 

Harden will be the starting Point Guard! Porter will be the backup shooting Guard.
Only if we dont have to pay him any more than $20 mil per season. Harden has enough money already!! Y