The Great Unknown and Father Time are the biggest risks for him. Has nothing to do with smartness, he could be the smartest player but if he is injured, he will be out for some time. There is lots of Unknown in this world in general. Like as fans we could talk 24-7 all possibilities but until it truly happens, we do not know. And until he truly wins something with this team, we would not know.
I do not disagree, Porter, however was not brought in to be Harden. He was a reclamation project the Cavs gave up on. He has tons of issues but useless he was not. The issue was that Stone and Silas gambled on him to develop as PG, and that alone was a failure. A failure in the thinking to make it a focal point, if they just went on to see if Porter can play PG and dismiss the idea, it would not have been an issue.
Harden is the only obvious immediate single player that makes this a play in / play off roster. But adding Harden doesn't come without risks. I think we all understand that. The other thing, I have trouble believing Harden just wants to come back home, leave money on the table and babysit a bunch of young players essentially throwing in the towel on winning a championship. I really believe that should he return, it's to create a super friend's situation as this franchise is loaded with cap space, young talent and draft assets like no other in team he has played on. Who comes along with Harden is the million dollar question and ten million dollar question is what do we have to give up to make that happen. But just for shitz and giggles, I'll give you an alternative option - Decline the option on Nix Trade Garuba for no incoming salary. That leaves you with $65,805,399 in practical cap space (assuming the #2 pick - more or less depending upon where you land in the lottery) Austin Reaves $28m Cam Johnson $20m Jakob Poeltl $18m ********************************* that spends your cap space. Room exception $6m to Tre Jones. Green / Jones / Tyty Reaves / KPJ / Christopher Johnson / Jabari / Eason / KMJ / Tate Jabari / Johnson / Eason / KMJ / Tate Poeltl / Sengun Plus your draft picks at X & 20. That's a really good defensive roster that can also score at a high level. I think that's a better overall roster than Harden and whatever you can add for the ~$17.5m left after giving him $46.6m.
I also think just because Tilman pompously shouted out that we are in Phase 2 and going towards Phase 3 does not mean I should be raising my expectations accordingly. I still have the same expectations, not much. And will stay there for some time. Hopefully they do not make big mistakes going into the unknown.
I am expecting us to compete for a championship next year if we get Harden and Wemby and another solid FA or two! Sengun, Harden, Wemby, Green, Tari, Jabari would be an awesome core! And we finally have a good coach, so...
The Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers didn’t have a problem with James Harden going to Las Vegas in the middle of the playoffs: “James called me before he went, and I was like, ‘So what? Do it.’ Dennis Rodman went to Vegas. They asked me about it, and I said, ‘We had three days off.’ I told them to do whatever they want. He’s a grown man. I didn’t care.” Source: Erikas Polockas @ TalkBasket I touched on it before, his off court antics are very much Rodman-esque. He never scored Madonna or Carmen Electra tho.
Not gonna lie, if harden was a rocket and went to Vegas during the middle of the playoffs, I’d be pissed. I think he’s legit overweight and getting older, which is a bad combination. I’d want him to start taking his conditioning seriously if he’s signing a 4-yr deal.
Harden literally dropped 45 and a game winner after that, and he went to Vegas a week before game 1…y’all talk like he went there the night before…
Does it count if he postponed it one more year.... or sign a short contract with Philly and arrive later. The power dynamic would be fun because I know Udoka might be a fan of Harden but he can't let Harden get out of control. He is not exactly Pop cool but from the school of Popovich.
I'd bet most folks on this board are as square as can be. the amount of these people life watching and trying to ridicule over the years is just comedy
bet was on what team Harden will be playing for in game 1 of the 2023-24 season at the time, it was Rockets -140, Sixers +130, Heat +1000, and Celtics +1400
Harden was in Vegas on Monday after sweeping BK, Sixers didn’t have practice until Wednesday, and didn’t play game 1 until the following Monday and he clearly showed up ready to play and balled out So what exactly is there to be pissed about?
We can but dream. I'm really looking forward to year 3 for Sengun and Green with a real coach and whatever they do to bolster us in all honesty. As long as it's a solid offseason we're good, that still puts us on course to become a legit force as our youth matures. If it's a stellar offseason then I don't think it's out of order to have some expectations of at least being a playoff team, even if we get bumped out of the first round.
