The Philadelphia 76ers landed their guy, but it took an extra season to do it.
After forcing his way out of Houston, James Harden landed with the Brooklyn Nets, but it’s no secret that his former general manager Daryl Morey, now running the show with the Sixers, wanted to snag the superstar.
Fast forward to now and the team was able to pull off a blockbuster trade that sent Andre Drummond, Seth Curry and Ben Simmons to the Nets in exchange for Harden and Paul Millsap.
As of right now, everybody is happy, but Harden’s contract is up at the end of the season if he declines the player option, and he’ll have the chance to go elsewhere if he desires. Harden has never been an unrestricted free agent, so teams will pull out the red carpet for him.
The Sixers are likely aware of this and are prepared to offer him what he wants, but Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes notes he’s the “toughest” free agency decision the team will have to make. Considering Harden has bounced around the league a little bit since leaving Houston, the Sixers might not feel all that secure now that he’s in town.
Could They Lose Him?
GettyJames Harden has a new home again.
Harden can sign a 5-year extension in the offseason, and that would immediately put all concerns to rest, but there’s no guarantee he’ll do that.
It’s not expected Harden will cut the Sixers some slack when it comes to his long-term money, especially since this will likely be the last massive contract he gets in his NBA career. Hughes notes this contract will take him through hie age 37 season, which means he’ll certainly be past his prime at that point, unless he ages like LeBron James.
“The 10-time All-Star hasn’t picked up his player option for 2022-23 yet, but he can do that any time before June 30,” Hughes writes. “An opt-in and extension would net Harden four more years and another $227 million on top of his $47.4 million salary for 2022-23. That’d break down to an average annual value of $55 million for his age-33-37 seasons.”
Tying up a lot of long-term money into Harden like this could prove to be costly as they’ll be building around an aging star. For right now, they don’t have much of a choice and they’ll have to deal with the consequences years down the road in an effort to win now.
Lots of Money
GettyTobias Harris could be shipped out of town.
With so many big contracts on the roster, there are rumblings around the league that Tobias Harris could be flipped in the offseason to build up some depth. He’s on a massive contract himself that could be split off into other pieces.
An idea has already been floated that would essentially turn Harris into Tim Hardaway Jr. and Spencer Dinwiddie, something that would do wonders for the Sixers next year.
It doesn’t solve all of the issues the team has for their bench, but it’d certainly help. Maxey appears to be turning into a star right before our eyes, so getting a reliable backup wouldn’t be the worst thing.
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