James Harden’s time in Philadelphia appears to be done, but he won’t be leaving the team as a free agent to return to the Houston Rockets, as was considered a serious possibility a month ago.
Instead, Harden has picked up his $35.6 million player option to allow the Sixers to find a trade for the star guard. The team most known to have interest in Harden is the Los Angeles Clippers, with numerous reports tying L.A. to trade talks with Philly recently, while the Knicks are also apparently pursuing Harden to pair with Jalen Brunson in their backcourt.
Both teams make sense given New York struggled mightily with shot creation during the playoffs when Brunson wasn’t on a heater, and Brunson certainly has experience playing next to a Harden-type player during his time in Dallas playing off of Luka Doncic. On the other side, the Clippers have a lot of wings they are trying to unload (having already waived Eric Gordon) and can easily match Harden’s salary and send Philadelphia some wing depth, which they lack — with Jake Fischer reporting a combination of Norman Powell and Marcus Morris Sr. have been the main topic of a framework of a deal.
Whatever Philadelphia gets back is not going to make up for the loss of Harden in terms of productivity, but the Sixers can look to add some depth and try to salvage at least getting something in return for him as they’ll once again look to find a secondary star to pair with Joel Embiid in a different way. That is to say, they are almost assuredly not getting Paul George back from L.A. in this transaction.
A Clippers offer of Morris and Powell would give Philly another secondary creator and solid shooter in Powell, while Morris would return home for the last year of his contract and, potentially, provide a bit of bench shooting. The real benefit to that deal would be shedding $17 million in salary next year when Morris becomes a free agent, which would set them up to potentially have a lot of cap space to make a splashy move. They also could look to swap Morris out for Robert Covington and Amir Coffey, which would bring Covington back to where his career began as a Process Sixer, while cutting back a touch of the money they spend this year.
For the Knicks, a deal likely involves Evan Fournier’s $18.8 million deal (with a team option next year that, effectively, makes it an expiring) going back to make the money work and then it depends on what New York is willing to give up. Philadelphia could push for Immanuel Quickley and try to reconnect him with Tyrese Maxey, along with Obi Toppin to add a young, bouncy forward to the frontcourt. That would certainly be the move to get younger, if that’s the goal for Philly, but it remains to be seen if New York would part with those youngsters. Josh Hart picking up his player option also means he is eligible to be dealt, and Fournier and Hart would make things work financially.
As always, everything comes down to what the Sixers value the most in this deal — young players, future flexibility, or veteran talent — and what the other teams are willing to part with for James Harden on an expiring.
