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The Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Clippers continue to be at a stalemate with their discussions on a James Harden trade as both sides are firm in what they are offering and what they want. Harden has been away from the Sixers for 10 days and reported back to the team shortly before their flight to Milwaukee for their opening night.

"We know he wants a trade," said Adrian Wojnarowski on his podcast. "He's made it pretty clear he was not going to make this easy on Philly if he didn't get the trade. It hasn't happened. It's nowhere close. It is nowhere in range. Just those talks are nowhere between Philly and the Clippers. There's a wide gulf between those two organizations. 

"The Clippers believe they've made, by far, the best offer for James Harden. The only real serious offer for James Harden. 

"Daryl Morey wants more. Says he has a value on an All-Star guard. I think the way the Clippers look at it is that the market dictates the value. Each side certainly does what is best for them. For the Clippers, that is not including Terance Mann in the deal. That is not including a second first round pick in the deal. That includes not taking on, perhaps, salary in a trade for Harden. For Philly, they said they only want to do a deal that allows them to get the assets to get another high level player to replace James Harden. That's hard to do. They don't become available. There's a reason people don't want to trade those players.

"So Phily has been in no rush to get this deal done. At least on anything but their own terms. But for all the posturing and in-and-out with James Harden in the preseason, the season is starting. They open up Thursday. If the Sixers get to a point where they want to fine, or essentially dock James Harden's pay. That's $389,000 per game. We're not there.

"Again, he is on excused leave. The team has been patience with him. I think the league will have some say in that at some point. There is a new Player Participation Rule that is going to be tested in a pretty unique way with the James Harden situation."

Harden is owed $35.6 million for the coming season.

Via Adrian Wojnarowski/ESPN

Time to fire Morey. The guy is a declining asset and this man is asking for top 15 player package.

MitchB3 wrote:Time to fire Morey. The guy is a declining asset and this man is asking for top 15 player package.

I'm not a huge Morey fan, but I don't think he's doing anything wrong. They should get something worthwhile for Harden, maybe not an A+ superstar, but something in the PG13 / DeRozen / Lavine calibre player. The only downside is Harden's attitude and history of asking out of teams. That turns most teams off.

alienpick wrote:

MitchB3 wrote:Time to fire Morey. The guy is a declining asset and this man is asking for top 15 player package.

I'm not a huge Morey fan, but I don't think he's doing anything wrong. They should get something worthwhile for Harden, maybe not an A+ superstar, but something in the PG13 / DeRozen / Lavine calibre player. The only downside is Harden's attitude and history of asking out of teams. That turns most teams off.

Mitch, do you really not remember the literal thousnads of posts about how Morey was a delusional idiot during the Simmons saga? He's just playing his game. He doesn't think Harden is worth a superstar on his own anymore than Simmons was--he thinks that he might be able to package him with other Sixers stuff for someone good, or else that Harden will be worth more than one 1st once the season starts going. We really just saw this whole thing play out less than two years ago.

MitchB3 wrote:Time to fire Morey. The guy is a declining asset and this man is asking for top 15 player package.

Mann, expirings, a first, and a swap for Harden and Tucker is not close to a "top 15 player" valuation.

The Clippers might be able to get their price... on February 8th. We'll see.

HotelVitale wrote:

alienpick wrote:

MitchB3 wrote:Time to fire Morey. The guy is a declining asset and this man is asking for top 15 player package.

I'm not a huge Morey fan, but I don't think he's doing anything wrong. They should get something worthwhile for Harden, maybe not an A+ superstar, but something in the PG13 / DeRozen / Lavine calibre player. The only downside is Harden's attitude and history of asking out of teams. That turns most teams off.

Mitch, do you really not remember the literal thousnads of posts about how Morey was a delusional idiot during the Simmons saga? He's just playing his game. He doesn't think Harden is worth a superstar on his own anymore than Simmons was--he thinks that he might be able to package him with other Sixers stuff for someone good, or else that Harden will be worth more than one 1st once the season starts going. We really just saw this whole thing play out less than two years ago.

I agree, we did see this play out two years ago, however, those were two different players. By the way, Joel told management (i.e. Morey) to go get Beal instead of Harden, however, he did not listen and it's coming back to bite him in the ass... Also, Ben was a damaged good, but with the right team, he could be repaired. On the other hand, Harden is a DECLINING player looking to get one more max contract, those two things don't mix well usually. If you're a declining player, you should be on your last max contract not getting a new one.

alienpick wrote:

MitchB3 wrote:Time to fire Morey. The guy is a declining asset and this man is asking for top 15 player package.

I'm not a huge Morey fan, but I don't think he's doing anything wrong. They should get something worthwhile for Harden, maybe not an A+ superstar, but something in the PG13 / DeRozen / Lavine calibre player. The only downside is Harden's attitude and history of asking out of teams. That turns most teams off.

Those 3 guys you named are B+ players, Harden is no longer a B+ player, on his good day sure, but overall, I would give him a B-.