Woj: Harden Opting into $35.6M Player Option and Demanding Trade from Philly; Wants to Play for the Clippers

[Flash4thewin]

How does Elton Brand still have a job at the 76ers? Honestly?

[PaulieWal]

LeBron started it but they none of these guys are not as great a player, as disciplined, as mentally tough, as great a leader. People think Lebron took the easy route with 'Superteams' but no one else could do it. There is no 'EASY' route unless you join a 73 win team of course.

I don't really see the LeBron comp to be honest. He's never demanded a trade, never played for a team for less than 4 years and has never left without taking a team on a deep playoff/Finals run/title.

A lot of the stars now are just constantly changing teams 1-2 years without even accomplishing anything.

LeBron did start this trend. Or one of the superstars who did it early in a career. That jump to Miami, in his prime, just opened the floodgates.

How again? Explain it to me how LeBron started the trend of superstars asking for a trade every 1-2 years.

[Karate Diop]

Nets fans repeatedly told Sixers fans what was going to happen but nah they didn't want to hear it...

Tough luck for the 76'ers... But we also need to ask at this point in time, just how overrated was "The Process"?

This process?




Or this one?

It's perfectly fine to poke fun at the Nets' failures, they deserve it

But there's also no sugarcoating what's happened in Philly. "The Process" was a failure. Embiid for all his talent is one of the softest players in the league and is incapable of handling playoff pressure.

The Sixers didn't adequately develop players during "The Process" era and were never able to shake the loser mentality that they drilled into the few holdovers from that time.

With that being said if the Sixers want to repeat "The Process" I'm all for it. That 2027 pick has the potential to be NICE

[JXL]

I think there's a way for a 3 team trade to satisfy all parties with the Clippers, 76ers and Knicks.

Knicks get Paul George

Sixers get Marcus Morris, Terrance Mann, Norman Powell, and picks from NYK

Clippers get Harden and Paul Reed

[iggymcfrack]

LeBron started it but they none of these guys are not as great a player, as disciplined, as mentally tough, as great a leader. People think Lebron took the easy route with 'Superteams' but no one else could do it. There is no 'EASY' route unless you join a 73 win team of course.

I don't really see the LeBron comp to be honest. He's never demanded a trade, never played for a team for less than 4 years and has never left without taking a team on a deep playoff/Finals run/title.

A lot of the stars now are just constantly changing teams 1-2 years without even accomplishing anything.

LeBron did start this trend. Or one of the superstars who did it early in a career. That jump to Miami, in his prime, just opened the floodgates.

LeBron never requested a trade once. Every time he signed a contract he played it out in full. He worked to build teams in free agency which was a completely different animal. If you wanna look at which player started the trend of superstars demanding trades, it would be Wilt. He did it twice in four years.

[iggymcfrack]

I think there's a way for a 3 team trade to satisfy all parties with the Clippers, 76ers and Knicks.

Knicks get Paul George

Sixers get Marcus Morris, Terrance Mann, Norman Powell, and picks from NYK

Clippers get Harden and Paul Reed

Why in the **** would Philly want picks instead of Paul George when they’re trying to keep Embiid?

[iggymcfrack]

Like if the Sixers are just gonna give up and just take picks for Harden, they might as well trade Embiid to Portland while they’re at it and rebuild around Scoot, Sharpe, and Simons.

[HotelVitale]

Nets fans repeatedly told Sixers fans what was going to happen but nah they didn't want to hear it... Tough luck for the 76'ers... But we also need to ask at this point in time, just how overrated was "The Process"?

This process?

It's perfectly fine to poke fun at the Nets' failures, they deserve it

But there's also no sugarcoating what's happened in Philly. "The Process" was a failure. Embiid for all his talent is one of the softest players in the league and is incapable of handling playoff pressure.

The Sixers didn't adequately develop players during "The Process" era and were never able to shake the loser mentality that they drilled into the few holdovers from that time.

Nah, like I said before the Sixers had horrible management for two years that made a couple absurdly awful decisions (e.g. letting Butler walk to give 50%+ of their cap to Horford and Tobias, trading multiple 1sts for Tobias, Mikal Bridges for Zhaire Smith, etc), and they also ran into whatever tf mysterious BS happened with both Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz.

Embiid being a MVP-level guy but not a championship-level one isn't a failure. It's an extremely good outcome for a draft pick, one of the best outcomes in the past decade. And they had the true second guy on their team, in his prime still. And they had 3 other top-ten picks to play with too (beyond the Fultz debacle), and a bunch of other goodies. It was an awesome situation that took a lot of bad luck and bad management to ruin.

Also even if it was compeltely over tomorrow, the Sixers spent an entire decade before the Process winning 30-50% of their games each season. The Process just turned ten years old and it's definitely been a lot, lot, lot better than that decade. (Also that 2027 pick is pretty heavily protected, sorry.)

[ryguy613]

I don't believe that CP3 has ever demanded a trade or changed teams in free agency.

He demanded a trade out of New Orleans and got traded to the Clippers.

Why is ryguy613 mad at Westbrook? It's not like he's asking for trades, it's not his fault that teams are trading him. CP asked out of New Orleans 13 years ago when a new owner came in and they caught wind that a new direction was coming, and then he negotiated an opt and trade with LAC 6 years ago. His recent movement is called being older and not as good. It's not like he wanted to leave Houston or Phoenix.

It's what happens. Gary Payton from 34-38 played on Seattle, Milwaukee, LAL, Boston and Miami. Iverson ended his career playing for Denver, Detroit, Memphis and Philly all in a 3 year span. Shaq from 35-38 played for Miami, Phoenix, Cleveland and Boston, etc, etc.

Why is og15 addressing the thread about ryguy613 instead of just addressing the question to ryguy613?

I digress. Im not mad at anyone. I have fatigue from this happening with all of these guys literally every year. Westbrook has asked for trades more than once... not sure where you got that one from. CP3 has asked for trades... more than once... again not sure what youre getting at.

yes, players toward the end of their careers tend to make the obligatory ring chase moves, bouncing from team to team as their abilities and roles diminish... but thats not whats gone on with any of the guys i named. theyve all bounced around the league multiple times during the primes of their careers.

[picc]

Nets fans repeatedly told Sixers fans what was going to happen but nah they didn't want to hear it...

Tough luck for the 76'ers... But we also need to ask at this point in time, just how overrated was "The Process"?

And they tried to tell y'all what was gonna happen with Ben Simmons... so now what?

[Papi_swav]

Why is he demanding a trade? he wanted to get traded to BK then left after a short time. Ended up in Philly and quoted saying "this is where I wanted to be all along." I'm really sick and tired of these cry baby entitled athletes

[docholliday99]

Why is he demanding a trade? he wanted to get traded to BK then left after a short time. Ended up in Philly and quoted saying "this is where I wanted to be all along." I'm really sick and tired of these cry baby entitled athletes

I haven't read he demanded a trade. Thought he was told he wasn't in the long term plans for the Sixers so he asked out. That's not the same thing - I don't think anyways.

[Rafael122]

Like if the Sixers are just gonna give up and just take picks for Harden, they might as well trade Embiid to Portland while they’re at it and rebuild around Scoot, Sharpe, and Simons.

They’re gonna get expirings, Harden has no value when everyone knows he wants out.

[Rafael122]

At what point does the blame shift to Embiid? Clearly there’s something there where everyone just wants to jump.

[iggymcfrack]

Like if the Sixers are just gonna give up and just take picks for Harden, they might as well trade Embiid to Portland while they’re at it and rebuild around Scoot, Sharpe, and Simons.

They’re gonna get expirings, Harden has no value when everyone knows he wants out.

Harden wanting out doesn’t affect his value. Only the Sixers’ leverage. Daryl Morey has already shown he’s willing to let a player sit out at least until near the trade deadline if he doesn’t get a deal he likes.

If Morey decides he’s not trading Harden to LA unless he gets George or Kawhi, then the value is whatever the Clippers think he’s worth in a vacuum. Other teams are involved so there’s no reason Morey would be forced to trade him there if he doesn’t want to.

Is there such a big difference in value between Harden at $36MM this year and presumably less next year since he opted in and George at $90MM the next 2 years that they can’t possibly work out a mutually agreeable deal? I don’t think there is. I could easily see Harden being more valuable on his own, let alone if the Sixers add assets which I think they’d be willing to do. Why wouldn’t the Clippers take Harden + Harris for George, Powell, and RoCo if the alternative is that the Sixers end up making a deal with the Knicks at the deadline or something?

[flow]

Why would anyone trade for Harden?


Seriously.

.

[iggymcfrack]

Why would anyone trade for Harden?

Seriously.

.

To avoid going ridiculously deep into the tax for a several years for a Kawhi/PG core where both players are incredibly unlikely to both stay healthy through a postseason?

[Deshaun Taden]

Like if the Sixers are just gonna give up and just take picks for Harden, they might as well trade Embiid to Portland while they’re at it and rebuild around Scoot, Sharpe, and Simons.

They’re gonna get expirings, Harden has no value when everyone knows he wants out.

Harden wanting out doesn’t affect his value. Only the Sixers’ leverage. Daryl Morey has already shown he’s willing to let a player sit out at least until near the trade deadline if he doesn’t get a deal he likes.

If Morey decides he’s not trading Harden to LA unless he gets George or Kawhi, then the value is whatever the Clippers think he’s worth in a vacuum. Other teams are involved so there’s no reason Morey would be forced to trade him there if he doesn’t want to.

I don't think it's that simple. Harden had an option that he exercised, had he not he would have been an FA. If he really gave up that freedom and Morey plays hardball, I suppose we can say that's within Morey's discretion, however it is extremely likely there was a handshake agreement prior to Harden exercising his option. Additionally Morey and Harden are close, were Morey to revoke his word it would be a stab in the back and also destroy any and all credibility he has. It is more likely he'd step down than do so, he also gave CP3 that 4 year max when ownership only wanted to give him 3, because Morey had already agreed to it.

This time no guarantee to Harden for a max, but Harden did also give up $15M to do Morey a favor, so Morey is going to have to return that with at the least a trade to a favorable destination. Same Fertita ultimately gave Harden what he wanted as did Joe Tsai and Sean Marks. There's a human element and your word matters. Both those orgs still did tribute videos for Harden when he returned as an opposing player, which notably Brooklyn did not do for Kyrie.

Personally I believe Philly won the trade just by dumping Ben Simmons who I doubt will ever play again, at least at a serious level, and now Philly gets to be off of Harden. I don't know why teams would want Harden, he is at best a third option now. With Philly it's doomed because Embiid disappears, Maxey isn't ready, and Tobias Harris is an overpaid role player. So they demand Harden carry them despite Embiid being the MVP. But that is by no means a serious championship plan.

Philly should just trade Harden and get back some role players, and seriously consider trading Embiid too.

[Jables]

How does Elton Brand still have a job at the 76ers? Honestly?

Because he was never the one making decisions, he's the guy that sits there and looks pretty taking all the flak while the Sixers are making decisions by committee, the committee AKA the ownership group and random **** heels from Colangelo's time as GM.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

I don't really see the LeBron comp to be honest. He's never demanded a trade, never played for a team for less than 4 years and has never left without taking a team on a deep playoff/Finals run/title.

A lot of the stars now are just constantly changing teams 1-2 years without even accomplishing anything.

LeBron did start this trend. Or one of the superstars who did it early in a career. That jump to Miami, in his prime, just opened the floodgates.

LeBron never requested a trade once. Every time he signed a contract he played it out in full. He worked to build teams in free agency which was a completely different animal. If you wanna look at which player started the trend of superstars demanding trades, it would be Wilt. He did it twice in four years.

Yes, Wilt, Kareem, Kobe have all demanded trades. But every time they did, it was LeBron's fault.