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

[Castle Black]

I'm not even much of a fan of LaVine's but if PHI can get him for Harden, they should take it.

If Philly didn’t wanna extend Harden to a long-term deal, I doubt they wanna tie themselves to LaVine’s remaining 4 years on a Max contract. My 2 cents.

[Castle Black]

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[wegotthabeet]

Do you not understand how building a team with championship asperation works? Harden contributes towards that. Haliburton absolutely doesn't. Sacramento has improved without Haliburton becoming a playoff team.

76ers are a treadmill team. They won’t win a championship.

No such thing as a treadmill team with a reigning league MVP.

[eyeatoma]

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[GSWFan1994]

I'm not even much of a fan of LaVine's but if PHI can get him for Harden, they should take it.

If Philly didn’t wanna extend Harden to a long-term deal, I doubt they wanna tie themselves to LaVine’s remaining 4 years on a Max contract. My 2 cents.

Harden's max is different than Lavine's.

Lavine is making 40 mi next season. I think Harden's max is close to 50.

Plus, Lavine is SIX years younger than Harden, which I think fits Embiid's timeline better.

[wegotthabeet]

76ers are a treadmill team. They won’t win a championship.

No such thing as a treadmill team with a reigning league MVP.

I disagree on Haliburton (be cool to have him for sure), but yeah the term 'treadmill' has totally jumped the shark if it's including teams like the Sixers.

wake me up when they get out of the 2nd round.

[ryguy613]

I'm not even much of a fan of LaVine's but if PHI can get him for Harden, they should take it.

If Philly didn’t wanna extend Harden to a long-term deal, I doubt they wanna tie themselves to LaVine’s remaining 4 years on a Max contract. My 2 cents.

What player is a better return for Philly than Lavine? I cant think of anyone.

[PhilBlackson]

I'm not even much of a fan of LaVine's but if PHI can get him for Harden, they should take it.

If Philly didn’t wanna extend Harden to a long-term deal, I doubt they wanna tie themselves to LaVine’s remaining 4 years on a Max contract. My 2 cents.

Because Harden is older and slowing down substantially each year.

If they don't at least put on the appearance of trying to contend, then as I said, just be prepared to hear rumblings of Embiid wanting out by the time the deadline rolls around. LaVine at least buys them time which right now is all PHI wants. Forget about contending, that's not even a real thing...it's ownership keeping butts in seats and prolonging The Process Re-Run.

Not that being stuck with LaVine would be great but imagining an old, overweight Harden drag his carcass around for the final couple years would be even worse and would likely just get ugly with their fans.

[HotelVitale]

No such thing as a treadmill team with a reigning league MVP.

I disagree on Haliburton (be cool to have him for sure), but yeah the term 'treadmill' has totally jumped the shark if it's including teams like the Sixers.

wake me up when they get out of the 2nd round.

Treadmill was created to talk about teams that year after year weren’t good enough to win a PO series if things went well that season, and weren’t bad enough to get a top-5 pick if things went poorly.

You just mean they’re stuck short of winning a title. We all get that.

[HotelVitale]

I'm not even much of a fan of LaVine's but if PHI can get him for Harden, they should take it.

If Philly didn’t wanna extend Harden to a long-term deal, I doubt they wanna tie themselves to LaVine’s remaining 4 years on a Max contract. My 2 cents.

Harden's max is different than Lavine's.

Lavine is making 40 mi next season. I think Harden's max is close to 50.

Plus, Lavine is SIX years younger than Harden, which I think fits Embiid's timeline better.

We also all just saw Harden look slow and old in the PO—absolutely no one on Philly feels like a 4/5 year big contract is a reasonable move. Even if it’s short of a max. He’s obviously deep in decline and is already in the phase of using his smarts and shooting to make up for his disappearing physical stuff.

There’s no problem at all with the money, ownership isn’t cheap and Tobias Harris expires this season too. It’s really just about how Harden has looked and how tragic a long contract would look starting probably after next season. I don’t know how the FO feels about Lavine but the reluctance definitely wouldn’t be purely financial.

[madmaxmedia]

What makes you say that? You think they wanna extend him? You think they’re excited to pay him $90MM the next 2 years and have him walk in free agency? I don’t know who else would want him if the clippers try to move on.

Trading George for Harden makes the team even older than it already was. Harden is going to need a new contract at the same time as PG. Trading one for the other solves absolutely nothing.

They are literally the same age right now lol. Harden is 8 months older, not really a meaningful difference.

I think you guys could use more primary ballhandling ability out of your second star next to Kawhi. I think the Sixers would be well-served giving Maxey more ballhandling responsibility and having a bigger wing that can work off-ball. I think you guys could use a solid forward in Harris as opposed to piecing that other forward spot together with Morris / Covington / Batum. I think the Sixers could use another scoring guard off the bench in Powell. Most of all, I think you guys could using the $75 million in expiring salary that Harden/Harris represents. Give it one more year with Kawhi, if it still doesn't work out you get a bunch of salary relief and have more flexibility to pivot.

Idk, Harden/Harris for PG/Powell makes a lot of sense to me.

Thanks for the clarification on that, I thought Harden had him by a couple of years. TBH honest Harden looks older out there, but I don't mean that to say he's still not a good player.

Your trade is not horrible (it's better than any package where we include Terance Mann). And I guess it's for debate whether you prefer George or Harden, but I'm not pulling that specific trade as-is. I do understand you points about fit though.

If the Clippers just got bought out by an owner whose first (hidden) priority was to cut payroll, that's a great trade to shed Powell's contract while claiming you're trying to improve the team.

[Mister Ze]

Harden isn’t very good anymore. If the Sixers replace him with a two-way guard like Norm while adding another depth piece they’ll easily win this trade.

21/6/11 on 61% ts is not very good?

People confuse "not being good as before" with "not being good anymore"

Harden is still a top 30 at worst and on most days a top 15 player. Good luck replacing that for a team that already couldn't get over the hump lol.

If it wasn’t for Maxxy Philly would have lost in the first round. His quickness is gone, he’s turning 34 in August.

He’s only good for perimeter shooting and being a distributor now cause his days of getting to the rim and playing the passing lanes on defense is over.

Clippers will have no defensive identity if their back court is Wesbrook and Harden next year.

[Tor_Raps]

21/6/11 on 61% ts is not very good?

People confuse "not being good as before" with "not being good anymore"

Harden is still a top 30 at worst and on most days a top 15 player. Good luck replacing that for a team that already couldn't get over the hump lol.

If it wasn’t for Maxxy Philly would have lost in the first round. His quickness is gone, he’s turning 34 in August.

He’s only good for perimeter shooting and being a distributor now cause his days of getting to the rim and playing the passing lanes on defense is over.

Clippers will have no defensive identity if their back court is Wesbrook and Harden next year.

Again like I was saying, who will the sixers get that will be better than Harden? All those statements about him can be right but all your other options seem to be worse without him.

And if the Clippers trade for Harden, Westbrook probably isn't being brought back. If he is, it will be strictly in a reserve role imo.

[FluLikeSymptoms]

Proven Loser Seeks Winning Situation

[Richard4444]

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The Knicks did the same with KP. He eventually asked to be traded and threat to take the QO.

[eyeatoma]

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The Knicks did the same with KP. He eventually asked to be traded and threat to take the QO.

Porzingis is an ****, Maxey is one of the happiest players in the world. I'm not worried.

[NZB2323]

Do you not understand how building a team with championship asperation works? Harden contributes towards that. Haliburton absolutely doesn't. Sacramento has improved without Haliburton becoming a playoff team.

76ers are a treadmill team. They won’t win a championship.

No such thing as a treadmill team with a reigning league MVP.

The Thunder still haven't won a playoff series since Westbrook won MVP. The Jazz never won a playoff series after 2000 when Karl Malone won MVP. The Rockets never won a playoff series with Moses Malone after he won MVP.

The 2005-2007 Timberwolves didn't even make the playoffs with KG after he won MVP in 2004.

And Allen Iverson wasn't exactly on contenders after 2001

76ers playoff history
2002: lost in 1st round
2003: lost in 2nd round
2004: Missed playoffs
2005: lost in 1st round
2006: Missed playoffs

[NBA4Lyfe]

I'm not even much of a fan of LaVine's but if PHI can get him for Harden, they should take it.

If Philly didn’t wanna extend Harden to a long-term deal, I doubt they wanna tie themselves to LaVine’s remaining 4 years on a Max contract. My 2 cents.

Harden's max is different than Lavine's.

Lavine is making 40 mi next season. I think Harden's max is close to 50.

Plus, Lavine is SIX years younger than Harden, which I think fits Embiid's timeline better.

but it doesnt matter, lavine still aint better than harden. If lebron or steph had the season harden just had at harden's age, they would have gotten paid

[NBA4Lyfe]

Proven Loser Seeks Winning Situation

is harden a loser, or did the league make sure harden didnt win to validate his style of play

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26634745/rockets-audited-18-game-7-say-finals-bid-taken

[azcatz11]

Maxey doesn’t care. He knows he’s going to get paid…