[BLEACHER REPORT]: Open Willingness From James Harden To Relocate This Summer

[marcush]

Sounds like Morey delusions.

Why would Harden want to leave KD and Brooklyn?

And what would the Sixers even offer? Not trading Embiid and the rest of the roster is role players.

[Lalouie]

translation...he aint happy

[ForeverTFC]

Sounds like Morey delusions.

Why would Harden want to leave KD and Brooklyn?

And what would the Sixers even offer? Not trading Embiid and the rest of the roster is role players.

You're ignoring the money. This is Harden's last big contract and he probably wants maximum value. He turned down 3/160 and is eyeing 4/225 during the summer. He turns 33 this summer so contract would take him through age 37. That's $60m+ at 37 years old - not sure the Nets are too excited about that. If they make the finals, I think they sign him. But if they fail to get out the East, they can sell why moving on is a good idea to their fanbase.

In regards to the offer: Simmons, Green guaranteed, and a pick for Harden works just fine.

[Side beard]

At his age I wouldn't want to give Harden a 3 or 4yr deal cause i think physically he's now on the decline.

People said something similar about CP

[TheLand13]

And people still want to pretend that trading Allen away for this guy was a smart move.

[Da ThRONe]

I'd honestly trade Harden for Simmons right now. It best for both teams. And if Irving is simply a fine away from playing home games I'd just pay the fines. Durant/Irving/Simmons is better than Durant/Harden/Irving. Simmons will play to notch defense and Durant and Irving is more than enough offense to win a chip.

[OdomFan]

If they could pull off Harden for Dame, I'd go ahead and trade Irving for a shooting guard after that.

[Optms]

I'd honestly trade Harden for Simmons right now. It best for both teams. And if Irving is simply a fine away from playing home games I'd just pay the fines. Durant/Irving/Simmons is better than Durant/Harden/Irving. Simmons will play to notch defense and Durant and Irving is more than enough offense to win a chip.

Harden + Embiid would make the Sixers the favorites.

Nets wouldn't stand much of a chance. That trade would never get done.

[Da ThRONe]

I'd honestly trade Harden for Simmons right now. It best for both teams. And if Irving is simply a fine away from playing home games I'd just pay the fines. Durant/Irving/Simmons is better than Durant/Harden/Irving. Simmons will play to notch defense and Durant and Irving is more than enough offense to win a chip.

Harden + Embiid would make the Sixers the favorites.

Nets wouldn't stand much of a chance. That trade would never get done.

I still have a healthy Nets as the favorite.

[dhsilv2]

He stands to gain more from signing an extension this summer, as opposed to last. It didn't make much financial sense for him to sign an extension last offseason.

You're one step away from a career ending injury. But ok...

I don't think it matters much for a player like Harden's caliber. KD was able to get a max in free agency right after tearing his achilles. Harden isn't quite KD caliber perhaps but he's still a former MVP and an All NBA player, I don't think there will be much hesitation to offer him a max or near max.

I'm not sure their levels matter. KD's game is jumpers as a 7 footer basically. Harden's is different...and even being 1 year older is a huge difference once a guy hit 30. 30 vs 31 is suddenly dog years vs human years.

[BallerTalk]

Unprotected Nets picks

[dhsilv2]

I don’t understand it either but I think bird rights are involved with Wiggins. They also manoeuvred in 2019-2020 to avoid/delay the repeater tax. I don’t think the current situation is at all sustainable because the repeater tax is so punitive.

If the 700 million a year estimated revenue for the warriors (once covid is over) is true....they can afford any tax numbers. I don't understand that hard line with the cap though.

I am sure there are capologists on here who do understand it, but afaik Wiggins $30 million per year doesn't count for the hard cap because they ended up with his bird rights from the sequence of trades. I don't know whether bird rights might apply for Harden, just that he has a player option and can sign a more lucrative extension next off season rather than last.

The luxury tax with repeater tax can get into the hundreds of millions which is problematic even for billionaire NBA owners, but Lacob is perhaps caught because he presumably needs the team to be successful for the expensive new stadium to be profitable. Having Oubre on the team reputedly cost them $80 million dollars last year btw, and they don't seem so keen to spend money like water this year cf how they finessed GP11's signing at the risk of losing him to another team, although this may have involved maintaining flexibility as well.

I think the year GSW essentially tanked got them out of the repeater tax temporarily, and there were all manner of manoeuvres with contracts, trades, cutting players etc that year to do so. The Sixers I presume will want to win the title next year if they have both Harden and Embiid.

I'd venture to guess covid cost them a lot of money which would make sense for them to be skeptical to spend crazy money. But once things are back up and running, it makes a lot of sense to keep spending like drunken sailors to keep the team good enough to make sure they can establish their new stadium as the "IT" place. And then you actor in if the 700M number is accurate, it means the owners could very easily be willing to spend 600+M to stroke their egos. This isn't about them being rich owners, but about the team's revenue being so far and away higher than everyone else's.

[dhsilv2]

Is that going into effect this offseason? Is that gonna increase the cap/lux tax/ hard cap numbers for next year? I thought it would be the year after

I'm not a hard cap expert but they're 36M under the warriors spend this year? So what's the issue if they trade Ben who makes 10 less plus filler?

Certian actions hard cap you and youre unable to pass that salary point. S&T's are one of those actions. This years hard cap number was at 143 million and i see no reason that next years wouldnt be similar.

With small raises to Embiid/Harris and Harden's max being like 10 mill greater than Simmons rookie max, it's gonna take a lot of work to get in under that number. Harris trade for less salary is basically a requirement but thats not as easy as it seems either. And if after all that what you have is Harden (who hasnt looked like a superstar this year), Embiid, Curry and minimums...is that really a win?

So what if Harden "ops in" to his current deal before the trade? Would that work around that? Just wondering how it works when he has a player option for an additional year (at least I think he's got another year).

[mademan]

I'm not a hard cap expert but they're 36M under the warriors spend this year? So what's the issue if they trade Ben who makes 10 less plus filler?

Certian actions hard cap you and youre unable to pass that salary point. S&T's are one of those actions. This years hard cap number was at 143 million and i see no reason that next years wouldnt be similar.

With small raises to Embiid/Harris and Harden's max being like 10 mill greater than Simmons rookie max, it's gonna take a lot of work to get in under that number. Harris trade for less salary is basically a requirement but thats not as easy as it seems either. And if after all that what you have is Harden (who hasnt looked like a superstar this year), Embiid, Curry and minimums...is that really a win?

So what if Harden "ops in" to his current deal before the trade? Would that work around that? Just wondering how it works when he has a player option for an additional year (at least I think he's got another year).

It would, but he'd give up potentially ~10mill in year 1 as well as security. If he gets hurt, he loses out on 100's of millions, and even if he doesnt, 1 down year coming off of injury on a chaotic BRK team could be ignored, but if his play continues to deteriorate, to "just" all star level, teams might think giving him 5 years/200+mill could be crippling.

And contracts dont mean much. I still think even if he doesnt want to be in BRK, he'll take the 5 year max, guarantee himself a quarter billion and BRK will find a trade to accomodate him. It's win-win for them. Harden gets his money and BRK gets their value

[bebopdeluxe]

KD resigned already. He alone will keep that unprotected pick 15 or worst.

He's 33 and keeps getting injured; he's out for 4-6 weeks as of this post

And Embiid is the epitome of health?

Literally hurt every single playoff run.

Not in 2019. You could argue the reason why they lost that Game 7 to the Raptors was that Embiid played ONLY 45 minutes in that game. In the THREE MINUTES he did not play, the Sixers were -11.

[dhsilv2]

Certian actions hard cap you and youre unable to pass that salary point. S&T's are one of those actions. This years hard cap number was at 143 million and i see no reason that next years wouldnt be similar.

With small raises to Embiid/Harris and Harden's max being like 10 mill greater than Simmons rookie max, it's gonna take a lot of work to get in under that number. Harris trade for less salary is basically a requirement but thats not as easy as it seems either. And if after all that what you have is Harden (who hasnt looked like a superstar this year), Embiid, Curry and minimums...is that really a win?

So what if Harden "ops in" to his current deal before the trade? Would that work around that? Just wondering how it works when he has a player option for an additional year (at least I think he's got another year).

It would, but he'd give up potentially ~10mill in year 1 as well as security. If he gets hurt, he loses out on 100's of millions, and even if he doesnt, 1 down year coming off of injury on a chaotic BRK team could be ignored, but if his play continues to deteriorate, to "just" all star level, teams might think giving him 5 years/200+mill could be crippling.

And contracts dont mean much. I still think even if he doesnt want to be in BRK, he'll take the 5 year max, guarantee himself a quarter billion and BRK will find a trade to accomodate him. It's win-win for them. Harden gets his money and BRK gets their value

But then wouldn't the new TV deal money come in the following year or are we a year off? Cause that new TV deal money could easily cover the 10m loss and then some?

[KnicksGadfly]

Sounds like Morey delusions.

Why would Harden want to leave KD and Brooklyn?

And what would the Sixers even offer? Not trading Embiid and the rest of the roster is role players.

Not sure what the Sixers would offer but that New Jersey Nets locker room is toxic. Wouldn’t be surprised if Harden got sick of it. Don’t think New Jersey would want Simmons unless they want both Kyrie and Simmons sitting out their home games.

[Eyeamok]

I have no doubt he will get the max either from Nets or someone else, but dear god I would not want to be the GM to sign 33 year old James Harden to a 5 year super max or whatever he is eligible for this summer. He's been great overall the past few years, but there are times watching him where you think he is a big negative to the team. Those bad times are slowly starting to grow IMO.

You might be absolutely right. But for a title starved franchise....lets say philly...with an MVP caliber player....let's say Embiid, it might be worth the risk to win (1) title. Then Embiid and Harden can grow old together and teach the next generation of 76ers how to play basketball. Sounds good to me.

[BallerTalk]

KD resigned already. He alone will keep that unprotected pick 15 or worst.

He's 33...

One of those picks is already gone, another one comes up this summer and will be late late 20s, and KD alone means next year's swap won't be used. So sure there are two unprotected picks in a few years that might be decent (or might not).

Even if Harden leaves that's two full years of a superstar for a couple of picks down the line. Was a great gamble and they're fine even worst case scenario.

Nope.
Houston hasn't used any of it's draft capital from the Harden trade yet and they still control the Nets' entire first round draft future for the next half decade (plus the swaps and picks they acquired in exchange for the Nets players they received in the deal).

[SelfishPlayer]

Harden has proven to have a direct line of communication with the media. He undermines team morale. People overlook this and do not associate it with him not being a champion. It goes along with his reputation for being out of shape and having a total disregard for the defensive side of the ball too frequently throughout his career.