Is James Harden Selling Too Hard?

Not long after the Philadelphia 76ers dropped their Game 7 matchup in the second round against the Boston Celtics, the Sixers’ President of Basketball Operations, Daryl Morey, noted that nothing has changed the team’s mind about wanting to employ James Harden beyond this past season.

After trading for Harden during the 2021-2022 NBA season, and re-signing him on a one-year deal, with a player option attached for next season, Morey and the Sixers’ front office are willing to get Harden back on a new deal if and when he declines his player option.

Are they willing to do whatever it takes, though? That’s where members of the league are reportedly becoming skeptical.

All season long, there’s been rumors floating around about a potential reunion between James Harden and the Houston Rockets.

Although Harden denied the Christmas Day Woj bomb after the Sixers defeated the New York Knicks on primetime, the rumors never totally went away and even remained consistent during the Sixers’ playoff run.

At this point, it seems Harden’s future could go in one of two directions. In one scenario, Harden returns to Philadelphia on a multi-year deal to finish what he started. In another, he goes for a second stint with the Houston Rockets in hopes they can go from a lottery team to a contender within one offseason.

Considering the current state of each roster Harden’s looking at, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst speculated this week that Harden’s rumored interest in returning to Houston could be a leverage play to convince the Sixers to max out Harden to keep him around since retaining the guard that Morey’s “Plan A” heading into the offseason.

When Windhorst reiterated his thoughts on Harden’s potential leverage play on ‘Pardon The Interruption,’ he mentioned that the Sixers had not shown a willingness to max out Harden at this point in the offseason.

“The 76ers have not shown an appetite to pay Harden the max,” Windhorst reported. “That’s why they asked him to take a pay cut last year. The Rockets have the cap space. Do they do it? You know, there’s been a very hard rumor out there in the NBA about Harden’s intent to go back to Houston, and it makes you wonder if it’s being sold a little bit too hard, and that’s certainly something that people are considering. I guess we’re going to wait and find out.”

Harden considered the 2022-2023 NBA season his own season of sacrifice. As he declined his player option and re-signed at a discount rate so the Sixers had room to pay other contributors, Harden was practically betting on himself to raise his market substantially after two injury-riddled runs.

The ten-time All-Star didn’t add an 11th to his resume, but he was still one of the NBA’s best point guards as he led the league in assists with 11 per game while putting up 21 points per game, knocking down 39 percent of his threes.

Harden’s playoff run was spotty — but two 40-plus-point games in the second-round series against the Celtics willed Philadelphia to victory twice before they ran out of steam in Game 7. The veteran guard still holds a ton of value, but the small pool of interested teams aren’t rumored to be jumping at the opportunity to throw the biggest contract they can to get Harden on their team at this time.