For What It's Worth, Nick Nurse Has a Fan in James Harden

By now, it’s apparent that James Harden’s desire to be traded away from the Philadelphia 76ers is due to the fact he’s upset with the team’s front office.

While that was the assumption leading up to training camp all along, considering his straightforward comments and countless reports regarding the situation, Harden confirmed for himself on Friday as he spoke to reporters for the first time since his return to training camp.

“For me, it’s just trusting the people that you’ve known for a decade. When I got traded here, my whole thing was I wanted to retire a Sixer,” Harden told reporters. “I wanted to be here and retire a Sixer. The front office didn’t have that in their future plan. It’s literally out of my control.”

Harden said his frustrations with the front office were beyond repair back in the summer. He reiterated that much on Friday. The Sixers will continue to explore incoming offers for Harden, but they haven’t made any significant progress toward moving Harden.

Fortunately, the ten-time All-Star has reported to Sixers’ training camp and has been an active participant in practice. While Harden went inactive for the team’s first two preseason games, he mentioned on Friday that he’s targeting a return to the court in a week for the 76ers’ preseason finale against the Atlanta Hawks.

The Sixers aren’t in a great spot with Harden, considering he still seems set on moving out sometime later on. On the bright side, at least members of the Sixers’ roster maintain a solid relationship with Harden.

And for what it’s worth, he seems sold on the team’s new head coach, Nick Nurse, who replaced Doc Rivers after a three-year run.

“Nick is very versatile,” Harden claimed. “He’s a players’ coach, you know what I mean? He understands it. I’ve known a little bit when he was the G League coach in Houston. Obviously, he’s won a championship. He just sees the game different. I’m a fan of him.”

Harden became familiar with Nurse back when he was the star of the Houston Rockets. Prior to Nurse’s tenure on the Toronto Raptors’ staff, Nurse was the head coach of the Rockets’ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Harden and Nurse didn’t have much of a player-coach relationship then, but the ten-time All-Star has shared enough conversations with Nurse over the offseason to believe his coaching style and on-court strategies should legitimately benefit the Sixers more in the post-Rivers era.

“Just having conversations with him the last few weeks has been impressive,” Harden explained. “He knows the game of basketball.”

“I think it’s more spacing, more opportunities for everyone,” Harden added, discussing the change of system. “It’s just unpredictable. He literally can change things on the fly. If things in five, six, seven possessions aren’t going right, he can change it and make adjustments, which is very difficult to do.”

With the way the Sixers’ trade discussions regarding Harden have gone this offseason, it seems there’s a higher chance Harden plays for Philadelphia again rather than a trade taking place before the start of the new season.

While he might not be sold on the Sixers long-term at this point, considering his lack of trust in the front office, at least Harden remains intrigued with all other factors beyond those who are away from the court on game night.