NBA rumors: In spite of his clear desire to jump ship, James Harden still remains to be a member of the Philadelphia 76ers — for now, at least. This could be the case for the foreseeable future given how the Sixers seem unwilling to budge in their trade stance for the former league MVP. As it is, it has become increasingly plausible that Harden returns to Philly for another season.
NBA Rumors: Sixers’ Stance On James Harden Trade Deemed ‘Unreasonable’
According to team insider Kyle Neubeck of the Philly Voice, there remains to be a rift between Harden’s camp and the 76ers front office. Reports indicate that the 33-year-old was not pleased by how contract negotiations went down, which ultimately led to Harden picking up his player option for 2023-24 with the sole desire of facilitating a trade away from Philadelphia.
Neubeck also reports that the Sixers’ outlook on a potential James Harden blockbuster trade has been deemed as “unreasonable” in league circles:
“Philadelphia’s position on a Harden trade has been described as “unreasonable” by competing executives, while the team has pushed back on that notion. They view their path to a Harden trade to accomplish one of two things — they want to get back a package that allows them to stay in the same tier of contention, sources say, or to make a trade that returns enough assets back to flip for another high-level player. While there has been a lot of speculation that the Sixers could try to spin a Harden trade into a multi-team deal to chase a star, there does seem to be some pushback on the idea that they could execute that style of asset-flipping trade simultaneously with a Harden deal,” Neubeck wrote.
The 76ers want to have their cake and eat it too. They seem to have a much higher valuation on Harden than his actual market value. Then again, reports also note that Philly is open to the idea of having Harden come back for one more season on an expiring deal, which is probably why they have taken this stubborn stance.
NBA Rumors: James Harden Also Linked To Bucks
When news broke that James Harden wanted out of Philly, the Milwaukee Bucks were one of the teams that were identified as a potential landing spot for the 10-time All-Star. Although in truth, the rumors were more theoretical as opposed to the Bucks and the Sixers actually heading to the negotiation table.
One particular trade scenario that popped up was the Bucks swapping Jrue Holiday for Harden. The deal would have worked on paper, with Milwaukee potentially needing to add a couple of sweeteners to close it out. However, it wasn’t exactly met with excitement by the majority of Bucks fans. Harden is indeed a generational talent (although he’s no longer the elite superstar he once was), but the general sentiment is that the Bucks having to give up all they would in order to bring him to Milwaukee would do more harm than good. The front office probably feels the same way.
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