If you’re questioning why, with a seven-game winning streak in hand, a report emerged — on Christmas Day, no less! — that Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden is open to returning to Houston to play for the last-place Rockets, you are not alone.
Scouts and GMs are browsing for an response as well. Because Harden infact going back to Houston doesn’t make sense. Obviously not for the 76ers. Nor for the restoring Rockets. And definitely not for Harden, after taking a lowered income this season to enable the Sixers to refortify their lineup for a champion run.
“I informed (Sixers president of basketball operations) Daryl (Morey) to enhance the lineup, indication who we required to indication and offer me whatever is left over,” Harden stated to Yahoo last summertime. “This is how bad I desire to win. I desire to contend for a champion. That’s all that matters to me at this phase. I’m prepared to take less to put us in position to achieve that.”
To be clear, Harden didn’t totally dismiss the report. He rejected understanding where it came from and stated he was “very firedup” about being in Philadelphia.
And that might be the inform, duetothefactthat as long as he doesn’t straight-out refute it, the hazard that he may leave lives in the mind of whoever was indicated to hear it. The 2 possibilities of who that may be shows precisely how byzantine service in the NBA can be.
“The traditional factor would be that Harden desires to produce utilize to get what he desires to re-sign with Philadelphia,” one Eastern Conference GM stated. “The non-traditional factor would be that Daryl requires to produce utilize with his owners to get James what he currently guaranteed him.”
For those who were off the grid last summertime, Harden chose out of the last year of his previous agreement, which would haveactually paid him $47.4 million to indication a two-year offer, with another gamer choice that pays him $33 million this season. That alone raised concerns about whether he did so with the understanding that the Sixers would compensate him in a subsequent offer for the $14 million he’d compromised, which might be thoughtabout salary-cap circumvention on the part of the Sixers. When a comparable arrangement was found inbetween forward Joe Smith and the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1999, it injury up costing the group 4 successive first-round chooses and a $3.5 million fine.
Timberwolves VP of basketball operations Kevin McHale stated at the time: “There are 8 to 10 groups that do this all the time. They’re simply great at it. We’re bad.”
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But if an understanding inbetween Harden and Morey is currently in location, why the requirement to produce utilize by threatening to leave? Well, with the 76ers not carryingout rather as well as anticipated with the re-signing of Harden and the addition of forward P.J. Tucker on a three-year, $33 million offer, the 76ers might be having some 2nd ideas about precisely how much they desire to invest in the 33-year old injury-riddled guard who currently hasactually missedouton almost half their videogames this season.
The concern endsupbeing: Who is having those 2nd ideas? None of the scouts or GMs I spoke to think anything has altered inbetween Morey and Harden, whose close relationship was created in Houston when Morey was in charge of the Rockets. Morey gotten Harden, then a 6th male, from the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012, and assisted him endedupbeing an eight-time All-Star, three-time scoring champ, league MVP and one of the league’s 75 all-time excellent gamers.
“The love is genuine,” stated the Eastern Conference GM.
When Morey left to signupwith the Sixers, Harden quickly afterwards required to be traded. He injury up taking a detour to the Brooklyn Nets for 80 videogames over parts of 2 seasons, however they were lastly reunited at the trade duedate last season in the offer that sentout Ben Simmons to Brooklyn. And it wasn’t for absence of attempting, league sources state, that Morey wasn’t able to bring him straight to Philadelphia from Houston.
But there’s no indicator that the close relationship Harden has with Morey extends to Josh Harris, the Sixers’ principal owner. Harris might desire to keep Harden however not with the kind of agreement Morey guaranteed Harden in order to get him to concur to take less this season.
“It’s a insane theory,” the Eastern Conference GM confessed, “but it would make sense. Daryl would appearance bad if he couldn’t make excellent on whatever he assured James.”
The Rockets, for their part, are open to including some veteran management to their very young team — Eric Gordon and Boban Marjanovic are the just Rockets with more than 3 years’ experience — and have sufficient cap area to indication a expensive complimentary representative. But would Harden be the kind of veteran a group would appearance to coach moreyouthful gamers?
“Uh, no,” the Eastern Conference GM stated, laughing.
And do the Rockets have enough skill that Harden might fairly anticipate to contend for a title? Again, the agreement amongst numerous scouts and GMs was no. Only if, one Eastern Conference scout stated, the Rockets landed Victor Wembanyana in the upcoming draft.
“But a lot of chips would have to fall into simply the right locations,” the scout stated. “And that still doesn’t describe the timing of the report coming out now.”
So, insane as it may be, no other executive or scout might come up with a muchbetter description. “Weird on both sides,” one executive stated. “Crazy,” stated another. “Very odd,” stated a scout. “It doesn’t make sense.”
At least not for now.
PALACE INTRIGUE IN ATLANTA: The statement that Atlanta Hawks group president Travis Schlenk was stepping back into an advisory function earlier this season captured the rest of the league off-guard as much as the Harden news. The just certainty is that no one is purchasing that Schlenk quickly chose he desired a wayoflife modification.
One league source stated the relocation was influenced by the souring relationship inbetween Schlenk and both All-Star point guard Trae Young and the group’s director of basketball operations Nick Ressler, boy of Hawks principal owner Tony Ressler.
Nick Ressler, Young, and Schlenk’s replacement, GM Landry Fields, are close and devoted to structure around Young, league sources state. The relocation to acquire DeJounte Murray from the San Antonio Spurs last summertime was crafted by them, not Schlenk, according to those sources.
Another relocation that has not been reported, a league source states, is that director of hunting Stephen Giles likewise hasactually been moved aside, and Grant Liffman — a scout workedwith last summerseason and Fields’ college roomie — hasactually been promoted, though the precise information of his brand-new function were not understood.
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Ric Bucher is an NBA author for FOX Sports. He formerly composed for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and hasactually composed 2 books, “Rebound,” on NBA forward Brian Grant’s fight with young beginning Parkinson’s, and “Yao: A Life In Two Worlds.” He likewise has a day-to-day podcast, “On The Ball with Ric Bucher.” Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.
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