With the trade deadline roughly 48 hours away, all eyes remain on the situation surrounding James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers. The Brooklyn Nets are on an eight-game losing skid, and Harden can be a free agent in the 2022 offseason.
With the way Brooklyn’s season is going, it doesn’t look like he will elect to stay.
With all of the smoke of the last couple of weeks, the writing seems to be on the wall that Harden will end up with the Sixers. He has a great relationship with co-managing partner Michael Rubin as well as president Daryl Morey and it makes sense that he would want to be in Philadelphia.
The question then becomes will the Nets move Harden before the deadline or risk losing him in the offseason? Nick Wright of “First Things First” believes the Nets need to move Harden to the Sixers now:
I think it would be a grievous mistake for Brooklyn not to move Harden before Thursday because whether they have accepted it or not, James Harden is going to be a Philadelphia 76er for Game 1 of next season. The only real question that remains is will he be the Philadelphia 76er before Game 1 of next season.
Wright went into how Morey and the Sixers can get Harden in the offseason despite being a bit strapped for cash at the moment:
Daryl Morey, once upon a time when he was running the Rockets, wanted to sign Chris Paul, and the Clippers were like, ‘well, you don’t have the cap space and we’re not going to sign and trade him to you.’ So Daryl Morey made sure the Clippers knew that, OK, but if I just stretch and waive Ryan Anderson, I will have the cap space. So it probably makes more sense for all parties involved for us to get together and do a trade and they did. And the Clippers got Pat Beverley and (Lou) Williams and Montrezl Harrell and it’s like ‘hey, they got something for Chris Paul.’ That is the road the Nets are barreling toward this summer. If they don’t trade him now, here’s all the Sixers have to do. You call up Oklahoma City or Detroit or San Antonio or Houston, any of those teams, Orlando, and you say, would you like Ben Simmons? We would like draft picks, and you let them bid against each other and you trade Ben Simmons into those teams’ ample bounty of cap space. You then call the same group of teams and say would you like Tobias Harris? If not, they construction waive Tobias Harris and voila. They have the cap space to sign James Harden outright and the Nets are staring at a nuclear summer.
"It'd be a grievous mistake for Brooklyn not to move Harden before the deadline. Whether they've accepted it or not, Harden is going to be a 76er for Game 1 of nxt season. The only real question that remains is will he be a 76er 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 Game 1 of nxt season?" —@getnickwright pic.twitter.com/X1ehFnM5XE
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) February 8, 2022
The trade deadline is coming down to the wire and there will be a lot of negotiations and a lot of noise going on until the 3 p.m. EST buzzer on Thursday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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