FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed James Harden to training camp on Wednesday, and it has been two days of him being back with the team following a tumultuous summer.
Harden requested a trade on June 30, and he has done everything he possibly can to try to force a trade to the Los Angeles Clippers. However, the Sixers have not received a substantial trade offer, so they have decided to keep The Beard.
After missing media day and the first day of camp, Harden joined the team at Colorado State University and he has been an active participant in the drills. However, he hasn’t scrimmaged just yet as coach Nick Nurse looks to ramp up his activity more.
“He’s just not quite ready to do the live stuff, but inching closer to that,” said Nurse. “So we got pretty much the first, I don’t know 50 minutes or hour or so where we’re doing a lot of technique and a lot of the drills and just putting in a lot of things. He’s doing that at a really high level. I don’t think it’s going to be too much longer. I mean, he wants to play, too. We’re just making sure he’s ready to go.”
At this stage, Nurse and the Sixers are just looking to make sure that Harden is ready for games and they want him ready whenever they call his number. Until he is traded, if a trade comes to fruition, then the Sixers will operate with him on the roster.
“Just a ramp up process,” Nurse added on Harden’s conditioning. “He’s good, though. He looks like, to me, he’s ready to go, but he knows who he is and Simon wants to make sure, too. You don’t want to do something too early for somebody. We’ll keep it rolling and see when we got him out there for the scrimmages here soon.”
The Sixers begin the preseason on Sunday against the Boston Celtics.
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