At this point, everybody knows that the prize for the Philadelphia 76ers is star guard James Harden of the Brooklyn Nets. The expectation is that Harden will be in Philadelphia one way or another as they will either acquire him before the deadline or in the offseason.
If they can’t get Harden before Thursday’s 3 p.m. EST deadline, the Sixers can always go after the potential unrestricted free agent in the offseason. In order to do that, Philadelphia will have to clear cap space and that is where a Tobias Harris trade would have to come in.
Harris is set to make roughly $38.4 million in the 2022-23 season and close to $41 million in the 2023-24 season. Therefore, he would have to be moved to a team with tons of cap space and there are a couple of teams out there who qualify as that with one of the teams being the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Sources also confirmed that the Sixers have had conversations with the Oklahoma City Thunder about Tobias Harris. A person close to the Sixers downplayed the discussions, saying the Thunder are just one of several teams with available cap space that have inquired about taking in salary in exchange for draft picks. The person says Harris has nothing to be concerned about.
Harris has been playing well as of late averaging 22.4 points and 7.1 rebounds while shooting 58.1% from the floor and 50% from deep over his last 11 games. However, if he becomes a salary cap casualty to being in Harden, the Sixers have to get the job done in order to bring in an elite star next to Joel Embiid.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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