Getty A Western Conference team has "no choice" but to trade for Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden says the Los Angeles Times' Bill Plaschke
The Los Angeles Clippers have “no choice” but to trade for Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden according to Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke — who believes the guard would be the “perfect addition” to Tinseltown’s less historically relevant franchise.
“James Harden would be the perfect addition to Los Angeles’ most imperfect franchise,” Plaschke wrote. “He wants to leave Philadelphia. They should let him. He wants to join the Clippers. They should welcome him. A potential deal has been gaining steam this summer as quickly and furiously as Harden grows facial hair. It’s time both sides figure a way to do it. It’s time the Clippers realize they have no choice.”
Plaschke acknowledges that a Clippers-Sixers trade could be the perfect opportunity for Harden, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard to all make good on each’s “last chance.”
“(It’d be) a last chance for Leonard and George to seriously chase a championship before Ballmer throws up his hands and gives them the Blake Griffin and Doc Rivers treatment,” Plaschke wrote. “It too could be a last chance for Harden, with an expiring contract, to show he is finally worthy of organizing a team into a title. The odd combination works. The three mismatched pieces fit.”
Sixers GM Daryl Morey Comments on James Harden
As Sixers general manager Daryl Morey painfully acknowledged, Harden wants to be elsewhere by the start of the 2023-24 NBA season despite the efforts from the executive and the rest of Philadelphia’s front office to reel him back.
Daryl Morey on 97.5: “I think James [Harden] is a little bit hard to play with at times. I think Joel [Embiid] is a little bit hard to play with at times. Both these guys are such dominant forces that they can be challenging for guys to play off of.” #Sixers
“Right now, unfortunately, he does prefer to be somewhere else,” Morey told Anthony Gargano on 97.5 The Fanatic on July 18. “I do have a long relationship with him, and I am attempting to honor that. But the reality is if we do look at a trade, it will be for one of two things.
“It’s either going to be for a player who helps us be right there like we were last year. Up 3-2 on one of the best teams in the East, the Celtics. Obviously, we didn’t get it done, but James was a big part of why we got it to 3-2. Or we are going to do something where we get enough draft picks or things like that in a deal, such that we can then turn those into a player who can be a running mate with Joel.”
Morey’s relationship with Harden, which dated back to their shared days with the Houston Rockets, has been “essentially severed.”
“The relationship between James Harden and Daryl Morey is essentially severed, it’s essentially fractured throughout this process.”
NBA Insider @ShamsCharania has the latest on James Harden.
Clippers Are Sixers’ ‘Only Real Path’ for James Harden Trade, Says Insider
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania (subscription required), the Clippers represent the “only real path” for the Sixers when it comes to a suitable partner for a Harden blockbuster this offseason.
“Harden absolutely wants a trade to the Clippers, and rival teams view it as the only real path for a Harden deal,” Charania prefaced before saying, “It will all come down to the two teams eventually engaging and working on a deal.”
Thus far, the Clippers have been unwilling to budge on letting go of Terance Mann for Harden per Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.
“There is no market for Harden,” Mannix prefaced before saying, “If there were, he would be gone already, either via free agency (again, Harden opted in) or trade. For weeks Sixers officials have been canvassing the NBA for a satisfactory offer. It isn’t there. The Clippers, Harden’s preferred destination, are interested. But not, it seems, at the cost of Terance Mann and what’s left of their first-round draft capital.”