The Philadelphia 76ers traded one-time MVP James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers in a deal that includes players and draft picks, according to multiple reports.
ESPN was the first to report the trade, which reportedly has the 76ers acquiring Marcus Morris, Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, Kenyon Martin Jr. and multiple draft picks, with P.J.
The Clippers will be Harden’s fourth team in four seasons. The seven-time All-NBA guard spent about a season and a half and played in just 79 regular-season games with the Sixers before asking the team to trade him in the offseason. Harden also wanted out of Houston and Brooklyn, which acquired him from the Rockets and then traded him to the Sixers when the Harden-Kyrie Irving-Kevin Durant union failed.
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Harden joins up with Russell Westbrook for a third stint — first with Oklahoma City then with Houston and now the Clippers, who are trying to capitalize on a championship window with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.The Clippers lose some depth in the deal, but they did not part with Terance Mann or Norman Powell. Tucker adds another layer of championship experience.
Harden asked the Sixers to trade him in the offseason, and the Sixers seemed amendable to finding a new team for Harden, who opted into the final year of his contract for the 2023-24 season $35.6 million. However, as summer progressed, Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey did not find a deal that worked.
Frustrated that the Sixers hadn’t traded him by mid-August, Harden called Morey a liar and indicated he would not play for a franchise that included Morey. The NBA conducted an investigation and fined Harden $100,000 for “public comments on August 14 and 17 indicating that he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless traded to another team.”
It has been a bumpy few seasons for Harden, who won the MVP award in 2017-18 but hasn’t made an All-NBA team since 2019-20 and failed to make the All-Star Game last season for the first time since 2013.
He can still post fantastic stats, averaging 21 points, a league-best 10.7 assists and 6.1 rebounds last season and his shooting percentages from the field and 3-pointers were better in 2022-23 than they were in 2021-22.
At 34 years old with his very best days behind, what can Harden offer in the playoffs? In last season’s playoffs, he had two 40-point games, but in the final two games of a seven-game series loss to Boston, Harden shot 7-for-27 from the field. The Sixers lost both games.
Jeff Zilgit:
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