Philadelphia 76ers All-Star guard James Harden is coming off an absolutely brilliant Game 4 outing against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals Sunday. In fact, Harden nailed the game-winner in overtime to send the series back to Boston even at two.
For the 33-year-old guard, this ended some struggles over the previous two games after he opened the series in tremendous fashion.
There’s also a major backdrop to Harden’s postseason performance for the 76ers thus far. He has an ability to opt out of his contract after the season and hit free agency this coming summer.
Several media reports have linked the 10-time All-Star to his former Houston Rockets squad. That’s not dying down as Harden looks to help NBA MVP Joel Embiid bring a championship to Philadelphia.
The question here is whether there’s a long-term relationship to be had between the Philadelphia 76ers and its star point guard. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski focused on this recently with a pretty interesting tidbit about their marriage.
“For this Philly organization, they’ve got to look at Harden at 34 years old. Where does he fit in in terms of years on the contract, money on the contract,” Woj noted over the weekend.
Harden will turn 34 before the 2023-24 season gets going. Despite some eye-opening performances in the playoffs, he has seen somewhat of a decline in recent years. Whether doling out a multi-year contract to Harden makes sense remains to be seen. What we do know is that rumors of him heading back to Houston just won’t die down.
“The Houston Rockets loom as a real suitor in free agency this summer,” Wojnarowski reported.” There are a lot of things that are attractive to Houston for him. It is essentially home, family there, familiarity with that organization and that community. They got $60 million in cap space. They want to be improved next season.”
Related: James Harden is not the answer for the Philadelphia 76ers
James Harden’s future with the Philadelphia 76ers in question
Young guard Tyrese Maxey could very well be an X-factor when it comes to the 76ers’ decision-making process. He has an ability to both run the offense and play the off-ball guard spot. Maxey is still only 22 years old and saw his game improve leaps and bounds during the regular season.
- Tyrese Maxey stats (2022-23): 20.3 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 3.5 APG, 48% shooting, 43% 3-point
In fact, Maxey’s overall shooting splits were much better than what we saw from Harden during the regular season (44% from the field, 39% from distance).
The idea would be for Maxey to take over as the No. 2 option behind the aforementioned Embiid in Philadelphia. The 76ers could then use their draft assets as well as a contract such as Tobias Harris in order to add another star to the mix. They could also initiate a sign-and-trade involving James Harden to Houston or another team.
A lot of this will depend on how Philadelphia performs moving forward in the NBA Playoffs. As noted above, it is tied at two against the defending conference champion Celtics heading into Game 5 Tuesday evening in Boston.