NEW YORK — How do you make sense of the recent stories linking James Harden to Philadelphia this offseason?
Start with the source.
The source on Tuesday’s story is Jake Fischer, a reporter for Bleacher Report who has climbed into the ranks of reliable NBA news-breakers not named Adrian Wojnarowski or Shams Charania.
Fischer is reporting that Harden is growing unhappy in Brooklyn: unhappy with Kyrie Irving’s part-time status and, here’s the kicker, with the lifestyle he’s living in New York City, too.
Fischer explains this through league sources. He has reported that Harden is now telling close friends and confidants — former coaches and teammates, Fischer said — that he is increasingly open to testing free agency this summer.
That even though the Nets can offer him a deal worth $270 million and a future alongside Kevin Durant, Harden would be willing to maneuver to another team in free agency.
Specifically, the Philadelphia 76ers.
Here’s where we squint our eyes a bit at the source of this story.
Fischer is a Philadelphia-area native and the author of “Built To Lose: How the NBA’s Tanking Era Changed the League Forever,” a book rooted in Philadelphia, where tanking helped the Sixers draft both Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
Fischer is deeply connected with the 76ers, as he’d have to be in order to pen such a piece of nonfiction. This is not to disparage Fisher’s reporting, only to give context as to who stands to benefit from this information becoming public.
The Sixers are obsessed with landing Harden in a Ben Simmons trade — or using the idea of a Harden deal to start a bidding war for a depreciated asset (Simmons) across the league.
If they can manufacture enough buzz for a potential Simmons-for-Harden swap, the Sixers will have forced the hand of rival executives with potentially disgruntled stars. The belief is the Portland Trail Blazers (Damian Lillard), Washington Wizards (Bradley Beal) and Boston Celtics (Jaylen Brown) could each be enticed to agree to a Simmons deal if their respective stars make it clear they want out.
Yet Philly’s president of basketball operations Daryl Morey wants Harden, which makes sense given the following: Morey was the lead executive who built a perennial contender around Harden’s unique gifts in Houston. In fact, when Harden requested a trade from Houston, Philadelphia was on a short list of preferred destinations.
Morey seems to believe Harden is the missing piece to building a legitimate championship contender in Philly next to Embiid, who has solely kept the Sixers just 2.5 games out of the Eastern Conference’s first seed despite Simmons’ refusal to show up for practice and games.
On its surface, a Harden-Embiid pairing appears to be match made in basketball heaven: one of the most gifted scorers and playmakers of all time alongside the most dominant big man the NBA has seen since Shaquille O’Neal.
Harden has his own roots in Philadelphia, as well. He is close friends with Philly’s top rapper, Meek Mill. He also has a relationship with Sixers minority owner Michael Rubin. Not to mention Morey is the general manager who helped make him the NBA’s Most Valuable Player of the Year in 2018.
This is where we focus the attention back on Brooklyn.
Despite Fischer’s Philly roots, he unearthed some new information at Barclays Center: Harden, like many watching from outside the Nets organization, has become annoyed with cocah Steve Nash’s rotations, according to Fischer.
Rather than rely on his veterans or a consistent rotation, Nash has characterized this season as a roster experiment. Midway through the season, the Nets have trotted out 22 different starting lineups, leaning heavily on rookies like Day’Ron Sharpe, Kessler Edwards and David Duke Jr. over experienced veterans.
“I think there’s a lot of guys like I said of similar level in our group, and no one’s kind of taken the mantle at some of these complementary roles,” Nash said during the Nets’ recent road trip to Chicago. “Everyone is kind of still in the running to take the bulk of those minutes. So until we see someone that really takes it — and takes it for a while — we’ll probably continue to mix it up and give guys different opportunities.”
The Nets have already seen their first casualty of this experiment: After watching from the sidelines for most of this season, veteran forward Paul Millsap will either be traded or have his contract bought out to join another team this year, Nash confirmed.
Not to mention Irving, whose “personal” decision not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 has transcended the realm of distraction and is increasing the burden placed on Harden’s shoulders. Harden has been vocal about his desire that Irving get vaccinated to join the team full-time, even joking that he’d give his superstar teammate the vaccine shot himself.
“He knows that (we need him on the floor for all the games),” Harden said when asked if he’s nudging Irving to get vaccinated. “He knows that.”
The Nets are now asking Harden to play four different styles of basketball this season: one way when he’s the only star on the floor (the way he will play all home games with Durant out with an MCL sprain), another way when Irving is in the rotation while Durant is not, a third style when it’s only Harden and Durant available at home, and a fourth way when the Nets have all three of their stars at their disposal — on the road only.
The New York Daily News has documented Harden’s struggles adapting to the ever-changing Nets’ rotations. Some of that can be chalked to injury and health and safety protocols, but Nash is doing his point guard no favors by experimenting with different lineups on a night-to-night basis.
And the Sixers are doing the Nets no favors with their public, mid-season pursuit of a star whose contract can expire if Harden declines his player option at the end of this season. Unfortunately for the Nets, the NBA is a dog-eat-dog world, and if they aren’t feeding their terrier what it wants to eat, there’s an executive in Philadelphia who knows Harden’s expensive taste.
