PHILADELPHIA — During James Harden’s introductory news conference with the 76ers back in February of last year, two quotes — one from Harden himself, one from someone else — should have given everyone who was paying attention an indication of how his tenure with the team would go.
At one point, Harden said that he “knew for a really long time that this was a perfect fit.” It was a curious thing for him to say, given that, for the previous couple of years, Harden hadn’t spent a really long time doing much of anything other than failing to find a perfect fit for his style of play and his ego.
The Rockets hadn’t fit anymore. The Nets didn’t fit anymore, if ever. And there was only one way that the Sixers were going to fit: Harden would have to become a quasi-point guard, be more of a facilitator than a scorer, and defer to Joel Embiid. As it turned out, he did that last season, and he considered it so much of a sacrifice to give away his prized “basketball freedom” that he has decided he’d rather play somewhere else.
Actually, the revelation Thursday that Harden had exercised his 2023-24 player option with the Sixers, just so they could trade him, aligned completely with the other memorable quote from that presser 16 months ago. When Sixers managing partner Josh Harris introduced Harden, he said, “James, thank you for choosing Philly to play.”
It was deferential. It was an acknowledgment that the Sixers were dealing with Harden on Harden’s terms. It was a hint of what would happen if he ever grew uncomfortable or unhappy with his working conditions — if his relationship with Doc Rivers wasn’t all sunshine and roses, if the Sixers weren’t deferring to him enough, if he performed poorly in a big playoff game and drew criticism for it. You want a perfect fit? That Harris line was the perfect fit for James Harden.
So he will get his wish. He will play somewhere else. There are good reasons to think the Sixers will be better for it. Here are a few:
— 1. Bringing Harden back would have been exactly the kind of move that inspired “The Process” in the first place.
When it comes to re-signing Harden, there’s really just one argument that makes any sense: The Sixers nearly reached the Eastern Conference finals with him last season, and they will be, in all likelihood, a lesser team without him next season. So bring him back and try it again with him, Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris before breaking up that group. It might work.
But there are a couple of significant flaws in this argument. One, this approach would have required Harden’s agreeing to opt out of his contract, then re-sign with the Sixers for just one year — something he obviously didn’t want to do. Otherwise, we’re talking about the Sixers signing him to a multiyear deal, limiting their roster and salary-cap flexibility, and committing to a declining player who will turn 34 in late August.
Two, any franchise can defend any personnel move on the grounds that its team will be better in the short term for it. The question is whether keeping Harden would give the Sixers a realistic shot at winning a championship. We have two years’ worth of evidence to suggest that it would not.
— 2. Any kind of commitment to Harden is a commitment to him as the nexus of your team.
In his recent podcast interview with Bill Simmons, Rivers explained how difficult it was to persuade Harden to de-emphasize his ball-dominant style of play — a style that, come the second round of the 2022 and 2023 playoffs, seemed to hurt Harden and the Sixers.
“I think that’s James’ Kryptonite right now,” Rivers said. “I don’t believe the whole thing that he quits and that stuff. I just think teams make him struggle because they know where he’s at and it’s easier to find him.”
Finding Harden will be easier for defenders as he ages and slows down, but it’s clear that he doesn’t particularly want to play any other way. If he’s on your team, he’s going to want the ball in his hands, and the head coach is probably going to have to give it to him, because Harden is pretty much useless without the ball in his hands. (Which is a long way of saying that no one should expect a huge return for Harden in whatever trade the Sixers end up making.)
— 3. Tyrese Maxey has a better chance to develop now.
Let’s travel back in time to the summer of 2006. It’s late July, the Major League Baseball trade deadline. Pat Gillick, the Phillies’ general manager then, trades Bobby Abreu — the team’s de facto leader and most accomplished player — and pitcher Cory Lidle to the Yankees for a package of anonymous prospects. The Phillies are seven games under .500 at the time. Less than two years after his hiring, Charlie Manuel seems a dead manager walking.
What looked like a white flag, though, was actually a turning point for the franchise. With Abreu’s departure, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard were freed to be more assertive, to make the team theirs in a way it hadn’t been before. It’s reasonable to think that Harden’s departure could have the same effect on Maxey, that over time Harden wouldn’t be making Maxey better but holding him back.
“I would love to see this become more Tyrese Maxey’s team,” ESPN analyst Tim Legler said Monday, “because I think he’s got something different running through his veins. He’s always going to be in Harden’s shadow as long as [Harden is] there. You’ll never max out who Tyrese Maxey is as long as Harden’s there.”
Think about it: A common case for bringing Harden back has been, Can you really afford to waste a season of Embiid in his prime? But what if bringing Harden back would have wasted a season or two of Maxey in his?
