Normally, in the NBA, the superstar player gets exactly what the superstar player wants. If that superstar player requests a trade, the incumbent team is usually willing to begrudgingly oblige.
That is absolutely not the case in the scenario between James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Harden’s trade request was one of the first dominos of the NBA’s free agency period to drop. That was essentially three weeks ago at this point. Today, Harden is still a Philadelphia 76er. And Daryl Morey actually seems a bit less willing to trade Harden than he might have been just a few weeks ago.
It’s hard to blame him, honestly. Morey and the 76ers have all of the leverage in this scenario. It’s going to be hard for Harden to get exactly what he wants here when the team holds all the cards. That’s especially true considering that Harden might not be able to use the same strategy he’s used before to force his way out of situations he didn’t like.
Let’s dive into it.
So what's going on with Harden?
James Harden is missing a key tactic that normally works well on the player’s behalf in these sorts of situations. That tactic is the holdout.
Typically, someone in Harden’s shoes would simply sit out until he gets what he wants. He wouldn’t report to training camp in September and certainly wouldn’t suit up for any games.
We’ve seen Harden do this before to the Houston Rockets when he wanted out. Instead of practicing with the team, he was in Las Vegas and Atlanta having a blast.
That’s not going to be an option here.
Wait, Harden can't sit out again?
Apparently not. In a piece ESPN’s Zach Lowe wrote about Ben Simmons’ eligibility from his holdout year with the 76ers, he snuck a bit of a nugget in the story that has a huge impact on Harden’s situation.
Since Harden is in the last year of his deal, Lowe reports, if he holds out for more than 30 days he could potentially risk not being able to jump into free agency next season according to the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
A separate clause in the CBA — which existed in prior versions of the agreement — holds that any player who “withholds playing services for more than 30 days after the start of the last season covered by his contract” could be deemed to have violated his contract and prohibited from entering free agency or signing with “any other professional basketball team unless and until the team with which the player last played expressly agrees otherwise.”
Harden could still sign with another team, but the 76ers would have to agree to allow him to enter free agency. If they don’t, he’s stuck with the team for another year.
Wow. So sitting out could potentially be catastrophic for Harden.
It could be. It’d block him from becoming a free agent, obviously. But, at the same time, it might also still get him where he wants to be.
A holdout could be bad for Harden, but it’d also be bad for the 76ers. This would be yet another wasted season of Joel Embiid’s prime just a year after he won the first MVP trophy of his career. The clock is ticking for the 76ers. Philadelphia needs to build a winner around him and — after the Ben Simmons holdout year — this would be yet another waste of time.
Would Daryl Morey cave?
It doesn’t seem like it. Morey seems pretty set on holding onto Harden until the 76ers get something beneficial for them back in the deal.
Daryl Morey on what he wants in a James Harden trade: "If we don't get either a very good player or something that we could turn into a very good player, then we're just not gonna do it."
— Bryan Toporek (@btoporek) July 18, 2023
Clearly, Morey is totally willing to hunker down and be uncomfortable. Just ask Ben Simmons.
So how does this end?
At some point, James Harden is going to be traded. We don’t know when. We don’t know where. All we know is he doesn’t want to be in Philadelphia.
He might just end up playing for the 76ers at some point next season after all. He won’t like it, obviously. But this is the situation he’s put himself in. Until a team makes a satisfactory offer to the 76ers, he’s not going anywhere.
Luckily for Harden, there’s still plenty of time for that to happen between now and the start of the NBA season.
