76ers have four viable roster-building paths if James Harden leaves, from another big trade to Process 2.0

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James Harden has developed a nasty habit of leaving teams in ruins. He pushed for the Houston Rockets to trade Chris Paul and a mountain of draft picks for Russell Westbrook only to ditch them around 18 months later. The Brooklyn Nets gave up seven years worth of draft control to the Rockets to land Harden, but in just 13 months, he’d managed to force his way to Philadelphia. Neither the Rockets nor the Nets have fully recovered yet.

Now the 76ers are seeing the dark side of landing Harden. After yet another humiliating playoff loss, rumors about Harden’s possible return to the Rockets in free agency are beginning to mount. The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Keith Pompey went so far as to report that the Rockets “expect” to land Harden this offseason. Unlike Harden’s past teams, the 76ers wouldn’t even get a trade package back for him. The Rockets are positioned to create more than $60 million in cap space, more than enough to sign Harden for his maximum salary without giving the 76ers a thing. If anything, Philadelphia might wind up having to send something to Houston just to convince the Rockets to structure the deal as a sign-and-trade. Doing so would cost the 76ers an asset, but give them a hefty trade exception they could use to replace Harden’s salary slot with a similarly priced player.

Harden’s fate isn’t sealed yet. Longtime Harden ally Daryl Morey still runs the 76ers, and he’ll have a chance to impress his star guard with a new coaching hire before free agency arrives. But at this point, there is too much smoke surrounding Harden’s return to Houston to believe there isn’t at least a little bit of fire. The 76ers still have a 29-year-old MVP and a roster designed to win right now. They have to start planning for the possibility that they lose Harden for nothing. While they could simply run it back with the rest of their roster and make upgrades on the margins, doing so would almost certainly knock Philadelphia out of immediate championship contention. They’re going to have to be aggressive in a post-Harden world if they plan to avoid…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/76ers-have-four-viable-roster-building-paths-if-james-harden-leaves-from-another-big-trade-to-process-2-0/

Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2023-05-22 20:37:25

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