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NBA Trade Rumors: James Harden 'Still Hopes' to Be Dealt to Clippers from 76ers – Bleacher Report
Ten days before the Philadelphia 76ers are scheduled to open training camp, James Harden’s status remains the biggest talking point for the organization.
Per Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer, the 10-time All-Star “still hopes” to be traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The expectation has been that Harden won’t be traded before the start of the season in the wake of ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting last month the Sixers ended trade talks and planned to bring him to camp.
Even though the 76ers intend to bring Harden to camp, there’s no guarantee he will show up.
In the wake of Wojnarowski’s report, The Athletic’s Sam Amick noted the former NBA MVP “has no plans of taking part in training camp.”
Harden has made sure the world knows he’s unhappy with the 76ers, particularly president of basketball operations Daryl Morey.
“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden said at an Adidas marketing event in China on Aug. 14. “Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”
James Harden: "Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he's a part of. Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he's a part of." <a href="https://t.co/AmHJ0WwbF2">pic.twitter.com/AmHJ0WwbF2</a>
The NBA fined Harden $100,000 in the wake of those comments for “indicating he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless traded to another team.”
On June 30, Wojnarowski reported Harden was opting in to his $35.6 million salary with the purpose of working with the 76ers on finding a trade partner. The Clippers have been cited as the team Harden is hoping to play for.
Philadelphia is in a very precarious position right now. The combination of Harden and Joel Embiid makes the Sixers a viable title contender in the Eastern Conference.
The reigning NBA MVP hasn’t expressed unhappiness in Philadelphia, but he did leave open the possibility of eventually leaving if he has a better chance to win a title somewhere else.
“I just wanna win a championship, whatever it takes,” Embiid told Maverick Carter at the Uninterrupted Sports Film Festival in July. “I don’t know where that’s gonna be, whether that’s in Philly or anywhere else. I just wanna have a chance to accomplish — I wanna see what it feels like to win that first one and then you can think about the next one. It’s not easy. It takes more than one, two, three guys. You’ve got to have good people around you, and myself, every single day, I work hard to be at that level so I can make it happen.”
Trading Harden away without getting at least one player back who can keep the 76ers at that level opens the door for Embiid to potentially seek a trade.
But there’s also the possibility Harden’s animosity he appears to have toward Morey right now causes issues on the court if he has to play for the 76ers during the regular season.
There will certainly be plenty of Harden-related questions for Morey to answer during Sixers’ media day on Oct. 2. Philadelphia opens the regular season on Oct. 26 against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum.
