The way forward for James Harden with the Los Angeles Clippers may very well be depending on what they determine to do with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, who are also potential free brokers within the 2024 offseason.
“For the Clippers, this can be a run now for them to make. They do not know what the long run is there,” stated Adrian Wojnarowski on his podcast. “They do not know if they’ll be capable of come to phrases with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard on new offers. If they will do one thing that is smart. In some methods, perhaps James Harden is a rental for them.”
Harden was beforehand a free agent in 2022 and 2023 with the Philadelphia 76ers.
“He is enjoying for his future within the league,” stated Wojnarowski. “For a future cope with the Clippers. The one method there’s in all probability going to be one other cope with the Clippers is that if they are going to hold that factor along with Leonard and George. And Russell Westbrook. So $35.6 million a yr for James Harden this season after he opted into that deal final June after which stated he wished a commerce with it. It had gotten ugly and private, actually, with Daryl Morey. Plenty of historical past with he and James Harden and it does not finish nicely. Nevertheless it ends lastly in Philly.”
Harden beforehand had alternatives to signal an extension with the Houston Rockets in 2020 and a brand new contract with the Sixers this previous offseason that he eschewed.
“He is acquired rather a lot to show to folks within the league,” added Wojnarowski. “By way of his future and what it’ll appear like, it’s unlikely he will get the cash again in his subsequent deal that he has given up by not signing that max extension in Brooklyn, by not signing in Houston when it was provided to him when he requested for the commerce then, and by not going into free company final summer season. He probably might have had a two- or three-year max cope with the Sixers in all probability round $40 million a yr. He did not need to await July 1. He opted into the cope with the very clear suggestion to Daryl Morey and the Sixers that he wished a commerce. And that he wished that commerce to come back to the Clippers. It lastly did a number of months later within the lifeless of the evening.”
