Easy - sign and trade.
The Mavs didn’t offer him a max. No one did. We know this because Harden’s team would have made him taking $200mm less the story, instead of him taking $14mm less in the first year. This isn’t hard. If someone offered him $280mm guaranteed, he would have taken it.
The Sixers don’t have to agree to a sign and trade if they don’t want to or don’t receive enough back. And I think the Mavs would have been well over the apron.
Harden and the Sixers agreed to a deal in June before the start of free agency. He took less for this season to chase after a title, believing that he could still get a big contract if he declined his option for next season.
Best strip clubs the deciding factor.
This is another argument that carries no weight - Harden had just successfully forced 2 trades to 2 specific teams in what, the prior 18 months? You think he can’t get a third? C’mon.
Buddy - I think this is on you to try and prove, rather than ethereal what-abouts and this endless whack-a-mole you’re subjecting me to. All the stories are about Harden giving up $14mm in the first year. If someone wanted to max him, wouldn’t that have been the story? There’s no story about Harden giving up $200 million. None. Shams is his mouthpiece.
There’s simply no chance any one wanted to max him last summer. It would be an ENORMOUS story. NBA players simply do not turn down the max.
This summer could be different! He looks better! He’s been awesome in Game 1 and 4 and I believe he can do it twice more and make me sad!
It was 13 months.
All the teams that might have been willing to max him would have had to do a sign-and-trade (and done some tampering to let him know they were willing). An agreement for him to opt out and re-sign in Philly was done before the draft. My point is that Harden, maybe partly due to his relationship with Morey, wanted to stay in Philly and no other team really even had an opportunity to go after him so we don’t really know what his market would have been if he had actually hit free agency for real instead of technically to allow for some cap maneuvering.
Harden did hit free agency for real. He could have signed with any team last summer. You think his agent wasn’t talking to other teams? C’mon now, this is the NBA - where tampering happens.
And I think your timeline is off - didn’t Harden sign well after free agency started? Looks like it was weeks after. His agent would have been free to get max offers from all comers!
Harden will likely get what amounts to a max for all but a very small collection of megastars (including him) for the next few years. It’s not a particularly interesting discussion.
Whether he gets paid $45mm or $50mm belies the absurdity of the latter.
Maxing Harden would be atrocious
It’s not any worse than maxing younger lesser players like Ja and Trae that flame out disastrously when playing against teams Harden wins playoff games against.
Harden has 2 great playoff performances during his 14 year career and they’ve both come in the past week.
Trae is an equally terrible max contract but that’s just due to the type of player he is.
Ja is an elite top 5 talent and not comparable to those two.
https://twitter.com/DubMnE/status/1655381161731067905?t=ec685fSH3djOf1aoXTArCw&s=19
https://twitter.com/joe_lacob/status/1655602816248086530?t=Vqk3lk2-7g-9Qi0zzVrLJw&s=19
(It’s a parody account, but thought it was clever.)
Harden doesn’t decline his option without an understanding of at least a ballpark idea of what his new contract will be. Since the season ended, the reporting was consistent that Harden planned on staying. The only question was what the contract would look like. I said they agreed to a deal, but it would be more accurate to say they agreed to do a deal.
Before the draft, the reporting was that he was likely to opt in and sign an extension.
Obviously, something changed and he ended up declining his option, but I don’t think there was ever any doubt that he was playing for Philly this season.
Trae has had far more playoff success than Ja.
Ja has myriad personality/style flaws that likely cap his playoff ceiling.
I’m snap-calling Trae over Ja moving forward.
So when Harden was a free agent for a month, free to sign a max with any team, you’re sticking with your story that he wasn’t actually a free agent?
Ok. I can see you won’t be swayed. Enjoy the games!
Wasn’t that the whole point of the tampering allegations? That before he opted out he had reached an agreement with the 76ers on what contract he would sign? Obviously, he technically could have still negotiated/signed a FA contract with another team, but that would have required him (and his agent) to break their deal, so maybe he choose not to do that and just honor his handshake agreement.
Lonnie Walker ?!?! WTF!
Did not see that coming, but I’ll take it.
Warriors Dynasty* killed off by Lonnie Walker The Fourth.
Lakers are really going to title.