stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

Source: Daryl Morey is unmoved by James’ comments. He is holding firm in his stance that he will not trade him unless it makes the Sixers a better team.

Meanwhile, I’m told James’ agent advised him against making that statement.

— Jason Dumas (@JDumasReports) August 14, 2023

he had one too many trill burgers

i think harden potentially having more value at the deadline makes sense in theory, but in practice i don't see a scenario where this actually goes smoothly enough to play out that way. "go back to philly, play hard enough to re-establish your value & either get traded or sign somewhere else next year" is the def the most logical strategy for harden but he doesn't seem driven by logic at the moment

Yeah, I agree Harden won't play nice and help Philly (and himself), but I think he will have more value/usefulness regardless at the deadline this year because he is expiring.

also the sixers not wanting to get worse in a harden trade -- and that part does make sense to me -- doesn't align w/ the idea of a team putting more value on the table for harden in-season than they are now. the only teams that would be trading for him at that point are ones w/ hopes for the playoffs so trading good players away to get harden would make no sense

I think Morey is going to have to get realistic about things between now and then. The only players of note on the roster for 2024-2025 are Embiid, PJ Tucker, Paul Reed, and presumably Maxey when he is resigned. Harden and Harris are expiring, so trade them this year to get ready for a radically different looking team in 2024-2025.

lol all the branding

James Harden just said this twice in China: Daryl Morley is a liar, I will never be a part of an organization that he is part of it. pic.twitter.com/0nVoaNcMYL

— MoreSteph (@XuanwongMilan) August 14, 2023

you know there's a certain young 3x All Star on the Nets you could probably swap Harden for

the nba is wild, man. this situation is jacked.

harden one-ups dame on the hard man front

he had one too many trill burgers

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Monday, August 14, 2023 12:09 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

we've all gotten to hopped up on trill burgers and said some things we regret

trillness is a known side effect, do not eat if you might be harmed by keeping it trill

if morey really did get harden to take less money with the promise of a richer extension & then didn’t follow thru harden’s reaction is completely justified. i’m not sure opting in was the best decision but i understand him drawing a line in the sand over ever playing for morey again.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3e/94/bc/3e94bcdea59e1a0a6c5a8944de4da036.jpg

Morey should resign until a puppet trades Harden, and then come back

the puppet could be Morey with a fake mustache

hello fellow gms

if morey really did get harden to take less money with the promise of a richer extension & then didn’t follow thru harden’s reaction is completely justified. i’m not sure opting in was the best decision but i understand him drawing a line in the sand over ever playing for morey again.

― J0rdan S., Monday, August 14, 2023 4:26 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this has to be what happened right? unless you think harden is a completely irrational actor what else could he be referring to?

in this context i get opting in too even if he was a little too hopeful about trade possibilities.

The only two possible "lies" I see:

1) Morey promised a max extension this year and then didn't offer one.

2) Morey promised to trade Harden if Harden opted in, but didn't trade him.

I guess I'm now thinking it was 2), because my sense is Harden never would have opted in if 1) had already happened. He just would have become an UFA and signed with anyone he wanted, no?

he kinda need to opt in and theres only a few teams with enough cap space to sign him to the big contract he wanted and they prob didnt want to and he prob didnt want to play for them, but if he opts in and gets traded then the team that traded for him can resign him next year

of course theres prob not anyone who wants to trade for him and resign him either oh well

see i think opting in was an attempt to maintain his salary for the coming season by forcing a trade. yes by opting out he could have signed anywhere, but i doubt he would be interested in signing with any of the cap space teams and signing a cheap contract somewhere doesn't seem like something he would do.

so to me the lie is pretty obviously point 1, it's the easiest thing that morey could promise and then renege on unilaterally.

feel like morey couldve implied that they were gonna give him a big deal like hey james no promises you know i cant do that but just know that the sixers organization values loyalty highly, which basically amounts to the same think from hardens pov but maybe keeps morey out of trouble

rly curious if there is a no backsies clause in the cba

well there's a pretty obvious reason why harden's agent is backchanneling that he doesn't support this

Joel Embiid removed “Philadelphia” from his location 😬 pic.twitter.com/s7BDZeI6iq

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 15, 2023

uh oh

he should demand a trade to the knicks by putting manhattan as his location

eyes emoji

Going to process down to Maxey Avenue, we'll be pickin' higher.

this rules NBA drama already in mid season form!

https://i.imgflip.com/7vuu2c.jpg

Harden is a millionaire a couple hundred times over. He doesn't have to act in the best interest of optimizing his net worth if he doesn't want to. He's out for justice (as he understands it).

yes! Chief Hélà weighs in!

"Is he Disgruntled Adrian??"

Kyrie Irving replies to Woj's post on James Harden calling Sixers GM Daryl Morey a 'liar' 👀 pic.twitter.com/cEFWLbE6VV

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) August 14, 2023

in which we learn that kyrie doesn't understand what disgruntled means

Is he Disgruntled Adrian?? sounds like a line from an 80s comedy, nice sentence lol

next sentence sucks tho

Is he Disgruntled Adrian?? is a 1 minute 30 second interlude on a prog album

cut for time snl game show sketch in which a small business owner named adrian (host mark ruffalo) wrestles with the anonymous gripes of their employees

most nba players goal is to win a chip, or maybe win an award. hardens goals are on a higher plane

“James Harden’s goal is to make the Sixers so uncomfortable that they just decide that they cannot bring him back.”

- @wojespn pic.twitter.com/wvKPqlImpx

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 14, 2023

does he want a buyout maybe?

Harden is putting out quotes about playing in China.

no saudi, no credibility

what cba city has the best strip clubs? might need dylannn to weigh in on this

Xxxpost on the China stuff at least what I saw on Twitter was from a fake account

James Harden's tour across China continues, and after calling Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey a liar earlier this week, the former league MVP is now flirting with the idea of playing in China at some point. It's unclear if he meant actually signing with a team in China to play a season, or if he would be interested in the NBA hosting a game in the country like the league has done in the past. But it's clear that he has a fondness for the fans in the country.

"Every time I come here, the love is just like ... it's crazy, you know what I mean?" Harden said, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. "So I feel like they deserve to actually see me come play here. ... Love is always crazy here."

gotta give the guy credit, quite a card to play in his battle with morey to juice the china stuff

i think harden might have overtaken kyrie for (current player) top spot on the messy drama leaderboard. its really close anyway

steel sharpens steel

yup, kyrie saw harden was coming for the throne and had to go to twitter to stand up for harden lol

i will say, in harden’s defense (words i never utter) he did realize brooklyn had turned into a complete madhouse and he needed to get away from kyrie. can’t really fault him on that one. and if morey did lie to him than all this is pretty much justified too — he’s really just answering press conference questions honestly… he hasn’t even seemed emotional about any of it, weirdly.

yeah, i have spent a lot of idle thinking time trying to figure out what makes harden tick with this stuff and none of us will ever know for sure, but it seems like he mostly wants to find a balance of compensation, competitive basketball, and comfort level with the organization. he might weight those things a little more equally than other guys. he is also obviously quick to pull the ripcord when he stops liking his situation but there are a lot of people like that out there.

doesn’t he have an agent? isn’t a lot of this stuff the agent’s job?? like maybe harden can focus on his wicked stepback and his agent can focus on compensation, cultural fit etc