SALT LAKE CITY – Could the Harden honeymoon be over?
The Nets are reportedly now open to discussing Philadelphia’s longstanding pursuit of James Harden, something they’d rejected out of hand up to this point.
Harden has close ties with 76ers president Daryl Morey from their days together in Houston, and the latter tried to trade for the former MVP before the Nets landed him. Morey’s interest never faded, but the Nets had initially refused to even countenance offers until this coming offseason. Until now.
The Athletic reported that the 76ers are expected to pursue Harden ahead of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, with a source telling The Post “where there’s this much smoke, there’s fire.”
Any potential deal with Philadelphia would center around the 76ers’ wantaway All-Star Ben Simmons, who hasn’t played this season citing mental health issues. How or when they’d clear up if the 25-year-old guard was traded is a mystery; but so is whether Harden would even re-sign with the Nets, after declining a three-year, $161 million extension this past offseason.
While Harden stands to make the most money if he were to re-sign with the Nets in the offseason – a four-year, $227 million extension – personnel around the league see at least more of a chance the Nets move him at the deadline than there had been a few weeks ago.
Harden was ruled out of Friday night’s game at the Utah Jazz because of left hamstring tightness, the same thing that forced him to sit out a Jan. 26 loss to the Denver Nuggets at Barclays Center. He was a late scratch before last Saturday’s loss at Golden State with a strain in his right (non-shooting) hand.
After returning from the hand injury, Harden shot 6-for-19 overall in Tuesday’s loss at Phoenix and followed that with a four-point, 2-of-11 effort in Wednesday’s humbling defeat at Sacramento.
It was Harden’s lowest-scoring game since 2014 in which he logged at least 30 minutes. He compounded it by committing a half-dozen turnovers, getting hit with a technical after the last one, and finishing a wretched minus-21.
The Nets came into Friday’s game at Utah having dropped six-straight, their longest skid in over two years. And it’s easy to see Harden and Irving haven’t been in sync. After the Nets went an impressive 16-3 last season when the pair started together without Kevin Durant, this year they are only 2-4.
While the Big Three are plus-15 in 32 minutes together this season, Harden and Irving are a minus-12 in their 172 minutes together without Durant.
When asked why the Nets have been so wildly inconsistent, Harden said “You know just as good as I do. You know, we’ve just got a lot of different things internally, lineups, and we haven’t had no continuity yet.”
That could be interpreted a number of ways, as in the reason is a mystery, or as in the cause of the problem is obvious. When pressed on whether Irving’s in-and-out part-time status – along with Durant’s MCL injury – has pushed the Nets to a breaking point, Harden replied “I don’t know. I know we’re on a six-game losing streak. I do know that.”
