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About an hour after the Philadelphia 76ers’ playoff run ended on a whimper, James Harden was asked if he could take less than his $47.4 million player option for the upcoming season. With the free hand still more than a month away, Harden left the door open.
“Whatever it takes to help this team continue to grow and take us to the top with the best of them,” he said.
Those were words, interesting words at that, but not a binding contract. It remained to be seen if Harden would drop out and sign for less money for the 2022-23 season, and if the Sixers even needed that from him to noticeably improve the roster. Harden’s deadline for filing was Wednesday, and the answer to both questions was yes.
All along, there was never any doubt that Harden would wear a Sixers uniform in 2022-23. Harden, who had the player option to fall back on, even said so that night. As Daryl Morey, President of Basketball Operations, jokingly put it a few days ago, there is a “mutual love fest” between player and team. And even if that weren’t the case, both Harden and the Sixers would have little choice but to reset it for at least another season.
But the first domino of the Sixers’ offseason fell on Wednesday, and it’s positive when it comes to building the 2022-23 roster. Harden, 32, is quitting his contract and, as reported by the athlete‘s Shams Charania, “intends to return on a free-agency contract that will give the team financial flexibility to strengthen the squad.” And if the motivation wasn’t clear, Harden had no other reason to do so.
There are no specific details as to what Harden’s new deal in Philadelphia will be like, but he will make less (and maybe a lot less) than that $47.4 million in 2022-23. This information will likely come in the coming days. And how long the next contract terms are will be of great interest because it will have a big impact on the Sixers’ team building in the coming seasons.
How does this affect Sixers in Free Agency?
Considering what it took the Sixers to trade for him, Harden’s words would likely be tested postseason. Dealing in Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and a few first-round picks for Harden, the Sixers worked their depth and asset base to close future deals. They were in a tight spot with Simmons and felt Harden was worth pushing their chips.
But if you look at Philly’s overall salary cap situation early in the offseason, when a luxury tax team going head-to-head with limited assets against the $156 million apron, the easiest route for the Sixers to lose salary was always for Harden to take less money. The other options were Tobias Harris or a combination of some of their low-paid younger players, both of whom would have been difficult and would have chipped at depth. Harden cutting about $10 million from his 2022-23 salary is a long way off.
But would Harden be willing? At least we have our answer to this question.
As a team above the salary cap, the Sixers gain additional buying power as Harden exits and starts with a smaller number. While we’ll have to see what the Sixers do with that money, the big move they can potentially make now fits the middle-level non-taxpayer exception. This contract includes a starting salary of more than $10 million and gives the Sixers a good measure of bidding power over other playoff and competing teams with the taxpayer midlevel exemption set at more than $6 million for next season begins.
Starting with Marc Stein’s report a few weeks ago, the player the Sixers are reportedly targeting with this midlevel exception is Miami’s PJ Tucker. Tucker waived his $7.4 player option, and the Sixers can beat that number if they offer the full midlevel exemption.
Ditto for every potential free agent the Sixers could potentially sign with the $10 million mid-level exception, but there’s reason to believe Tucker could be a Sixers player by this time tomorrow. Harden and Morey had plenty of success with the sturdy forward in Houston, with Tucker’s switchability on defense and 3-point corner shooting providing an excellent fit with a first-class Harden.
Joel Embiid delivered an unsolicited monologue about how much he respected Tucker’s competitiveness and toughness after the Sixers lost to Miami in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. In the Sixers’ Game 6 loss to Miami, 37-year-old Tucker continuously beat Embiid and his teammates to drop balls and pick up rebounds.
The Sixers could also have the semi-annual exemption. Expected to be more than $4 million, that’s a boost over the minimum contracts the Sixers would otherwise have to spend. And while Tucker would certainly bring the depth and heaviness the team needed, there’s no question where that $4 million would go if Morey and the front office decide to use it. They will pursue another wing.
With Harden out, the Sixers could potentially add two rotation players without losing the current rotation. For a team whose bench proved unreliable in last season’s playoffs, that’s a big deal.
After trading with De’Anthony Melton on draft night, the Sixers found themselves extremely thin on the wing. Melton is a bit of a luxury in that he’s a stand-in who can play alongside Harden or Tyrese Maxey, but probably not both for long stretches. Despite Matisse Thybulle’s disappointing season, there’s no point in swapping him just to make room for the cap.
There’s a catch to all of this, and it’s a notable difference from the past two seasons. When Morey first took over the franchise in 2020, he commented that one of the mistakes he sees in roster building occurs when a team tries too hard to find a ready-made product for the first day of the season. The Sixers avoided that trap in the first season of the Morey-Doc Rivers era, and the Simmons situation made it impossible to have a ready-made roster at training camp last year.
If the Sixers apply the larger midlevel exception to Tucker or any other player, 2022-23 will likely be different. Once it or the semi-annual exception is used, the Sixers are firmly capped at that apron number and cannot exceed it on any transaction they make. So you need something close to a ready-made roster in the off-season. How much space will Harden give them under the apron? Will they make some back-end roster moves to create extra space? Could there be another big sign-and-trade deal to shake up the list?
For Harden, who averaged 21.0 points, 10.5 assists and 7.1 rebounds in 21 regular-season games for Philly, it’s up to him and Embiid to have the top two players (or three if Maxey’s rise continues) in being on a competing team. Harden is a Hall of Famer Castle, previously voted one of the top 75 players in league history. But like the other key players in the Sixers, with the exception of Rivers, he eludes the championship.
By taking less money this season, the Sixers will at least get their best shot at building a title-fighting team.
(Photo by James Harden: Bill Streicher / USA Today)
