Harden takes $15 million paycut in two-year deal

Harden and Head Coach Doc Rivers following the trade last season. Photo by Bill Streicher, USA Today.

News finally breaks on Harden’s new deal with Philadelphia, with Shams Charania reporting that he’s taking a $15 million pay-cut for this upcoming season. 

He will sign a two-year deal with the second year being a player option.

Harden has yet to put pen to paper and finalize the entire agreement according to NBC’s John Clark.

With the specifications of the second year of the deal yet to be determined, looking forward to the next offseason without the supporting detail of what it will cost the Sixers to keep Harden keeps it foggy, so (probably) within the week when Harden’s contract is finalized scenarios can be made, but until then…

This offseason! The Sixers have 16 players now under contract and have about $5.36 million below the cap apron, according to Austin Krell.

Here are a few scenarios I believe could be at play here, placed in order to what I believe will actually happen to hopeful fantasy.

Final roster, battle for the last spot. The three players that will be fighting for the last spot on the team seem to be Jaden Springer, Isaiah Joe, and Trevelin Queen. Philadelphia has not looked for a backup big for Embiid, it seems as though Doc and Morey’s trust will be placed between Paul Reed and Charles Bassey. After the signings of House and Tucker, the Sixers seem that they’re satisfied with their wing depth and new acquisition of 3 and D players to go along with their 3 or D in Georges Niang and Mattisse Thybulle. Leaving Philadelphia with a decent backcourt in Harden, Maxey, Milton and Melton; I don’t see the Sixers having seven guards under contract on their final roster. So as summer league play has concluded in Utah and is starting up again in Las Vegas, besides watching the progression of Reed and Bassey, pay attention to Joe's shooting, the dog in Springer, and Queen’s energy.

Waive and Sign. Just what it says, forget these guys competing for a spot to sit for the year, figure out the best one to keep, and sign a minimum contract Free Agent for Embiid’s backup. This could be anyone relatively cheap, Demarcus Cousins has always been my favorite name to pair with Embiid. Hassan Whiteside is like Deandre Jordan but with a little more spring in his step, plus he and Embiid have their history. I did not favor Dwight Howard much last season, but he wasn’t bad for the one-year stint he had, he loved his Frosties. Andre Drummond, had he waited longer to sign a contract, would have worked with the Sixers budget and was Embiid's only net positive backup.

Daryls’ Not Done. Morey and Harden have put this squad together, and they may not be finished. It’s obvious that between Embiid’s two-minute-long praise of PJ Tucker and Harden's past success with him in Houston that Morey knew he was getting some of the band back together (i.e. Danuel House Jr.). But the Sixers have many guards, some expendable even, with Doc’s limited rotation, and since Deandre Jordan played playoff basketball in 2022 we know Doc still may be hesitant with Philadelphia's young big men. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sixers traded any of the three players previously mentioned fighting for a spot, along with Furkan, Thybulle, or Niang for an immediate rotation player. With Harden’s paycut, the Sixers could now trade for a contract that's around $5 million more coming in than they send out. There were rumbles that the Reggie Bullock rumors might’ve be ringing true, presumably a Thybulle trade, because Bullock reposted two pictures of himself with others and they were captioned “[Bullock] said he slidin to Philly next” and “[Bullock] next sixer”. However, Bullock would soon delete the repost and tweet “I can’t post my homies is wild lol” seemingly taking it all back and ruining Sixers twitters’ day. So if Morey does have something up his sleeve, I would expect Philly to target a wing or backup for Embiid.

Salary Dump. Morey works in mysterious ways, if he could find a rebuilding team willing to take on some of our unneeded contracts in a salary dump scenario, with us taking on vet minimum or waivable players’ that we’d just need to fulfill their guaranteed compensation. That could allow us more room to sign a free agent that could be used as a backup wing or big during this offseason or in-season. 

Kevin Durant. We’re not getting him. Stop it.