Does James Harden really want to start over again?

We’re going to find out just how much James Harden cares about all of the things he has said he cares about. Winning. Playing good basketball. Leaving a legacy that runs much deeper than individual scoring prowess.

There’s one team in the NBA that can offer Harden the chance to accomplish all of those things. He’s already on it. The only question after that is the dollars and the cents.

Every day, somebody asks me if I think Harden will be back with the Sixers next season. Every day, I say the same thing. I don’t know. But if Harden wants to win, he should want to be back. And, if he does, then the Sixers should want him to stay.

People are usually more interested in the second part of that than the first. So, let’s address that first. The notion that the Sixers might be better off without Harden is understandable from both an emotional and an abstract standpoint. The worst thing an athlete can do in this town is over promise and under-deliver. Harden and the Sixers walked out of Game 7 like it was Taco Tuesday. The stink’s gonna linger. So will the recognition that the Sixers need to play a better brand of offensive basketball. That’s a perfectly rational point of view.

» READ MORE: Nick Nurse would be ‘very happy’ if James Harden returned to Sixers, echoing Daryl Morey’s public comments

Unfortunately, it’s a point of view that is detached from the concrete reality of the Sixers’ financial position. The Sixers can go over the salary cap to re-sign Harden. If they don’t re-sign him, they’ll have about $12 million to spend on free agents. Last year, that could have gotten them Nicolas Batum. Start planning the parade!

Are there scenarios where Harden leaves and the Sixers end up better off? Sure. But think about the probabilities involved. If the Sixers could find a taker for Tobias Harris’ contract, they could potentially land a lower-cost veteran (think Danny Green circa 2020) while also clearing enough cap room to sign free agent Fred Van Vleet. If Van Vleet was willing to sign, and if he was the player he was for Nick Nurse a couple of seasons ago, that would leave the Sixers with an excellent point guard and shooter who is a massive upgrade over Harden on the defensive end. But those are a lot of ifs. Besides, if we’re talking best-case scenarios, they’d still have the ability to do something like that if Harden returns (using Harris’ contract and the accompanying 2029 first-round pick in a sign-and-trade, for instance).

But we’ve covered this ground before. The point here is that the Sixers are the team that makes the most sense for Harden. And that’s why I’m still not convinced that he will not return.

Harden alone is not going to make the Rockets a playoff team, much less a contender. He has to know that. He isn’t the same player he was when he begged out of Houston. He needs a primary scorer alongside of him. He needs the right complementary skill sets around him. The Rockets have the assets and cap room to make several big moves.

But so did the Nets.

That’s the pitch. Do you really want to start over again? When is the last time it worked? That’s the pitch. That’s the question.

Trade for Bradley Beal. Sign Nikola Vucevic and Gary Trent Jr., or Jacob Poetl and Harrison Barnes, or Van Vleet, or Kristaps Porzingis. Maybe that’s a team you can talk yourself into. But it would take a lot of talking. And copious amounts of self-delusion.

It didn’t work with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn. It didn’t work with Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook in Houston. It hasn’t worked with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in L.A. It didn’t work this season with Durant in Phoenix, or Irving in Dallas. The closest it came to working was Harden in Philly.

» READ MORE: The Sixers need more than Nick Nurse to win a championship. They need better work from Daryl Morey.

Continuity is king in today’s NBA. Look at Miami. Jimmy Butler has been there for four seasons alongside Bam Adebayo, Gabe Vincent, Tyler Herro, and Duncan Robinson. Look at Denver. Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. have been together for four seasons. Look at Milwaukee: five seasons of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Brook Lopez, three seasons with Jrue Holiday. Look at the Celtics, who have had the same roster since Red Auerbach.

Harden knows good basketball. He is one of the smartest, most instinctual, most intuitive players in the game. He has a chance to play for a coach whose teams have historically played the brand of basketball that good teams play. He has a chance to play with the same group of players who came within back-to-back losses of the conference finals and will have a chance to use the mid-level exception plus their one expendable future first-round pick to add another piece of talent.

“Winning has to be the sell, right?” Nick Nurse said last week when the Sixers introduced him as head coach. “Can we be good enough to win it all? That’s got to be a goal of his. And if it is, then he should stay here and play for us because I think there’s a possibility of that.”

There are all kinds of reasons Harden might choose to play elsewhere. Lifestyle, family, friends, money, freedom. All are perfectly valid motivations. But Harden has said countless times that his only motivation is winning. If that’s the case, then his choice should be clear.

» READ MORE: James Harden gives the Sixers their best chance to win an NBA title with Joel Embiid