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Waiting too long to trade James Harden could haunt the Sixers

While he's still here, there's no way to know what he'll do or how he'll behave.

Tyrese Maxey enjoys James Harden doing some push-ups after Harden lost a shooting competition at the team's Blue-White scrimmage in Wilmington on Oct. 14.
Tyrese Maxey enjoys James Harden doing some push-ups after Harden lost a shooting competition at the team's Blue-White scrimmage in Wilmington on Oct. 14.Read moreCharles Fox / Staff Photographer
    by Mike Sielski | Columnist
    Published 

From every available indication, 76ers president Daryl Morey will use the same kind of strategy in trading James Harden that he did in trading Ben Simmons: He will wait. And wait. And wait.

And if an offer — from the Los Angeles Clippers or any other club — that he believes to be fair and advantageous to the Sixers doesn’t present itself, he will wait some more.

That plan is sound in its theory: The Sixers have already shown that they can get bounced from the playoffs in the second round as easily with Harden as they can without him. And it might even turn out to work in practice.

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It did with Simmons, if you consider sending away one malcontent for another and ending up no better for it to be a rip-roaring success. But there is a bigger risk for Morey and the Sixers in playing this game again this time.

After Doc Rivers kicked him out of practice in October 2021, Simmons kept his distance until Morey traded him to Brooklyn. He didn’t want any parts of the Sixers or Philadelphia. Once he went away, he stayed away, and everyone knew he was staying away. It hurt the Sixers that they had to play so much of that season with a hole in their roster, but Simmons’ absence wasn’t much of a distraction.

» READ MORE: James Harden cynics predicted drama would eventually hit the Sixers. It didn’t take long.

Harden isn’t Simmons. Harden isn’t afraid to play at the Wells Fargo Center. He just doesn’t want to, and he’s more likely to pull a stunt or stunts to force Morey’s hand: show up to a practice or game one day, not show up the next day, swear he’ll play, demand to play, decline to play, give an incendiary interview, make himself a daily pain in the derriere. And the longer Morey waits to trade him, the more Harden threatens to torment him and the rest of the Sixers.

Me, I’m not sure I’d wait.