THE PHILLY DILEMMA

NBA / Basketball

Written by Eddie Huband

A month ago, when I was writing a preview for the NBA playoffs, one of my most firm stances was that I do not, and will never trust James Harden to perform in a big game.

I hate to say I told you so.

Source (Background Photos): Associated Press

What transpired on Thursday evening when the Sixers bowed out in Game 6 to Miami in embarrassing fashion at home was one of the most egregiously horrific displays by a ‘superstar’ maybe ever in postseason history, especially in a closeout game.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at the stats.

Harden in Game 6

-42 min

-11 points

-9 assists

-4 rebounds

-4 turnovers

Not to mention he completely quit in the second half.

So, now that the dust has settled on yet another disappointing postseason finish in the city of brotherly love, the focus now shifts to whether or not to extend Harden’s contract this summer.

Before we get into that though, I just want to take you all back to September of 2021, when the Sixers could have had one of the following players in a potential Ben Simmons trade; Dejounte Murray, Pascal Siakam, Bradley Beal, CJ McCollum, or DeAaron Fox. Think Daryl Morey is regretting waiting it out for the Harden deal, at least a little bit?

Now, as the Sixers look towards the summer, they’re staring down the prospect of having to pay the 32-year-old Harden max money for a five-year deal. A daunting proposition when it’s so obvious that he isn’t an MVP caliber player anymore that his own teammate said so after the game.

Philly made their bed with this one, now they have to lie in it. With Joel Embiid in his prime, they must find a way to maximize every season over the next few years, so signing Harden might be a necessity just to keep their floor where it is, and then they would have to improve around the edges and hope for some luck in the playoffs.

To be honest, though, I don’t see this team (or any for that matter) competing for a title with James Harden as its second-best player.

So what do they do? Letting him walk would be an incredibly tough pill to swallow considering what they invested to bring him in. After all, that saga refusing to trade Ben Simmons for minimal return, to have Harden leave for nothing would be a flat-out embarrassment for the front office.

Could they do a sign and trade? Maybe, but what team would be jumping out of their seats to bring in a player with virtually no playoff track record to point to, that will be making huge money, that comes into camp out of shape every season, and that seemingly has lost two and a half steps in his game?

Very few teams are your answer.

To be fair, if Joel Embiid didn’t get hurt, maybe things could have turned out differently for these Sixers. But that’s part of the problem. At Embiid’s size, it’s inevitable that the wear and tear of a postseason will break him down as the team goes deeper and deeper. The whole point of bringing in Harden was so that the pressure on Embiid to play that kind of minutes with that kind of offensive responsibility was lifted.

As he’s shown many times in his career though, Harden just couldn’t get the job done.

Ultimately, the Sixers will probably end up bringing Harden back on some sort of bargain deal, mainly because both sides have no choice. No matter what happens though, it won’t change the fact that the James Harden/Philly is and will be a massive failure.