Brooklyn Nets GM Sean Marks dismissed the Philadelphia 76ers’ trade talks on James Harden “a month ago,” but could attempt to re-engage the Nets ahead of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline or again this summer, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Athletic reported late last week that the Nets remained open to discussing a Harden-for-Ben Simmons trade. Sixers GM Daryl Morey, of course, has a history with Harden in Houston.
“Darrl Morey, I’m told, called Sean Marks about a month ago and raised the idea of a James Harden trade. He was immediately shut down by Sean Marks, the Nets GM,” Woj said Monday morning on SportsCenter.
“That was a month ago. Now we’re three days to the trade deadline and certainly the Sixers could call again on James Harden. The Nets have lost eight straight and James Harden has been injured, but the Nets are taking James Harden at his word, not just that the hamstring is keeping him from playing but that he wants to be in Brooklyn. And so right now the Nets believe from Kevin Durant to ownership, management, that once they get Kevin Durant perhaps as soon as after the All-Star break, and can put him on the floor with Harden and Kyrie Irving, that this is a Nets team that is still a championship contender and their plan as of now is to continue on with James Harden, try to win and then deal with his potential free agency in the summer.”
Nets coach Steve Nash said Saturday ahead of the team’s eighth straight loss to Denver that the team would not be trading Harden, who was recently named to his 10th All-Star Game.
“I’ve talked to James and he wants to be here. He wants to be here long term as well,” Nash said. “I don’t think anything has changed other than noise from the outside. James wants to be here. We’re building with James and we think we have the best chance to win with James. I don’t think anything has changed on the inside, in our locker room, in our communication. It’s just all the noise from the outside.”
A reporter then asked Nash, “It sounds like, and I don’t want to misinterpret you, that you guys are not trading James Harden?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Nash said.
Asked about the trade rumors, Irving referred to the reports involving Harden as “media plants.”
He added: “The few conversations that we’ve had [with Harden], he’s been really committed and we just hold him to his word. Obviously, when we go out to play games, we can’t even really think about it so we would love to have him in the lineup but we want him at his optimal health. And then we let the rest take care of it, but who knows. Who knows what’s going to happen?”
Harden, who has missed five of the team’s last seven games with injuries, is averaging 22.5 points, 10.2 assists and 8.0 rebounds. He has a player option for next season at $47.4 million and did not sign an extension in October. He joined the Nets in January 2021 in a blockbuster trade with the Houston Rockets and has been a part of Brooklyn’s “Big 3” along with Durant and Irving, who signed with the Nets in free agency in the summer of 2019.
Harden has reportedly grown frustrated with Irving’s part-time status due to his refusal to get vaccinated and is intent on becoming a free agent. Harden has down-played those reports but did admit to being frustrated with the team’s lack of overall success.
“I don’t know about any reports,” Harden told reporters last week. “Of course I’m frustrated, because we’re not healthy, there’s a lot of inconsistencies for whatever reason: injuries, COVID, whatever you want to call it. But yeah, it’s frustrating.”
As for Simmons, Woj reported Morey is intent on landing a “top 25 player in the league and seems willing, perhaps even determined now, to wait until the offseason when perhaps there are more formidable players available to him after the season.”
Woj said teams may want “to break up star groups of players” after falling out of the playoffs “and that makes the Sixers hopeful that they might have a better chance of getting an elite player in a Ben Simmons deal. But their focus is on James Harden....They certainly feel they have a puncher’s chance to get him. But the Sixers will be engaged with teams between now and Thursday. They’ve not really shown an inclination to lower their asking price, which has remained steep for Ben Simmons. It is possible he does not play at all this season.”
Simmons hasn’t played for the Sixers all season after he showed up late to start the season after training in Los Angeles and has since cited mental health issues while sitting out.
“People should buckle in. This is going to take a long time,” Morey said in an October radio interview with 97.5 The Fanatic on Thursday, per ESPN.
Simmons is due to make $33 million this season and has four years and $147 million left on his contract.
Simmons reportedly got vaccinated this week after initially showing up to training camp unvaccinated. Being vaccinated would enable him to play in home games at Barclays Center.
