The Philadelphia 76ers are struggling to find a trade for James Harden that can keep them on the same level of contention this season. The franchise was in a similar position in 2021 with Ben Simmons, but he had more trade interest at the time and the Sixers had also stopped believing in him as a useful part of their roster.
“There’s not a trade out there that keeps the Sixers in championship contention this season,” said Adrian Wojnarowski.
“The difference between the Harden situation and the Ben Simmons’ situation a couple of years ago is there were a lot of possible deals out there for Ben Simmons. You would measure them. You would look at them. What they could get. Teams in both conferences had interest in Ben Simmons.
“This is different. There’s not widespread interest in James Harden. The Clippers are the most motivated team to give up at least a first round pick in this. Or potentially, let’s say, a pick swap. I’m not saying they’ve offered that in this.
“The Clippers are the most win-now team. They’ve needed to solidify that lead guard position. At the same time, the Clippers are not in a position to gut all their assets for the future… They also know ‘We don’t want to bid against ourselves.’ The Sixers don’t have anything else. The Knicks talked to the Sixers early on in this thing, but there’s no great motivation for the Knicks to do a one-year rental for James Harden.”
