What is Krack Black and fellow Thirmini here at first, I mm bella can
get the quick names throw before we get a little podcast at Salmon Ali on
Reputation Moves. Follow him on Twitter at Salomon Ali mba at s A L
M A n A l I n b A. We got together to record
the Houston Rockets look Ahead in advance and you can also let the SERVI as
a note that I will be traveling in the following week, but I'm gonna
have like three or four podcasts up for you, maybe even a total of
five because I don't come back until like early the following week, so I'm
trying to get content schedules through your guys. We ended up going a full
podcast worth though on the latest James Harden stuff, so we're gonna talk James
Harden now. Be sure to come back in like a week and a half
though, I'll have the full Rockets look Ahead up. We did another hour
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you. Hope you enjoy this discussion. Let's get to talking some James Harden
with Salmon Ali of Red Nation Hoops. Salman caught some shit on Twitter dot
com because of stuff you said about hard and so it was just that whole
stuff. I published a little segment on it. This will be if people
are listening watching. This is a teaser to our full episode look Ahead that'll
go live in like a week or two. Your thoughts on just this Hardened
situation now, because it was a pretty far departure from you've been in the
pro Hardened camp basically this entire time. Ye clearly dating back to his time
in Houston. But as the rumors and rubblings came out that he might consider
Houston and that the Rockets might like him, pre Emaudoka, you were pretty
yeah, go do it, and you sort of flip flop now, and
so I'm just curious as to just where you're at with this whole thing at
the moment. Yeah, and to demonstrate like how freaking how recent the flip
flop was. Like the last podcast we were on, I was talking about
how I would have preferred Harden over Fred van Vleet, right, Like that
was less than two weeks ago. We probably recorded that, I think,
and like I would literally when those hardened comments came out, it's like I
get I just can't. I don't think it's not it's not so much that
I believe this guy's like a bad locker room guy. I just think this
guy is like an impulsive decision maker that's ultimately making selfish decisions. Right,
Like, so let's go ahead and let's talk about what happened. So he
goes to this thing in China, right, this Adida's event, Right,
and I did a moped, by the way, which apparently is not allowed
in the CBA without specific clearance. Right, that happened, if I'm not
mistaken, Yeah, yeah, he's he probably wasn't allowed to do that.
We haven't gotten like the full disclosure on like whether or not he was actually
you know, cleared to do it or not. But I'm guessing he I
wasn't allowed, and I'm gonna do this on like the most random thing,
Like I didn't know that about the CBA, Like, let me just do
this most random thing on purpose. Yeah, I mean, so he goes
to this China event, which he does pretty much every summer. Harden's beloved
in China because he played in Houston for like ten years and Houston isn't beloved
in China. And so he goes and he, you know, obviously does
this fan event for Adidas, does all the marketing, does all the interviews,
does all the stuff that's popular over there, the radio shows, the
podcasts, the little web shows that they do, right, Like, he
does all the local stuff that you're supposed to do while you're in China.
And then he goes to this camp with these kids, and I'm guessing,
you know what, I'm gonna assume he wasn't prompted because it didn't seem like
there was. So there was cameras there, but I don't think someone asked
him at that moment to make a comment. I think people were asking him
throughout his time there to comment on this whole situation, and he just chose
to make a statement. He had in his head what he was gonna say,
probably for like weeks, and was likely advised against it. I'm not
going to assume he was or not. I'm just I'm just I just know
that an agent like agents that I talked to would not have advised Harden to
say this would And sorry to interject, do you think it could have been
more of a spur? I agree with you that no one asked him about
it, because we would have heard about that by now, like with forty
eight hours removed, seventy two whatever it is at this point. Do you
think it could have been a spur of the moment or more spur of the
moment reaction to the news coming out that the Sixers had ended James Harden trade
talks like could have been Maybe this wasn't in his head to do this here,
and then this news comes out and he decides to do it there.
And I kind of thought, like, did the Sixers leak this initial news
because they knew Harden wasn't China at the time. It's just like this whole
galaxy brain trickled down effect. No. I think this, Uh, he
he'd felt this for months, and I would I would think that yes,
the news that they were closing off trade talks probably prompted him to finally say
it, But he was advised against saying something like this for a long time
because doing saying something like this actively works against what you are trying to achieve,
which is trying to get out of Philadelphia. And doing something like this
makes you the curmudgeon star that everybody knows doesn't want to be there, even
though that was already the case. But just putting a fine point on it
like this doesn't make you look first of all, attractive as an asset,
or like it doesn't put the Sixers in the optimal leverage position to make an
actual trade. Right, so now the Sixers are absolutely not going to make
a trade anytime soon. Like, here's the thing I think James probably had
in his head that this was gonna put pressure on Daryl Morey in front in
the Rockets front office. James should know better than anybody. Darrel does not
give a fuck. He does not care, like he pardon was tangentially involved
the Ben Simmons stuff, like he was part of that, like Washington Brooklyn,
how that unfolded. He does not care right like like he doesn't care
how he's perceived. He doesn't care about like bad press. Like the Rockets
still have that DNA in them. They don't care about bad press. I
think partially because Daryl didn't care. He brought that culture here and and they
still don't care. And I think that's probably the case over there in Philly.
Like he does not care. He just wants to make the best possible
trade and like like that's his job. I like, I get it.
And part of you know, let's talk about what he said, because he
called he called Darryl liar, right, which may very well be true.
Nobody's been able to actually confirm it. Here's and that's just what I'm want
to sorry interject there is it's very unclear what he's calling Daryl Morey a liar
about. And there's been two schools of thought where it's either Daryl Mourray promised
to honor his trade demand and didn't, or the Sixers. And we've seen
some more reporting on this. I think I don't know who came out with
it recently, that the Sixers had promised him like some sort of a max
money deal and then the Sixers only actually offered him a one plus one deal.
What I will say, and I'm not completely siding with the Sixers here
necessarily here, Like let's just say that right right off the top, Like
there's nobody like that, Like we're as we're both as pro player as you
can get. And I don't think there's a faction here that is completely in
the right. Like I think all of these guys look really, really bad,
and and so whenever you criticize someone, you get you get labeled as
this, oh you're caping for X party. And the reality is I don't
particularly have any fondness for either of these parties right now, because I think
if it is indeed true that he was off, that he was promised a
wink wink deal for taking the pay cut, that you know he would get
reimbursed for that this summer. Like if that's indeed true and the Sixers renegged
or they you know, they ultimately didn't go through with it, like yeah,
that that's a pretty crappy thing to do, And that's a like Harden
should be pissed. I have no problem with Hardened feeling pissed. I don't
even have a problem with Harden demanding a trade. Why had a problem with
him making it messy like this again, like I'm not going to help hid
him making it messy. If they did have the wink wink understanding, we're
going to give you this, the new CBA comes out and they're like,
oh, hell no, we're not gonna give you this. I'm just wondering,
which is what I was getting at before, if they had promised him
anything, what would have then been the point of using Houston as leverage prior
to email Udoka, Because if you have a win quick deal in place,
you don't need that leverage. And so that leads me to believe that there
was some fundamental either misunderstanding or Harden's kind of going the I'm sure you remember
the Goren Dragets route in Phoenix where he said they couldn't be trusted. He
finally gets traded and said no, I just like said that because I really
wanted out of there. Because my whole thing is just like, if they
did promise you X, there was no need to have the rockets rumblings come
out around Christmas, Like, you wouldn't need that leverage if you had this
understanding with the Sixers, And so that's just why I'm struggling to believe that
the Sixers actually promised I don't care about the investigation what that yielded last year.
You could get around that, like if you had a conversation with Daryl
about it, that's not going to be like on record, you could get
around it. But if you did have that conversation, you wouldn't have needed
you wouldn't have needed the rockets and as leverage. And that's why I don't
think that the six that my personality is, I don't think that the Sixers
promised him anything last summer personally. And here here's my stance. I don't
know. So I'm not gonna speculate right like like like like until it's report,
I just know what Harden did, right, I just know what Harden's
actions are. I just know what the Sixers actions are. So I'm just
reacting to that any any speculation, Like I think it's fair to speculating.
It's completely fair game. But like this is the part of me that's like
like the only time that the Capitol Jay journalist ever comes out from my title,
like until it's like on the record somewhere, I don't like until some
major party reports it or like it's proven to be true, I just am
not going to run with it as true, right, It's just an assumption
until proven otherwise. So yeah, maybe maybe it happened, maybe it didn't,
regardless, let's just assume that it did happen. Right now, Is
this is this? How you would react to that? Like? Is this
is this the right? Right? Like, yes, be be mad,
ask for the trade, get the hell out of there if you want to.
But do you think this he helps you? Like was Harden at all
helped by saying that? And like this is my my thing? With James
When he leaves teams, he tries to make it as ugly as possible because
he has no patience, right, Like, he has no patience that the
right thing will eventually happen right in Houston, He misses training camp ghost,
he goes to Atlanta, goes to Vegas and parties it, puts it all
over Instagram, doesn't hide what he's doing, comes back, does interviews with
press and tries to say he was out there with his trainers, Like what
are you talking about? Like what trainers, James, that you have access
to in Atlanta that you don't have access to in Houston, Right, Like
why are you putting your head coach out there to talk with guys like me
in the media for multiple days on end asking having to answer questions about you,
like why are you doing that to you? Not just you, the
rest of your teammates have to answer questions about it, And it's like a
really crappy thing to do, Like that was just really really crappy. And
I was like, Okay, James, maybe at that point in time something
something like that wouldn't have hurt your trade value because you were still at that
point in time a top six player in the league. Right, you were
still one of the absolute best players, and your trade value wasn't going to
go down from pretty much doing anything right there was there was always going to
be a team that was going to offer Houston a huge hall, right,
But then you get to Brooklyn and then and then you I don't even remember
he just like stopped trying midway through because of the Kyrie thing. It's okay,
listen, I again, his frustrations aren't what I have questions about,
Like, yeah, Kyrie not getting vaccinated and you wanted to get the hell
out of Brooklyn, Like, yeah, I don't have a problem with you
demanding, you know, asking out. It's making it ugly. It's like
putting your teammates in crappy positions to putting the organization in a really unc comfortable
spot. The Sixers right now are everybody in that organization is screwed. It's
they're they're completely screwed. Like any hopes they had of a title this year
is gone. Like, I don't think they're going to get a return this
year that gets them, you know, to the point of title contention by
May. I just don't. I just don't think they're gonna get they're gonna
get to that point. So Hardened pretty much sabotaged them and didn't help himself
at all in the process. He made himself look bad, he made he
put the organization in a tough position. And if he just played good soldier,
there's a chance that a trade might have been worked out behind closed doors
right before the season starts. Just because they announced that they're shutting off trades
doesn't mean they weren't having conversations like yeah, it's like that was the funny
things, Like they didn't Actually it's not like people are calling and they're like,
oh no, we're not gonna talk about James Harden at all right now,
it still would have been on going. I think what I also struggle
with through all this is he also had the ability to just leave. And
so like it or not, yes, he opted in, opt opped it
in, which just feels like, really, it's it's one of two things.
It's it feels like bad judgment on his representation either way, because it's
maybe they correctly read the market and said, look, the money you want,
no team, including Houston is gonna give you. But then it's also
like, did you actually think that opted Like did you say, oh,
well, if you opt in, the Sixers will clearly move you right now.
So someone failed somewhere. But my whole thing is also, you have
to play the game. And so even if even if Daryl Morey lied to
you, if the Sixers lied to you, if you want them, you
need their help, whether you like it or not. Now you need their
help because you opped it in, and you might have needed their help even
if you were a free agent Vias sign and trade, except you would have
had more leverage because you could have just said, well, i'll play for
two years and I'll get my early bird rights somewhere or whatever, So you
opted in and you need their help. And then now you're going and dumping
all over them. That's not gonna make like, it's not gonna make the
Sixers one like move you any quicker, Like they're gonna be like, oh,
you called Daln Marial liar, so we're just gonna give you up for
whatever. And because of the team that you requested a trade too, you
need their help even more because the Clippers we've seen reporting that they won't give
up Terrence Man, which is just I find that I love Terrence Man,
but the fact that they don't even use him that much or as much as
they should. And then just your limited trade assets. Their best offer is
includes one first round pick, Terrence Man, expiring contracts if you need the
Sixers to warm up to that offer or to find third team, so like
juice up that offer a little bit. You've requested a trade to one team.
It's not like you've requested a trade and said I'll go wherever, or
here's a list of five, seven, eight, nine teams. You've given
them one and so now you need their help even more. And it's just
if you wanted to leave to go to one team become a free agent.
You had you were, you were on tractive becoming free agent, you chose
not to. I'm not saying this. If the Sixers were nigged on anything
you said, it's fucked up. I just want to make that clear.
Yeah, and yeah, go ahead, yeah, sorry, But it's just
like that, that's something that you deal with then after the fact, because
now you have to play the game of Okay, well I did this,
I misread or I shouldn't have trusted Darryl Moray. And my guess is just
like, if we're gonna be honest, and I know you don't want to
speculate, the answer probably just lies somewhere in between, like there was a
misunderstanding somewhere, or the Sixers might have used weird verbiage, or maybe James
Harden completely misread the situation. Maybe the Sixers are being complete assholes about this
and said, you know what, we're gonna delay it one year because we
want cap room next summer or whatever. So but regardless, you need their
help now. And so I'm not saying you need to bow with the author
of Dalon Morey and the Sixers, but you certainly can't torch that bridge when
you're still standing on it, like it just doesn't make any sense. Yeah,
and this whole thing is just like like I could talk for hours on
end about this, this whole thing. At the end of the day,
it's just sad because if you showed me this in twenty seventeen, I would
have thought, like, man, deep fakes are getting really out of hand,
Like, there's no way in hell I would have believed this is a
real video. I didn't believe it was a real video when I saw it
that it was the real shams that tweeted, I was like, there's no
way, there's no way. It was crazy. It was crazy. Even
to this day, we still view those guys as interconnected, guy like pieces,
right, Like their careers, for better or worse, are going to
be tied together. Right, That's just the way it is. Like the
Hardened trade confundamentally changed both of their lives. Right. Daryl admits that all
the time, Harden is less likely to say it, but it's true.
If he doesn't get out of Oklahoma City, he doesn't have the breakout in
Houston, right, And and so I say that to say this in twenty
seventeen, Darryl Hardened D'Antoni, Tad Brown. These guys were tied at the
hip and had beautiful synergy in the Rockets organization and to see what they've become
is so depressing and I hate that it's become this side story in you know,
this how is Harden going to get out? Story? Right? Like,
because that's ultimately what everybody's focused on, Loy, So what's next?
How is hard and going to get get on to point B? Whatever point
B happens to be. And I just want to take a break and sit
back and like like just talk about what the hell happened here? Like how
did these guys just become so discontent with each other? Disconnected too? Like
there's like what like I want to know what actually happened because it's just like
these two were so you said it, they're inextricably tied together now by choice.
Daryl Morey, like view back in Uston, viewed James Harden is that
guy, not just in the initial trade, but from every move he made
thereafter with the players he put around him and then he did it all over
again, but not you know, to the same extent, but he viewed
him as that guy in Philly, like they punted on a chance allegedly to
acquire Tyrese Halibert. And there's no doubt in my mind that unless it was
a player that was better than like a like a Luca Doncher, Like they
were on Harden for the entire time that he was like and that was the
guy that they wanted. And then all of a sudden, and you're tight
enough to the point that James Harden took a like ten or excuse me,
like eight figure pay cut like last year to facilitate the arrivals of other players,
So like you're you're on the same page to that extent, where did
this turn? Like where did this turn? And what was just the genesis
of it? And the other thing I wanted to ask you really quickly is
well, I think the two things are one. Like Harden has to show
up to training camp because of that new tidbit in the CBA where apparently it's
it's apparently just hasn't been enforced right because like like apparently it's always been there,
but it's like kind of Archaics and orally talks about Zach Low randomly brought
it up one day and now everybody's aware of it, like like Yeah,
apparently it's always just been there, like just as you've always been able to
find players and like not pay them and hold back money until Darryl Moorey actually
did it, Like no one knew about it. No one knew you could
just hold back funds from a player if they chose to sat out. Yeah,
but no player has ever sat out, so the option has never been
on the table. So now now we're in another unprecedented situation where if this
guy doesn't show up a training camp, we're gonna reach uncharted territory again with
the same organization. Oh god, might not be able to what someone is
referencing. By the way, is just like I forgot that it wasn't new
that the Sixers can essentially prevent James Harden from becoming a free agent if he
doesn't report to them. And I'm wondering if there's gonna be will there be
a battle he shows up and sucks and doesn't try, because like you could
just slept throughout this entire year. It's gonna be a gap year in Philly
anyway at this point, regardless of what happens. So there's that hanging over
all this. I would be shocked if he doesn't show up the train in
camp, that would be like, I know you want to be out of
Philly sooner, but that might actually be a way to just like kind of
screw yourself over even longer. And then the other thing here is forget what
the Sixers want or what they would be willing to accept for him. If
you're a team that is not the Clippers, does this do these comments?
Do these actions make it less likely that again, even if the price is
right, that you would roll the dice on James Harden, then just like
based off how he's handling this, I think so. I mean, like
again, I changed my entire Rockets free agency grade based off these comments,
Like like I was like, okay, the door not taken, Harden would
have been my preference. Now I'm like, no, I wouldn't have preferred
Hard, Like I wouldn't have preferred Hard because he doesn't get it. He
doesn't get it, like like the twenty seventeen to twenty Like the twenty seventeen
eighteen season was the only season where Harden was so downed in from June to
May, like he was as good as you wanted a player to be on
all facets off court behavior, training camp, focused during the season, sacrifice
for the team. You know, Chris Paul comes in, He's willing to
take a little bit less in the usage column. Right, defense, he
was playing really really good defense right that season. He was unbelievable offensively that
year, efficiency wise, probably the best season of his career. Like big
games, he showed up, you've extremely clutched that year during the playoffs,
he gave it all right. He went out swinging, like even if like
he had a high turnover game or he had a bad shooting game, he
went out how you wanted your star player to go out right with a fight.
And ever since then he has never been able to check all of these
boxes that you want from a cornerstone talent. Just never And he it's it's
fundamentally because he doesn't get it. He doesn't get what's required of him to
actually go get that next contract. Like we're not afraid to go give Kawhi
Leonard that deal because Kawhi gets it right. We're like, we're not We're
not afraid to give Damian Lillard that contract because Dame gets it right. Harden
doesn't get it. And this is this is why, like this isn't a
perfect example of why he doesn't get it. And I don't know if if
I'm a team like the Rockets, like in free agency, for example,
why I would go especially since these guys actually have better interactions, better more
information, are more familiar with Harden, know how he operates, Like,
I don't know why I would do it if he if you already know he
doesn't, like, it's never gonna be there. It's never gonna be there,
So he's never gonna be what you want, right if you already know
that, and if your team trading for him, Like again, I'm just
reacting to these comments like I don't know what why, Like why why would
you Why would you want that headache? Why would you want to deal with
that? Why? Why would you trust James to be committed when you give
him the next deal? Right? Like if the Clippers go out and trade
for James, right, which I still think it's kind of a no brainer
because the Clippers are in like a no win situation, right, Like I
don't think they're gonna win a championship. I don't. I haven't thought they
were gonna win a championship. I worry about sort of like what he does.
They're already just such a slow team. And if you give up Man,
who's one of the guys who can add pace, then you're pairing Russ
who can add pace, but with James Harden. Again, it gets weird.
But I think when you look at what they would in theory have to
give up to get him, you just you do it. To me,
like you just do it, like, yeah, they're the only team,
And I wouldn't haggle over Terrence Man or whatever, like it's I just think
it's worth it's worth doing. But any other team that may have had interest,
Right, let's just say the Bucks like smelling around, right, No,
I'd rather keep Chris Middleton. No, I'd rather I mean, well,
I guess you can trade. You can't trade Middleton because you just signed
Drew and like at that point, I'd rather have Yeah, I'd rather have
True. I'd rather have True. Why would I do that? Right?
Like, like this guy is not worth the headache, He's not Like,
yeah, there's just like I tried to think about teams. I thought,
I think, if let's just say Damian Lillard ends up elsewhere, it wouldn't
shock me if Miami was that team. I could see that happening, and
I think that there they would roll the dice and that he would be more
likely to sort of get it there, to like use your phrases, that
feels like a team with Jimmy Butler that maybe where he would get it.
But just like I even thought, like I've tried to think about other teams
where it's like I don't need to mention I think Kyl lou is like a
coach I think might be able to get through to James. Same thing with
Spo, right, like, if you have that infrastructure from the coaching staff
to actually get through to James, like on that kind of a level,
I think it's worth doing. And especially if you're not a team that's gonna
win the championship, if you know already you're not, Like the Miami Heat
are not gonna win the NBA Championship next year. I can tell you that
right now. The Clippers not gonna win the NBA Championship next year. I
can tell you that right now. If you're if you're if you're one of
those teams that's like on the border of like actually being a contender, Yeah,
then it's worth it. That's the only situation. Every other team that's
actually a contender right now, maybe they just want to take it up one
more notch. No, don't which stay stay the hell away, Stay the
hell away from this. Do you know what team I think could do it?
Because they're just at such a passing deficit. They already were and they're
even more so. And the salary matchin gets a little messy, but it's
still feasible Boston. It's still just like, no, no, you're going
two variables in because of the Kristops thing. But like he's dealing with Planter
versitis right now, so you're kind of already seeing that. I still think
Boston would be a good team for him, but I'm I know him in
the minority. I don't think Look, it's hard coming up. I was
just saying the Knicks are a terrible fit. I don't some people thought about
I just think Jalen Brunson is there. No, And this also leads into
a larger discussion where it's like these aging stars that are I know James Harden
took some more catch and shoot threes in Philly, but when they're not scalable,
when what they do is so heliocentric, I don't think we're going to
see teams pay them as much into their late careers as we used to because
of this new CBA and like how hard it gets and prohibitive it gets to
build around them. So I think we've already seen the middle class get squeezed.
When you just look at Okay, Bruce Brown got paid, Dylan Brooks
got paid. They're mostly the exception, like guys like Eric Gordon having to
accept the minimum or Kelly Ubery Junior just still being out there. How Maa
Dudilla is still being out there. They're just guys that could have been mini
mL E, guys that teams either lost their minimally or they're not gonna use
their mL E. And I think it's gonna trickle up towards one Jalen Brown,
where he's like the twenty fifth or thirtiest best player. Yeah, we're
still going to see those guys qualify for supermaxes. They're not getting them anymore.
Like that thing is eventually going to become extinct because you can't afford to
pay the twenty fifth best player in the NBA that money. And two,
I think we're kind of seeing this with harden a little bit, but I'm
sure his whole handling of the situation, playoff performance factors into it. These
guys age thirty three, age thirty four, you're not going to see them
get longer term, expensive deals because of how hard it's going to get to
build teams around them while they're in decline. And that feels like another offshoot
of all this where even if there was a team that was willing to roll
the dice on Hard and the fact that he is going to be a free
agent and clearly expects X, whether it's a max deal or a certain number
of years, that makes it even more difficult to take a chance on him
if he doesn't actively say, hey, I want to play for you,
and I'm willing to like actually commit, right like, not be as impulsive
as he's been these past five years, right like. And I disagree.
If I'm if I'm the Celtics, I'm staying the hell away, Like Dad,
this is me, this is me. I would have never said this
a week ago. I would have never Yeah, you're like, you went
from the Rockets, this team that's so far away from a title. Hey,
go sign James Harden too. No, no one should, No one
shouldn't touch him. Yeah, like like I just like it's not worth it.
Like to me, it's a it's like a it's like a twist,
a less serious version of the Kyrie thing, right, which is like Kyrie
like under normal circumstances, Kyrie is a talent that is just he's he's he's
talented enough to where it's always worth it for me. But because he is
who he is. I during the Rockets off season, I was like,
he is a do not touch. He is a do not touch because of
everything he brings off the court, right, And with James, it's it's
like it's a it's less serious, right because you're not talking about having to
answer conspiracy theories or you know, having to talk about like like the Holocaust,
right, Like you're not you you know you're not You're not having to
answer these really strange questions throughout the season and have these clouds over your your
season, like having Adam Silver come in to talk to you, right,
Like like it's not like that, but it's still something. There's always something
with him, right, Like during the season he wanted to take a higher
usage role with the seventy six ers, and it's like James, you're playing
with the MVP, right, You're playing with a budding All star in Tyrese
MAXI. Right, Like, you're not gonna You're not gonna get those touches.
You're gonna have a legitimate chance to win a title if you just sit
tight and you just resign, Like, I don't know why he wouldn't just
buy into this. This is an awesome situation if he just bought it.
Now it's a crap situation because he did what he did. But I don't
know, Like especially like, yeah, listen, James, Like you may
not trust Daryl Morey, but this guy's consistently put contenders around you throughout the
majority of your career. Right, You've consistently played on a team that's always
had a chance. So even if you don't trust the guy, you should
at least trust that he's gonna put a winner around you, right, Like,
And by the way, as a as another rough side where we're going
on another a bunch of a side. We haven't started talking about the rockets
yet. I don't care. So, Like, if you're someone who's like,
why would you ever trust Daryl Morey? I agree, But I also
I'm also of the mind, like, you should never trust any of these
guys. You should never take a pay cut these guys. To get to
get to the top of this industry, you have to lie. It's I'm
not justifying it. I'm just telling you everyone lies like this, and on
the front office level, it's actually not as bad as it is on the
agent level, right, which is like there are rare exceptions. We're just
like Bob Meyers, who you know, funny funny enough, he was actually
an agent too, and like a general manager, and he's just like by
all accounts, like a great guy, which is probably why he's not doing
the job more. Another guy like this, right, like RC Bufer's also
not doing the job anymore. Right, Like like you to make you wonder
if Sam Presti, Sam Presti must be maniacal, like he doesn't, but
he must be. They all are man like they're these guys are all assholes
to some extent, And it's it's just the nature of the beast. Like
I'm not I'm not saying it's a good thing. It just is what it
is. I understand the nature of it. Right. They get paid millions
of dollars to make decisions about people putting balls into hoops, right, Like,
it's a it's a it's an odd job. It's crazy competitive. There's
only thirty of them, and like I just think, like if you're James,
Like, I don't know how you don't understand the league by now you're
thirty three years old. Yeah, this might have been the only general manager
you've ever had, right, pretty much? I mean like like I get
it, but like you also should understand that you're talking to other players and
they're all saying the same thing. They they've they've all been lied to too,
Like I don't get why this is such a surprise to him, right,
Like, like, if you're taking the pay cut, you should not
expect anything on the back end. You should be taking the pay cut because
you want to take the pay cut. That's the All Stars the NBA.
My advice is never take pay cuts, right, There's never a situation where
it's ever worth it unless you're listening. You're playing for the San Antonio Spurs
and like they're just weird, right, they've just managed to pull it off.
I marveled at that every day we saw it with like Dirk and Dallas
too. I think they eventually paid him on the back end. But like
for the most part, when you do take a pay cut, and that's
that's different because we're talking about franchise lifers, which James Harden is the antithesis
of at this point, could have been, could have been, but but
but yeah, you didn't get it. The thing that's weird too when we're
kind of seeing with Russell Westbrook and we'll see what happens next summer, but
like, once you take that pay cut, were kind of viewed in that
bucket where it's, oh, are you a max player anymore? No,
it's just like, ja, what is Russell Westbrook gonna get? Like,
I know he just wanted to play with the Clippers, but are they gonna
take care of him with early bird rights? He's not gonna be viewed no
matter how well is he plays as like the super elite, Let's pay him
a lucrative deal type of player. Probably, And so I'm with you,
don't take the pay cut. I thought it was admirable in the moment of
just like, hey, okay, you gave the Sixers this flexibility. They
were better off for it. But I don't think he should have. I
would never advocate for a player to do it. I'm with you there,
And it's just there's a reason Christian Wood and PJ. Washington are free agents
right now. Like there's a reason agents say this all the time. Once
you signed that first room contract, you're never signing anything else. You're always
going to sign in him contracts Like it's it's it's you don't want to be
locked in, right The only player that's successfully taken a pay cut and in
claude his way back. I mean, I don't want to say Claude like
had had the brass to actually get the next contract was Lebron when he went
to Miami, right like, and they all pat was just like, yeah,
in lutismal relative to the scale we're talking about. And even brook Lopez
did it. He played for the Biannual at one point. Now he's making
twenty four million a year. That was like a little different because injuries had
hampered him and I think the league hadn't caught up to him yet. But
like it's very that is that is not the ex even the Nicholas Patoun track
where if you're on this huge deal you wind up signing two minimums with the
Clippers and then you get taken care of with early bird rights, he never
became like a fifteen twenty twenty five million dollar player again, And like,
it's so rare that that happens. And I know James Harden's a rare player.
I mean, if you go by strictly analytics rather than looking at availability,
defensive impact, getting into nitty gritty of that, he was all NBA
last year. Like the analytics just say he was one of like the six
seven best guards in the league. But like you said it, you know
how this league works, and we should probably put a bow on it with
this. I have no idea how this ends, just because we're dealing with
like Daryl Moray will let get awkward. But I will say Harden has leveraged
in the sense like if he's willing to play and show up there and make
it awkward, you risk losing him for nothing next summer. But at the
on the flip side, it's like, do you who's the team he wants
to play for can't pay him and so he's gonna probably need your help and
a sign in trade. I honestly don't know who, and I don't think
I would be my guests would be and I'm curious if you agree the Sixers
will fire Daryl Morey and keep James Harden before Darryl Moorey accepts like this,
I don't want to say bare minimum, but just like also ran return for
James Harden. I'm not predicting. I'm just saying it's more likely Morey gets
fired than for him to accept like pennies on the dollar what he believes for
Harden. And so that's why I honestly have no idea how or when this
ends. And you know what, the biggest loser of all year, aside
from the Sixers fans, is just Philly isn't gonna be in a gap year
and like Joel Embiid, like that's just another year off his window that you're
sort of kicking off, and it's it's a shame, and I think a
bunch of people are to blame. But I just have and I know you're
kind of in this. We don't have like this well of inside information,
but I also just have zero feel for like we're we're in. This is
the matchup, like this is an all time or of like dude and Harden,
who's not afraid to make it awkward? Dude, and Maury who has
the iron stomach to just navigate it. And I just don't know who's gonna
blink first here. I think he's gonna show up to training camp. He's
gonna he's gonna do something weird. He's gonna make it, make it strange,
and they're gonna send him home. I like, I think that's what
I think. They're gonna send him home. They're they're gonna be happy with
him staying at home until they find the trader, until he's a free agent.
Like honestly, I think like Daryl has been sizing up this cap space
next year for the Sixers, which for a while, like I don't,
I'm just who's who are you getting with? I've heard O Gianna Noby.
That's not the dude. He's good, that's not the dude to plan you
know that, I'm not risking bad will with Tyrese Maxi so that I can
go out and get O Gianna nobis is my point. And just like the
Paul George and Kauai's are going to open up their own you know, like
their own like can of worms here, and so it's like, are we
gonna end up with a duel sign and trade because Paul George decides he wants
to leave La for Philly, and like it's that or is Kauai I gonna
want to play for Philly for some reason? And you're just if any of
these guys sign extensions. By the way, see, I don't even think
the Sixers will be interested in Siakam, which is like Siaka might sign an
extension, Paul George or Kawhi Leonard might get an extension. I might bet
against it, but like there's a chance some of these guys in two twenty
four come off the board and just free agencies, not what it's used to
be. So were you I guess you're not surprised, But do you actually
put real stock in like this cap space plan that Philly is they can have
upwards of like sixty sixty five million next year based off current projections if they
really like cleared the deck? No, Yeah, like I think he's really
gonna go for and the name of the game with Daryl in Houston, and
I'm infiliate, seems has always been financial flexibility, right. Financial flexibility has
always been how he's been able to keep honestly, these teams that shouldn't have
lasted that long to last long, right like, he's he's always kept like
a get out of jail free card for a summer, right like twenty sixteen
seventeen, he kept a massive amount of space open, Like he didn't trade
Dwight Howard for a poopoo platter mid season because he wasn't getting expiring contracts back.
And because he didn't do that, he got Eric Gordon Ryan Anderson Nanay
and they were able to jump start the team again, right Like. I
think that's kind of his plan here with next summer. I think he's trying
to look for He's trying to save that room to sign a bunch of players
that will help jump start the team again. And it would really help if
Tyrese Maxie is the guy that I I suspect you and I believe he is,
right like, and I think that will go a long way and actually
keeping the Sixers tidle window open. It's gonna but you're gonna have to deal
with the pain and you're gonna have to have and be be patient for a
year, which I'm not sure if he's willing to, you know, actually
have this be a gap year, like having a gap year, how old.
Is he twenty nine and thirty and it is twenty nine? Yeah,
let me see he is. Yeah. Yeah. Having a gap year when
you're twenty nine is not fun, right because you're about to get to the
wrong side of thirty and and you're just constantly like, you know, he
has not made a conference finals yet, and he's hungry, and he's always
right there at the teams from a team perspective, He's always in the MVP
conversation. He knows he's one of the most impactful players of basketball because he's
been awarded a trophy that tells it that. Right, So he is at
that point as careery, he's like, he's done messing around. He's done
messing around. He wants to actually get this done right, or at least
get to the next stage where he can get a taste of getting closer to
that promised land. And having him set out for a year is uncomfortable as
hell. So I don't know if they have the stomach for it. I
can tell you that Darryl certainly has the stomach for it. The Sixers fans
h may be really really upset with him by the time this thing is all
said and done, But listen, Like, however you think of him as
a person, I'm not going to make a human judgment here, right,
Like Daryl Morey, Danny Ainge, all Sam Presty, all these guys.
I'm never here to make a human judgment in terms of how how good he
is at this job. Like there again, there's only a couple I would
put in that conversation with him, So I would trust that he has the
best. He has a bunch of contingency plans lined up, and he I
would trust him to ride this out. If you're a Sixers fan, like
anxiously awaiting, right, Like That's what always kept me, you know,
Like I always tell Rockets fans this when they were nervous about about the Rockets.
When when Morey was here, I was like, as long as that
guy has the job, I would not stress about all these questions because he
will figure something out. You're gonna have a title contender come June. You
may not have it in August, but you're gonna have it come June.
Might not might not apply for the Sixers because because of Harden, but every
other year you're gonna be fine. So I think I would just wait this
out, and I think Daryl has you know, the brass to actually,
you know, go to ownership and be like, listen, I've been here
before. I'm we're gonna be fine even if Harden walks away for nothing.
I have X, Y and Z lined up for us with all this cap
space, so I think they're gonna be fine. I don't know what's gonna
it's gonna take for hardened man like. I that's honestly, I know the
Sixers are gonna be fine. I don't know what's gonna happen with Harden.
I don't know whatever it takes for him to find career satisfaction, fulfillment.
I just want him to find it and just just just do it, man
like. I don't know what it is at this point. I don't know
if it's I want carte blanche like I had a few years ago. You're
just you're not you're close to that player, You're you're not that player anymore
like, and you can't be for a long period of time, and you
need to adapt to those circumstances, and you just you haven't enough as good
as you still are, there's just a functional and I think at this point,
I guess like mental stubbornness there. It seems that's just very rigid and
inflexible. Yeah, just I don't know, like as someone who is going
to root for him until the bitter end, I just wish the end wasn't
so bitter, Like I really want this guy to be happy. I really
like he he is in my opinion, because someone like you was kind of
already turned like who it's I'm not saying James Harten's looking at you specificly like,
oh, I need to win Solomon's approval back. But is there like
anywhere he just shows up to the sixers and tries to ball out just to
kind of like dispel that or No, it's like he's gonna come and he's
gonna make shit weird. He's even if he balls out, he's not gonna
do it for the entirety of the season. He's already made it clear like
he is not. There is not a situation in which he's gonna entertain remaining
a seventy six er this season, right, Like, I think I think
it's pretty clear that that that bridge is burned. Uh And and I don't
think Daryl's getting fired, like if that was Harden's intention, Like you or
me, like I've used for you, they're going to pick him Like I
just I just think I just think this is gonna be a situation where like
he gets sent home. I don't know when it's gonna happen, whether it's
five games in the season, whether it's ten games to this season. I
just think it's gonna get weird. It's gonna get sent home, and the
Sixers are gonna write it out in the gap year and maybe they're they're able
to find a trade mid season that Daryl is happy with. If not,
I think they're probably gonna wait. Like I honestly think this is gonna the
earliest i'd expect to get resolved. What is it August right now? It's
August eighteenth. The earliest I expect this resolution here is like January. Like
and if Harden hadn't said this, I could have seen a trade happening right
before the season, like just in the shadow of the night right, I
don't I don't think I can see that happening anymore. I'd probably be with
you if you probably need at this point a team to have a bad start
and get desperate in some vein to maybe not even acquire James Harden, but
to get desperate in like some sort of third fourth team scenario maybe to facilitate
everything. Great discussion on James Harden. I'm gonna cut this up separately as
a different podcast. So Salmon, can you tell our listeners where they can
find you in all the great work that you do? Yeah, at sulmona
le nb on Twitter. Red nationhoops dot com is the stub stack Red nationhoops
dot com is also the podcast. Yeah, I think I also have Yeah,
I do have a threats. I do have a threat and I'm not
on threads yet. I can't get there. Yeah, I'm also on YouTube.
Yeah, so we're working my way on the other platforms. So yeah,
linked everything he does is in the podcast and YouTube description as we also
go check it out.