James Harden’s Contractual Sacrifice Was The Key To The Sixers’ Offseason

Nearly three weeks into free agency, James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers finally came to terms on a new contract Wednesday. He agreed to a two-year, $68.6 million deal with a second-year player option, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Harden is set to make $33 million this coming season, Wojnarowski added, which is $14.4 million less than he would have earned had he picked up his $47.4 million player option in late June. He now has a $35.6 million security blanket in the form of his 2023-24 player option in case he suffers a serious injury this season, but he otherwise figures to opt out and wind right back up in free agency next summer.

By turning down his $47.4 million player option and taking a $14.4 million pay cut, Harden gave the Sixers the ability to build a championship-caliber supporting cast around him and All-Star center Joel Embiid.

“I had conversations with [team president Daryl Morey], and it was explained how we could get better and what the market value was for certain players. I told Daryl to improve the roster, sign who we needed to sign and give me whatever is left over,” Harden told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “This is how bad I want to win. I want to compete for a championship. That’s all that matters to me at this stage. I’m willing to take less to put us in position to accomplish that.”

Had Harden opted in, the Sixers would have owed a combined $151.7 million to 13 players. They would have been roughly $5.3 million under the $157.0 million luxury-tax apron, which is the line that teams cannot cross at any point if they use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($10.5 million this season), bi-annual exception ($4.1 million) or acquire a player in a sign-and-trade in a given league year.

The Sixers would have needed to shed at least $5.2 million in salary to gain access to the non-taxpayer MLE, which they used to sign former Miami Heat forward P.J. Tucker to a three-year, $33.0 million contract. To gain access to the bi-annual exception—which they used to sign Danuel House Jr. to a two-year, $8.5 million deal—along with the full non-taxpayer MLE, the Sixers would have had to dump an additional $4.1 million in salary, or $9.3 million in total.

However, the Sixers didn’t have many large salaries to dump. Even if they had traded away Furkan Korkmaz ($5 million), Matisse Thybulle ($4.4 million) and Georges Niang ($3.5 million) and received no salary in return, they would have replaced them with players on minimum salaries ($1.8 million each). Once they used the non-taxpayer MLE, they would have been only $2.1 million below the apron, so they wouldn’t have had access to the bi-annual exception as well.

Had Harden opted in, their only realistic pathway to get both the non-taxpayer MLE and bi-annual exception would have been a Tobias Harris trade in which they took back significantly less salary. Their best bet would have been sending him to a team with cap space, since under-the-cap teams can receive far more salary than they send out as long as the trade doesn’t leave them more than $100,000 over the cap.

If the Sixers decided against shedding salary, they instead would have been limited to the $6.5 million taxpayer mid-level exception. Beyond that, they could have only offered veteran-minimum salaries to round out their roster.

The additions of Tucker and House should put the Sixers right back into the championship picture next season. They’re currently +1500 to win the 2022-23 NBA title at FanDuel Sportsbook, trailing only the Boston Celtics (+500), Milwaukee Bucks (+550), Golden State Warriors (+650), Los Angeles Clippers (+700), Phoenix Suns (+900) and Brooklyn Nets (+1200).

They also might not be done just yet.

“Declining that $47.4 million player option could also give the organization flexibility to make deals once this coming season is underway,” Wojnarowski reported Wednesday.

With Harden’s $33 million salary now set, the Sixers are roughly $3.2 million under the $157.0 million apron with 16 players under contract, not counting two-way players Charlie Brown Jr. and Julian Champagnie. (For apron purposes, Trevelin Queen counts as $1.8 million—the value of a minimum contract for a player with two years of NBA experience—rather than $1.6 million.) Barring any other trades between now and opening night, they’ll have to waive at least one player in the coming months to get to the 15-man roster limit.

Isaiah Joe (fully nonguaranteed), Charles Bassey ($74,742 guaranteed until Jan. 10) and Queen ($300,000 guaranteed) may wind up competing for those final few roster spots during training camp and the preseason. Whomever the Sixers waive will give them slightly more wiggle room under the apron. They could also attempt to swing a consolidation trade in the coming months to solve their roster-spot crunch.

Harden could have taken up to $36.2 million without the Sixers making a trade or waiving anyone. His decision to take $3.2 million less than that gives them even more flexibility under the apron to swing a trade now or during the season as needed.

After the Sixers lost to the Heat in the Eastern Conference Semifinals this past spring, a reporter asked Harden whether he’d be willing to decline his player option and re-sign for less than his maximum salary.

“Whatever it takes to help this team to continue to grow and put us up there with the best of them,” he replied.

On Wednesday, Harden put his money where his mouth was back in mid-May.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac or RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.