How will the Philadelphia 76ers benefit from James Harden taking a pay cut?

Ten days have passed since a source said James Harden intended to sign a one-plus-one deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, with a beginning salary that would be around $15MM less than the $47MM+ player option he declined for the 2022–2023 season.

Image Credits – SI

Although the deal between Harden and the 76ers has not yet been finalized, the former MVP told Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes that he is “locked in” with his new team and provided a justification for why he is prepared to take a wage reduction for the upcoming campaign.

When James Harden planned his return to the Philadelphia 76ers this summer, he was prepared to make a sacrifice for the greater cause. The 10-time All-Star stated his desire for Sixers president of basketball operations, Daryl Morey, to concentrate on bolstering the squad while taking him into consideration in an interview with Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes:

“In our chats, Daryl highlighted how we might improve and what the average cost for particular players was. I instructed Daryl to strengthen the squad, sign the players we needed to sign, and give me whatever spare funds is there. That’s how much I really want to win. I’m interested in the championship competition. At this point, it’s all that counts to me. To put us in a situation where we can do that, I’m ready to accept less.”

Due to Harden’s wage cut, the Sixers were able to sign P.J. Tucker and Danuel House, respectively, using both their entire mid-level exception and their bi-annual exception.

Despite earning well over nine figures throughout the course of his career, James Harden is missing one thing: a championship ring. At this stage in his career, the Sixers star would probably benefit far more from adding to his Hall of Fame CV than from adding a cool $15 million to his bank account.

It also demonstrates his confidence in longtime associate Daryl Morey, who first acquired Harden back with the Houston Rockets and created those competitive teams from scratch.

The 32-year-old’s reputation has declined in previous campaigns. In the 2021–2022 season, he split time between the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers, averaging 22.0 points, 10.3 assists, and 7.7 rebounds. Concerns were raised by his poor shooting (41.0 percent overall and 33.0 percent on three-pointers).

 

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