The Philadelphia 76ers enter the 2023-24 season with a new head coach and a complicated relationship with their star point guard. Nick Nurse has some tough decisions to make.
The Philadelphia 76ers spent the offseason doing a whole lot of nothing. Daryl Morey dominated the undrafted free agent market, but otherwise the Sixers have remained in stasis while teams around the league improved.
One reason for that stasis is the trade request from star point guard James Harden, who made the decision to opt into the final year of his contract after no free agent offers materialized. He will now attempt to force his way to the Clippers before hitting free agency next summer.
Of course, the Sixers are unafraid to take the unconventional approach with star trade requests. Harden is, as of now, expected to report to training camp in Philadelphia and the Sixers feel no pressure to get a deal done in the immediate future. Ideally, the Sixers would love to convince Harden to stick around this season and possibly beyond.
The plausibility of that is up for debate, but let’s operate under the assumption that Harden will, in fact, be on the roster when the season starts. Nick Nurse is taking over the job of head coach from Doc Rivers, and the Sixers lost more key pieces than they gained in free agency.
Here’s what the rotation should look like.
Philadelphia 76ers starting point guard: James Harden
Harden has done a masterful job of tanking his reputation around the league. He finished top-10 on MVP ladders last season and was an undisputed top-25 player. He dropped 40-plus points twice during the Sixers’ second-round series against Boston and he was easily the team’s best offensive player during that series.
And yet, here we are. The Clippers don’t want to trade Terance Mann for him and the free agency market for a former MVP and three-time scoring champ is nonexistent. The Sixers risked making Harden unhappy to avoid paying him top dollar and now he’s requesting out of a situation for the third time in three years.
The engagement level Harden reports to Sixers training camp with — assuming that is ultimately the route he takes — is impossible to know ahead of time. He famously sandbagged his way out of Houston during his first trade request, but the situation is a little bit different this time around.
Harden has diminished athletically over the last three years. He has also made two more trade requests — at some point, it’s a ‘boy who cried wolf’ situation. People are going to take each successive request less seriously. He’s also on the last year of his contract. If Harden wants to get paid next summer, can he really afford to show up out of shape and play like garbage? Probably not.
The Sixers should hope Harden shows up willing to at least play passable second-star basketball on a team still positioned to compete in the Eastern Conference. Whatever happens at the trade deadline or next summer will be how it will be, but there’s incentive for Harden to commit for whatever time he has left with the team. It may even help him get out the door sooner.
Nick Nurse will presumably lean heavily on Harden for the duration of his remaining time with the team. Harden’s still one of the best playmakers in the world and a more than suitable co-star for Embiid, who clearly views Harden more favorably than his last co-starring point guard who demanded a trade.
Primary backup point guard: Tyrese Maxey
Nick Nurse, unlike Doc Rivers, does not rely a ton on his bench. The Sixers already staggered Harden and Maxey in the backcourt last season. That should continue in 2023-24, especially if the Sixers are gearing up to hand primary playmaking duties to Maxey whenever Harden leaves.