James Harden Is Ruining Teams But The NBA Ignored It

James Harden keeps fooling the #nba I guess James Harden is not done** in the NBA because the Clippers traded a package alright. Yes Harden is on the Clippers, another year, another Harden trade request involving either a fat suit, sitting out, and saying the organization ain’t it The Clippers traded Marcus Morris, Covington, Batum, KJ Martin, two first round picks, 2 second round picks, and a pick swap for Harden, PJ Tucker, and Filip Petrusev. **That trade package is for a star**, but in 2023, are we ignoring what we have seen? What we just saw a few months ago? At least Harden and Westbrook are back together, ahh the good times …**oh shiii** Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice can’t put the blame on you. Fool me three times, f the peace sign. And that’s what we’re seeing here. **But I’m not going to sit here and tell you that this** Clipper squad isn’t perhaps one of the greatest squads I’ve ever seen. Harden, while not a super star, is still a good playmaker that draws defenses. You have Kawhi who can single handedly carry team as we saw in last year’s playoffs before he got hurt, the guy that steps up in the playoffs. The only concern is Westbrook and Harden sharing that ball handler role since you already have Kawhi and PG so who will step back even more? **Not Harden apparently.** We’ll get into the on-court fit, but they need to be on the court. Now the NBA rules targeted at load management might make the Clippers stars play more, which would solve their chemistry issues, and if they can stay healthy, it’s scary hours, but that’s a big if. **But the thing that somehow every team conveniently ignores is that Harden has done this 3 times now.** I’m not going to get mad at his preference because that’s what he might want. His own team with no pressure, all the strip clubs possible, and playing basketball. But he switched tunes and started saying the Clippers and the Clippers are a team that is championship or bust and for the past 4 seasons they have been bust. There’s pressure to perform here. And this isn’t going to be Harden’s team. A few months, a few rule changes, and a few injuries later and now Harden has problems with Kyrie. He became frustrated with quote the “Nets maintenance staff and their focus on rest and recovery.” His logic, he’d run and lift after games in Houston, not get hurt, but on the Nets they were overcautious. *(https://www.si.com/nba/nets/news/james-harden-reveals-true-reason-for-nets-trade go to the part of the article that mentions recovery)* It’s Embiid’s team, he’s the MVP candidate, the guy who’s been on the 76ers his whole career, not James Harden. In fact that’s what Harden wanted. He was frustrated of having to be that guy on the Nets when Kyrie was out Now he’s saying the he’s not a system player, he’s the system? **Make up your mind man.** It’s always someone else’s fault. **He doesn’t want to be the guy nor does he want to be part of a system. It’s a lose lose.** And as I showed, uhhhh, he’s not worth a max extension. So Harden opted into his player option for this year under the belief that he would get traded. And when that didn’t happen, he just stopped showing up to practice. Even though that’s his literal job until he would get traded, he just said nah bruh, I’m out. And now he got what he wanted for the 6th time in a row. So now he’s on the Clippers. But if you look at a clear pattern, Harden has become unhappy with nearly every situation, but that’s not the worst part. It’s the damage left on a franchise. The Nets traded their young core of Jarrett Allen, Caris Lavert, 3 first round picks, 4 first round pick swaps, mortgaged their future for Harden. The Sixers ended up getting rid of Ben Simmons who also chose to sit out games, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and 2 first round picks. **But what none of these franchises will ever get back is time.** For the Sixers, it’s wasting Joel Embiid’s prime, although Joel has his own issues, Harden didn’t help. So knowing all this, I can’t believe that we’re dealing with another Harden situation, but that being said, the Clippers are the best team in the NBA…on paper. Look at the depth chart, you have multiple 15 point per game scorers coming off the bench, multiple all-stars in the starting lineup. But on paper doesn’t always translate.