James Harden to sign a 2-year, $81.5 million extension with the Clippers

James Harden to sign a 2-year, $81.5 million extension with the Clippers

we’ve got some breaking news out of the NBA where James Harden is declining his player option and signing a new 2-year $81.5 million deal with the Clippers that’s according to ESPN he was set to earn just over $36 million next season on his old deal but opted out for a longer one with a higher salary harden entering his third year in LA with the Clippers and was named to his 11th All-Star game last season averaging a team high 23 points nine helpers and six boards per game all right the deadline came and went here we go with the James Harden news john Gonzalez and Sam Quinn to break it on down so John I’m going to give you first word here thoughts on this uh new two-year deal
yeah the question Tommy wasn’t whether or not excuse me James Harden was going to stick around kind of was whether or not he was going to pick up that player option or opt out and get a new deal that’s what he ended up doing the question for us and Sam and I were just discussing this was whether or not that number would disqualify them from using the full mid-level exception sam’s better on this than I am but he’ll be able to explain it but it looks like they will be and that’s huge for team building right because the Clippers last year I think that they did uh more than a lot of people expected certainly more than I expected after Paul George left you didn’t have Kawhi Leonard for a big chunk of the year james Harden was really good that defense was really good and they end up giving the Denver Nuggets all they can handle in that first round so uh James Harden you know different stops uh vary your mileage may vary on James Harden but he had a pretty good year last year so the Clippers wanted him to stick around and I think this works both ways yeah I think this is a good deal for both sides i mean for Harden obviously he gets the salary bump this year the Clippers get the partial guarantee on the second year useful in case they need to move on but the number to watch here is that first apron figure right before this if Harden had just picked up his player option they were going to have around $20 million in wiggle room to improve the roster use the full mid-level exception make unbalanced trades perhaps use the bannual exception they dip into that flexibility a little bit because they do bump James Harden’s salary they’re still going to have enough room to use that full mid-level if they want to they could split it across multiple players i think the things to watch for them moving forward in the offseason backup point guard and backup center they really struggled whenever James Harden went to the bench last year on offense kevin Porter Jr Bogdan Bogdanovich those guys didn’t cut it they’ve been linked to Ty Jerome they’ve been linked to Chris Paul and then behind Devita Zubots they haven’t really had a reliable backup center so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them chasing big as well i think they still have the flexibility to get both if they really want to so they got Harden on a good number it’s not a long-term commitment and their balance sheet now is relatively clean for that summer of 2027 when there are a lot of good free agent stars lined up if they want to remake the team after that after Harden and Kawhi Leonard expired they’ll be able to do that
all right so Sam again just to be very clear from what you and John are saying they’ve had flexibility to now then be aggressive is that the take here
yeah I would say so now I I’m not expecting them to go out and say trade for a star right i think they have the core of the team that they want and I think they’re thinking a little bit longer term right they only have Harden on a two-year deal that aligns his contract with Kawhi Leonards he obviously signed an extension during the 2324 season they now both expire in the summer of 2027 you want to be competitive in that time right you want to get better you want to address those holes at backup point guard and backup center they’ll have the room to do that but I would be surprised if they made a big swing where they say gave up multiple draft picks or they added somebody on a really expensive long-term deal i think the timeline they’re looking at right now is you have these two more years with Kawawaii and with James Harden when they’re still hopefully at the level they were last year which was an all-star level if you have that you can shore up the edges they push Denver to seven games and Denver pushed Oklahoma City to seven games so they’re close enough that I think if they can just get the margins right they could be pretty competitive next year
yeah I’m the same here i think it’s tinkering on the margins i mean the backup point guard and the backup center really are the main focal points maybe they use the mid-level exception on one guy but I would expect like probably chop it up a little bit and get some of those backups with Chris Chris Paul somebody that has been super uh rumored to be interested in going back to LA and that the Clippers that that would seem to be a need fit a need for them and then you know the maybe somebody like Clint Capella as a backup big i’m not a huge Clint Capella guy but as a backup that would be just fine for them and really Tommy I mean the Western Conference is absolutely loaded so for the Clippers to just decide okay look we have another year of James Harden and Kawhi Leonard we’ll see how this thing goes and then we’ll decide again the following season because look last year without Kawhi Leonard for much of the year they still had a really good year right i mean they end up as the five seed and they go to seven games against the Denver Nuggets about as good as you could hope for when you have James Harden running a show that’s like a little bit offensively challenged really hyperfocused on Tyoo’s defense did really good job at that end of the floor so if you can get more out of Kawhi Leonard going forward and also uh as Sam had mentioned fill in some of the gaps around the edges this Clippers team could be pluckucky again
aggressive within reason all right just to update with the the takeaways here and then finally here remind us or at least give me projections of what we think a soontobe 36-y old James Harden will be john obviously he’s still a bucket getter fantastic season here but this new two-year deal will get him what 36 37 years old now he’s getting up there in age
yes he is getting up there in age i was out on James Harden last year i will be the first to admit that I was one of the guys who said “Look I think James Harden has reached the end of the line here.” And he had a good season now the problem here Tommy is that good regular season James Harden often shows up just as inconsistent where did he go when it really mattered in the postseason james Harden frequently shows up as it did at times last year as he did in previous stops certainly with the Philadelphia 76ers the Houston Rockets before that we’ll put the Brooklyn Nets off to the side for a second uh look James Harden is a very talented player there’s no doubt about it but you’re right i mean he’s getting up there in age uh but I just think like if you’re the Clippers this was a marriage of convenience when they brought him over from the Sixers it worked out pretty well on the whole again a little little rough spots in in the postseason i I just think like there was never a world where he probably wasn’t coming back this year so you roll the dice again and you hope maybe he has a better postseason moving forward yeah James Harden has never exactly been known for his conditioning let’s leave it at that um so I would be a little bit nervous about how he ages i will say he is a player now especially that relies a lot more on strength than speed right his best trait on offense was always his ability to decelerate so it doesn’t matter quite as much how quick that first step is he has other ways to beat you but I would be a little bit concerned how he’s going to look but the Clippers baked that into this contract by giving him the partial guarantee on the second year if they do need to get off of him early they can if they need to use him as a big expiring contract in a trade next off season they can so all of those concerns are valid i do think the Clippers have prepared for it and I don’t think they’re going to say throw a bunch of first round picks in and think we have James Harden we’re like an immediate championship contender we have to go all the way in no I think they’re going to be measured about this i think they understand that Harden is a risk just like Kawhi Leonard is with his injury history they’re trying to win but I don’t think they’re going to do it in a way that leaves them exposed if James Harden does experience age related decline
all right on a day in LA where you had LeBron James go in James Harden go out but not without a deal john Gonzalez and Sam Quinn here on HQ gentlemen thank you when we take a look at most career points without a title Carl Malone Carmemelllo Anthony and James Harden I know a lot of people in social media were hoping for a Rockets and KD reunion but of course as the fellas had talked about not all that surprising declining it and then getting a new deal to sort of help the team

Sam Quinn and John Gonzalez join CBS Sports HQ to react to James Harden’s intention to sign an extension with the Los Angeles Clippers.

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