Lakers News: James Harden Declines Player Option, Seeks Long-Term Free Agent Deal

Could The Beard make sense in LA?

Your Los Angeles Lakers will technically have a lot of cap room to play with this summer, and suddenly will have a more appealing future Hall of Fame free agent point guard on the market than controversial weirdo Kyrie Irving or the aging Chris Paul.

Sources inform Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report that 33-year-old former All-Star point guard James Harden is declining his lucrative $35.6 million player option with the Philadelphia 76ers for the 2023-24 season in the hopes of securing a four-year deal. At the time he negotiated a one-year deal with Philadelphia for a shade under the absolute maximum, it seemed this was a bit of a wink-wink situation to help the Sixers round out their roster with more depth. Though Philly subsequent used its money to do just that, things ended basically the way they do every year: with a pretty funny second round flameout.

Harden, as is almost always the case no matter his uniform, had two miserable possible closeout games. In Game 6 against the Boston Celtics, which took place in Philadelphia with the Sixers leading the series 3-2, Harden scored just 13 points on a miserable 4-of-16 shooting from the floor, and his defense regressed after showing promising flashes elsewhere in the series. The Sixers were a minus -10 during his minutes on the hardwood. For Game 7, The Beard was somehow even worse. He seemed completely checked out from the jump, offering up a haphazard effort on both ends to finish with an uninspiring stat line of nine points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field. In both contests, he coughed up the ball for a brutal five turnovers.

Although his warts show up in a big way during the playoffs, Harden once again enjoyed a sparkling regular season on offense, averaging 21 points on .441/.385/.867 shooting splits, 10.7 assists and 6.1 rebounds a night. Though he's a lost a step since his Houston Rockets prime, he remains a stellar playmaker and scorer when the lights aren't quite so bright, before crumpling like clockwork in the spring.

Bringing Harden aboard for LA could be a costly risk. LA did recently try out a Big Three featuring a past-his-prime former Oklahoma City Thunder guard and LA native, but on paper Harden is a much better compliment to stars Anthony Davis and LeBron James than Russell Westbrook was. His age, defensive issues, presumably maximum-level salary, lack of fitness and playoff problems make him a dicey prospect. 

It does seem possible LA just opts to run things back with incumbent starting point guard D'Angelo Russell, a good-if-streaky shooter and solid passer who should be considerably cheaper to sign than Harden or probably Irving. Another high-level free agent point guard option worth thinking about is Toronto Raptors champ Fred VanVleet, who made his first All-Star team in 2022 and is a solid two-way player in his prime, without the off-court baggage of Irving or the on-court playoff baggage of Harden.

Los Angeles might be better served bringing back Russell at a lower number than these other vets, as it could then afford to add more high-level role playing talent around the aging Davis and James. A Big Three lineup featuring at least two injury-prone, 30+ year-old stars (three if Harden, Irving, or Paul are brought on board) just doesn't seem like it makes as much sense at this stage in everyone's careers. The depth route feels safer.

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