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Adrian Wojnarowski
Close to
Senior NBA Insider- Host of The Woj Pod
- Joined ESPN in 2017
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Ramona Shelburne
Close to
ESPN Senior Writer- Senior writer for ESPN.com
- Spent seven years with the Los Angeles Daily News
The Houston Rockets are expanding trade talks over All-NBA guard James Harden beyond his favorite destinations of Brooklyn and Philadelphia, sources tell ESPN.
Several playoff-caliber teams at the Eastern and Western conferences tell ESPN that they find greater comfort in committing high-level trading assets in discussions to acquire Harden. The Rockets have ongoing discussions on various fronts and have communicated with Harden about those scenarios, sources said.
Several teams tell ESPN they feel less inhibited about trading for Harden without the assurance that he would sign again once he can become a free agent in two years.
While the Sixers have indicated their willingness to include All-Star guard Ben Simmons in trade packages for Harden, those talks are nowhere near a deal, sources said. The Nets are limited by the Rockets’ interest in their staff and would likely need a third team to get into talks, sources said. So far, the high asking price of young players and the choice of Rockets has not advanced any of their discussions.
The Rockets plan to start the season next week, with Harden sharing the backcourt with John Wall, but the teams want them to close a deal ASAP, sources said.
Harden, a three-time scoring champion and 2018 NBA MVP, didn’t report to Houston until December 8 – two days after the Rockets began team training. He missed the Rockets ‘first two games of the preseason, acknowledging that he is “catching up” with game conditioning and learning from new Houston coach Stephen Silas’ systems.
Harden, 31, requested a trade-off ahead of training camp, despite the Rockets offering him a two-year contract extension, $ 103 million – on top of the three years, he owed another $ 133 million, sources told ESPN.
“I can only focus on this moment, and for me, the best James Harden will keep me in shape,” Harden told reporters on Wednesday. “As I said, I hadn’t even had a chance to play 5-on-5. Individual training, if you do individual basketball practice, is great, but as any NBA player can attest, nothing beats 5- 5. training, physicality, reading and things like that. Yesterday for the first time I was there, I felt good, which is exciting. “
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon contributed to this report.