After Harden joined Philadelphia and embiid, the industry generally believed that the Nets' trade was a loss, because they only got Simmons, who is not currently trading at a high value, as well as some Philadelphia role players and individual draft picks, and did not get Philadelphia's potential new stars such as Maxy or Sable, but in the view of NBA American salary expert Bobby Max, in the long run, Harden's contract will be a huge test for Philadelphia.
According to Max's calculations, if Harden refuses to execute on his $47.4 million contract option for next season this summer (the current news is that Harden has not yet executed the player option, and he was revealed to be executing the player option at the time of the trade), Harden, who retains the "Bird clause" in the deal, can sign up to a five-year, $269 million top salary contract with Philadelphia this summer.
If the contract is signed, Harden can get a high salary of $61.7 million in the fifth and final year of the contract.
Harden will be 33 years old at the end of August. By then, if he signs a 5-year cap, that means he'll still be paid more than $60 million at age 38.
But Bobby-Max believes that instead of commenting on Harden's contract after 5 years, 3 years later, "we'll talk about Harden as we're talking about Westbrook and Wall contracts now." The contract would be the worst in NBA history. ”
Max's statement inevitably has a reason for creating gimmicks for the effect of the show. But given Harden's age, his frequent injuries in recent years, and the fact that he has shown fans over the years that he is not a particularly disciplined player, as Harden continues to grow in age in the future, injuries may continue to increase, and whether he will have the current level to put a big question mark on it.
Once the performance declines, Harden will have to take a high salary in the future, which will undoubtedly be widely questioned, just like the Lakers' Westbrook and the Rockets' Wall. In the long run, Harden is indeed a challenge to Philadelphia's future.
As for the Nets, they didn't get particularly good chips in Harden's trade, but given that Simmons is not yet 26 years old, his trade value may rebound, and the Nets can change hands again in the future, even if they can't develop his potential, and then exchange more chips in the future, thus adding helpers to Durant. For the Nets, their biggest problem may seem to be the uncertainty of Irving, as long as they can play with peace of mind, Irving can still give the Nets a huge help, on the contrary, Irving is difficult to make the team feel at ease anywhere.