Why LeBron Should Have Taken the Harden Route
In July James Harden of the Philadelphia 76ers agreed to a new two-year contract to remain with Joel Embiid and company.
On that new deal Harden, the 2018 MVP, will earn $68.6M over the next two seasons and will have a player option for the 2023-2024 campaign. This new contract is a huge pay cut, but for Harden, it’s about getting more help for the benefit of the team.
“Taking less money this year to sign as many players as we needed to help us contend to be the last team standing was very important to me,” Harden said when asked about the deal.
While there have been questions about whether or not Harden is the ideal partner to Joel Embiid, one cannot deny that James Harden wants to win in Philadelphia now that he’s putting his money where his mouth is.
That’s a mentality many pundits around the league think other superstars should replicate as well in the era of soaring salaries, and untradeable contracts.
Bontemps: “LeBron Should Take the Harden Route”
The Los Angeles Lakers, coming off a disastrous first season with Russell Westbrook, are looking for ways to redeem themselves in the upcoming 2022-2023 season. They also have a new head coach in Darvin Ham. However, the biggest problem the Lakers need to solve is how to shed Westbrook’s $47M contract and acquire a better running mate for LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Aside from trying to trade Russell Westbrook and hoping Anthony Davis would be healthy again come next season, LeBron James’ future in Hollywood is another issue the Lakers need to resolve. Or at least it was until this week.
The King was entering the final year of his $85.6M contract with the Lakers, meaning he could either become an unrestricted free agent next year, or sign a contract extension which he became eligible for on August 4th.
This opened up three possible scenarios for LeBron and the Lakers heading into training camp:
- The most obvious one was LeBron James signing a new contract worth $97M dollars for the next two seasons.
- Another scenario would be LeBron becoming an unrestricted free agent next year to rejoin the Cleveland Cavaliers, potentially for the final time.
- The third option would see LeBron signing a contract extension but taking less money.
Obviously LeBron and his camp chose option number 1, but many insiders wonder whether chasing a max deal was the smart “basketball move” at this stage of James’ career.
At a certain point, money starts to lose its lustre. Afterall, James officially earned billionaire status this June according to Forbes magazine. Which is why that third option was something NBA Insider Tim Bontemps believed LeBron James should have pursued if he’s serious about earning another shot at ring number five.
“If you look at the situation the Lakers are in, they don’t have enough salary cap space to go out and fill in the roster around him and Anthony Davis. And the one way they have to do that is for LeBron to wait till next summer, opt out of his contract, and like James Harden, this summer with Philly, take a little bit less money, and allow them to fill in around him and Anthony Davis on this roster.” Bontemps explained.
One of the obstacles the Lakers are facing in trying to trade Russell Westbrook is a lack of salary cap space to be able to take on another big contract in a potential deal.
Had LeBron been willing to take less money, that could have been advantageous for the Purple and Gold because it could give them more cap space to either complete a big name deal or surround Davis & LeBron with capable scoring options via free agency, buyouts or smaller scale trades.
While it’s a moot point now, Los Angeles may soon be having a case of “deja vu” if they do indeed bring in a 3rd star via either a Westbrook trade or offseason signing. Lakers fans saw what happened when the team went all in on three players, and hoped that the bench could be filled with bargain bin contracts.
When you’re making more money with your offcourt ventures than you are in on court salary, sometimes it makes sense to leave a bit of money on the table in order to position yourself to compete for a championship. And with LeBron now entering his age 38 season, one figures there’s only a handful of years left where James & Co’s window is realistically open.
-Iggy Gonzales
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.