James Harden rumors could ‘destroy locker room’ for Nets, Sixers: Jalen Rose

As long as James Harden’s trade rumors hang over the NBA, they have the potential to “destroy” the Nets and 76ers locker rooms, ESPN analyst Jalen Rose said.

Even though he’s in training camp with Houston and still owes him $ 132 million over the next two years, Harden still reportedly wants to be traded and has been linked with Brooklyn and Philadelphia.

“As long as Harden trade speculation hangs over the Nets and the Sixers, I think she’s got a chance to destroy those two locker rooms and force neither of those teams to reach their goals,” Rose told ESPN on Saturday.

“They’re going to win a lot of regular season games, these two teams can win a playoff round or two, but we saw that a few years ago with the Lakers and Pelicans. These two teams never lived up to expectations as everyone knew Anthony Davis was going to end up with the Lakers. So if you’re on those teams and you’re really trying to get James Harden, you’ve got to pull the trigger or you’re going to waste all the fairness of a guy like Caris LeVert built in the bubble, and Spencer Dinwiddie, all this great game these guys showed you they promised but they won’t be able to achieve it knowing they just took a team photo and they might not even be there in a week.

ESPN’s Jay Williams confirmed, “That just makes me think about what it’s going to do in the 76ers locker room with Ben Simmons there? What’s going to happen with KD and Kyrie? It seems they are far from close at the moment, because [Adrian Wojnarowski] reported earlier. It looks like the Nets want more in exchange for a top player and the same goes for the Houston Rockets, the same goes for the 76errs. I think we’re going to see James Harden with the Rockets for a good month or so until they find the right business partner. “

As for the Sixers, chairman Daryl Morey, former Rockets general manager, said, “We’re not trading Ben Simmons – he’s an important part of our future.”

For their part, the Nets have “championship aspirations,” as Joe Harris said on a Zoom call on Sunday, and play positive chemistry in their locker room while minimizing the impact of Harden’s distractions.

“I’m not thinking of James Harden at all,” Durant said earlier this month. “I mean, he doesn’t play on our team.”

LeVert, meanwhile, said he was set to be the sixth man off the bench and enter the second unit despite his star turn in the Orlando bubble when Durant and Irving and many of his teammates were out. .

Even Irving was kind to the media after his temporary media boycott and also happily burned sage on the Boston Garden field ahead of Friday’s preseason game.

Now that Durant is back and looked impressive in two preseason games after recovering from Achilles surgery, head coach Steve Nash has said his star is in good health at 90-99 %.

“It’s hard for me to put a number,” Nash said. “It’s really hard. But he’s in the 90s, for sure. Whether it’s 90 or 99, I don’t know. But I keep trying to tell him he has to give himself 15, 20. matches before you start judging yourself.Sometimes they say that the time you have takes so long once you get back to feeling like yourself.

“He’s done absolutely everything we could ask for, but there’s no way to finalize what he is, who he is after his injury without playing NBA games. You can’t recreate it, you can’t simulate it, and you can’t replace it. So he’s going to go through that process, play a few games and before long – if we’re lucky with his health and everything he’s put in it – he’ll be 100% Kevin Durant, no doubt.

The Nets are tied for the third favorite to win the NBA title after the Lakers and Bucks. They open the season Tuesday night at home against the Warriors, Durant’s former team, as well as a team for which Steve Nash worked as a consultant.

“For Kevin and I with connections to the Warriors, I think we’re excited for that too,” Nash said on Sunday. “We have a lot of love for these guys and we’re so glad they’re coming to town.”

Meanwhile, Wojnarowski said that even if the Nets don’t land Harden, they could still be in the mix for a great player on the road to potentially form a “Big Three” with Irving and Durant.

“They have what it takes for the next big star who becomes available, maybe [Washington’s] Bradley Beal in a year, ”he told ESPN.