Clippers, James Harden agree on new contract to keep guard in Los Angeles
The 10-time All-Star will stay in his hometown.
Guard James Harden and the LA Clippers have agreed on a two-year, $70 million contract to keep the 10-time All-Star in Los Angeles through the 2025-26 season, as reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Harden will have a player option for the second season.
Harden arrived in Los Angeles last November following a trade from the Philadelphia 76ers after the guard’s relationship with Philadelphia president of basketball operations Daryl Morey had grown strenuous.
After the Clippers got off to a shaky start trying to integrate Harden into the fold, the team enjoyed a 31-8 stretch spearheaded by Harden’s playmaking and shotmaking. The 34-year-old averaged 16.6 points, 8.5 assists, and 5.1 rebounds in 72 games last season. Harden shot 38.1 percent on 3s and posted his best True Shooting Percentage (.612) since 2020-21.
Harden would go on to average 21.2 points, 8.0 assists, and 4.5 rebounds in the six-game first-round loss to the Dallas Mavericks and was widely considered the team’s best player throughout the series, including a 33-point performance in Game 4.
On Thursday, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank described talks and negotiations as “very productive” between the organization, Harden, and the guard’s representatives.
“Very productive with both James and [agents] Mike Silverman and Troy [Payne],” Frank told reporters. “And so, you just deal with, we think James has been terrific for us. When we obtained him five games into the season, [we] thought he had a terrific season. We hope he’s had a great experience while he’s been here and we hope he decides to continue to be here. He’s been great in terms of just even the off-season—coming in, working out, coming in two-a-days, getting extra work in. So we very much want James to remain a Clipper and hope he decides to do the same.”
With Harden back in the fold, the Clippers have locked in their starting point guard for the foreseeable future and can continue to pair Harden with Kawhi Leonard, who signed a three-year pact back in January. The Clippers outscored opponents by 244 points in 1,617 minutes with the duo on the court together this past regular season.
In a more pivotal matter, it keeps the Clippers in control of at least two stars as they enter their brand-new Intuit Dome arena in Inglewood for the upcoming 2024-25 season, and the team will look to be competitive yet again to continue their string of 13 consecutive winning seasons.
This isn’t the first time in his career that James Harden has seemingly taken less money than what was perceived that he’d be able to receive. At his introductory press conference in November, Harden alluded to the other instances.
“Leaving Brooklyn, which was a funky situation, and going to Philly, leaving a lot of money on the table from Brooklyn, going to Philly—once again last summer—taking $26 million less to be able to sign and make the team better and organization better,” Harden told reporters.
It should be mentioned that Harden wasn’t without his warts this season, and some of it came about as a byproduct of injury issues that crept up as the year went along—the guard dealt with left shoulder and right foot ailments towards the latter part of the season, leading to a drop in performance.
After landing on the injury report before the team’s March 9 game against the Chicago Bulls due to a left shoulder strain, Harden would go on to only average 12.7 points, 9.4 assists, and 5.3 rebounds on 36 percent shooting over the final 16 regular season games he played.
Despite those late-season shortcomings, Harden was seen as an overall positive and someone they viewed as worth the price of future picks, thus his re-signing was a priority for the team as someone they will have at the helm of their offensive spear in what will be a crucial season.
The Clippers will now attempt to build a roster around both Harden and Leonard, as well as Paul George should the star wing return in free agency after taking meetings with the Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, and Orlando Magic. George’s free agency is something that will play out in the coming days. But in the meantime, the Clippers have taken care of a big piece of business with the re-signing of Harden.
