{"id":83822,"date":"2024-06-30T18:26:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-30T22:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=83822"},"modified":"2024-07-01T14:01:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T18:01:35","slug":"all-star-james-harden-resigns-with-los-angeles-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/30\/all-star-james-harden-resigns-with-los-angeles-clippers\/","title":{"rendered":"All-Star Re-Signs with Los Angeles Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In one of the first moves of the 2024 NBA free agency, the Los Angeles Clippers have re-signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-30_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Harden<\/a>, one of the team&#8217;s core players. This move comes as a bit of a surprise, as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/04\/los-angeles-clippers-expected-to-make-strong-bids-to-keep-two-of-their-stars\/\" target=\"_self\">Harden&#8217;s value and future with the Clippers was unclear.<\/a>\u00a0Let&#8217;s break down his deal and what it means for the future of the Clippers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">James Harden plans to sign a two-year, $70 million contract to return to the Los Angeles Clippers, sources tell <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stadium?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Stadium<\/a>. Harden\u2019s agents \u2013 Mike Silverman, Troy Payne and Brandon Grier of Equity Sports \u2013 have been working with Clippers officials to finalize new deal. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dRYRS9roL9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/dRYRS9roL9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1807532075542835525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>All-Star Re-Signs with Los Angeles Clippers<\/h2>\n<p>Harden is the primary ball handler for the Clippers, but that&#8217;s not the extent of his abilities. The 6&#8217;4&#8243; guard is a master of knocking down threes and getting to the free-throw line. With two star wings (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-30_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-30_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a>), it&#8217;s important to have an All-Star-level point guard to distribute the rock.<\/p>\n<h3>The Deal<\/h3>\n<p>Harden signed with the Clippers for two years and $70 million. His salary remains relatively consistent with previous years; however, the deal is only for two years. If things go south in Los Angeles soon and the team decides to rebuild, Harden has a quick way out. Another important note is that Harden&#8217;s <em>second year of the contract is a player option.<\/em> If things are going well for the Clippers, then great: Harden opts in and the team continues to compete for championships. However, if things aren&#8217;t going well for Harden or the team, then he can opt-out and sign with another team in free agency next year. Harden&#8217;s contract (if he stays all the way through it) expires one year before Leonard&#8217;s contract with the Clippers does, meaning he can gauge their direction before resigning (if that&#8217;s what he decides to do).<\/p>\n<h3>Harden&#8217;s Last Payday?<\/h3>\n<p>Harden is 34 years old and turns 35 in August. If he stays with the Clippers through these two years, then he&#8217;ll be almost 37 by the end of his contract. 37-year-olds don&#8217;t garner much money in free agency, which means this could be the last time the star is paid over $30 million for a season. While it doesn&#8217;t seem likely, this could be Harden&#8217;s last NBA contract. If he somehow wins a championship with the Clippers, retirement isn&#8217;t out of the question.<\/p>\n<p>This signing was <em>a great pickup<\/em> for the Clippers. They didn&#8217;t have to overpay to sign Harden, and they kept an All-Star guard around to run their playbook. Now, the real question is whether they&#8217;ll be able to sign George without overpaying him in free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In one of the first moves of the 2024 NBA free agency, the Los Angeles Clippers have re-signed James Harden, one of the team&#8217;s core players. This move comes as a bit of a surprise, as Harden&#8217;s value and future with the Clippers was unclear.\u00a0Let&#8217;s break down his deal and what it means for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5154,"featured_media":83834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1608,62],"tags":[49059,444,297,50],"class_list":["post-83822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clippers","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-2024-nba-free-agents","tag-james-harden","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-paul-george"],"modified_by":"Kayla Fonte","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}