With word that his future may still lie with the Philadelphia 76ers, the agent of James Harden says he wouldn’t be surprised if his client was involved in MVP talk this season.
The 34-year-old has reportedly been pushing for a trade away from the team, but, regardless of where he plays, Harden‘s agent Troy Payne says his client is poised to have one of the best seasons of his career given how hard he has worked this off-season.
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“He’s been doing two-a-days the last three weeks,” said Payne, who even suggested Harden would be in the MVP discussion.
“James has a crazy hunger in him right now. If he got an MVP season, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“Just from the disrespect. Just the free agency stuff…
“It’s been 07:00, two-hour, three-hour practice, workout, come back.
“His discipline right now is impeccable. I’m happy that he’s starting now.
“We got a whole month of August, whole month of September to get this thing going, and get him in the best shape of his career.
“I think we can get there this summer and I expect him to have a big season this year.”
What is James Harden’s future?
As for Harden‘s future, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has stated that Harden wants to play for the Los Angeles Clippers and isn’t pleased that he wasn’t offered a long-term maximum-level contract from 76ers president Daryl Morey this off-season.
Instead, the team picked up Harden‘s 35.6m dollar player option for the upcoming season.
As a result, The Athletic’s Sam Amick reports that Harden “no longer wants to play for Philadelphia and has no plans of taking part in training camp”.
With over two months until the start of the 2023/24 NBA season, only time will tell whether Harden gets his wish, or if he’ll be forced to play one more season with the 76ers.
