In their last four preseason games, the Sixers showcased promising talent they hope will shine during the regular season. With Embiid sidelined, head coach Nick Nurse relied heavily on contributions from Paul George and Andre Drummond.

However, following George’s injury, fans eagerly awaited the team’s next steps. Morey addressed the situation in an interview with Sports Illustrated last Wednesday, revealing that the Sixers have waived four players, heightening speculation about their next moves.

Embiid and the Sixers part ways with four players

The Sixers have released Max Fiedler, Judah Mintz, Isaiah Mobley, and Jordan Tucker. Of these four, three have yet to debut in the NBA, while Mobley has prior experience with Cleveland, where he played over the last two seasons.

Another potential loss for the Sixers

In addition to Embiid and George, the Sixers are now monitoring a possible setback with Jared McCain, who left Game 4 of the preseason against the Nets due to an injury. Head coach Nick Nurse addressed McCain’s situation, expressing cautious optimism: “He’s a warrior, tough, hard-nosed player, so I think he’s going to be okay. We just wish him the best right now.”

With the season opener approaching, fans are anxiously awaiting updates on the injury status of these key players, as they are crucial to Nurse’s game plan, and will be vital to get into the playoffs.

Sixers’ preseason performance recap

After four preseason games, the Sixers finished with a 2-2 record, including losses to the Timberwolves (by 10 points) and Celtics (by 50 points), and wins over the Hawks (by 15 points) and Nets (by 22 points).

Tyrese Maxey stood out during the preseason, playing in three of the four games and recording 42 points and 14 assists. Jeff Dowtin, Jared McCain, and Kelly Oubre Jr. also emerged as potential contributors under Coach Nurse.

The Sixers will tip off the regular season against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Wells Fargo Center, where a raucous home crowd is expected to create an electric atmosphere for the season opener.

Notably, Harden claims to know about sacrifice as well. He allegedly did so during his days with the Philadelphia 76ers, helping Daryl Morey out so he could walk his way around the salary cap and improve the team for years to come.

We already know how that ended, with Harden publically calling Morey ‘a liar’ and hinting at being promised a max contract in his next deal if he agreed to take a pay cut in free agency. Not only was that a violation of the league’s rules, but it also ended a years-long relationship between Harden and the one who trusted him the most.

With that in mind, the former Houston Rockets star had a tell-all interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver might be taking notes already.

Harden Confirms Morey Promised Him A Max Contract

Talking about his frustration and how things ended up between the two, Harden stated that he had given up so much money already, which is why he wanted to leave for a place where he could compete at a high level while also getting paid. Then, he confirmed Morey had promised him a max contract, which is a clear violation of the league’s policies:

(Transcript via The Athletic)

“Harden: These last few years, I sacrificed so much — whether it’s role, whether it’s financial — that, at this point, it’s over with. I just want to be able to move forward and still have the opportunity to make some money and obviously win at the highest level.

Amick: So you mention the financial part, and I was hoping you could clarify one aspect of that situation. Were you actually told by the Sixers that you had that deal coming?

Harden: A max?

Amick: Yeah.

Harden: Yeah.

Amick: That was said by Daryl?

Harden: Yes. Yes.”

There you go. Whether the league will do anything about this or not remains to be seen, but it pretty much confirmed what most fans and analysts speculated since the beginning of the saga.

Harden Felt Betrayed

The former MVP compared his relationship with Morey — which dated way back to his days with the Rockets — to a marriage. He didn’t care for the way his GM reportedly iced him out and felt disrespected by it:

“Instead of (Morey) having a conversation with me (about free agency) or saying, ‘All right James, we don’t want to offer you this, but we have this.’ Then we go back and forth, and that’s a dialogue,” Harden said. “But you just ice me out? Then it’s like, you don’t respect me as much as I thought you did. You don’t need people like that, you know what I mean? So it’s just bad karma. People were throwing dirt on my name, but the good guys always win.”

Morey has a long-withstanding reputation for being kind of shady when dealing with players and other teams, so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see him do that. Also, it’s not like this would be the first — or even last — time something like this happens.

At the end of the day, we might never know what actually happened and how it happened, and chances are that Harden would’ve never gotten that max deal in free agency anyway. Still, he has every right to feel betrayed if Morey, indeed, made such a promise.

In the end, the veteran guard proved his doubters right. Harden failed to perform when it mattered the most, as the Sixers suffered back-to-back second-round eliminations.

This offseason, only a year and a half after leaving the Nets, Harden submitted a trade request out of Philadelphia. The Sixers didn’t grant his wish until this week, when they sent him to the Los Angeles Clippers. Though the move didn’t go as they expected, Daryl Morey has no regrets about pursuing Harden back then.

“In this case, I think with the information we had at the time — which is I think how you can judge things — it was a very good trade,” Morey said, via ClutchPoints. “Obviously, we were in a tough situation then and when you’re in that and you jump to something, you want to continue to give yourself a chance to win — just like this trade did. Obviously, this one still is to be written a little bit with like, some of the assets we got.”

The fractured relationship between Daryl Morey and James Harden

One of the biggest storylines when Harden joined the Sixers was his reunion with Morey, who had already traded for The Beard when he was the general manager of the Houston Rockets.

They had a great memory from each other after their time together in Houston, which is why they did everything to reunite in the City of Brotherly Love. Harden failed to help Embiid in last year’s playoffs, but Morey decided to give him another chance.

Their relationship ended up taking a huge twist this offseason. After another playoff collapse, the Sixers didn’t feel like giving Harden the supermax extension he demanded. The guard opted into his player option but only to be traded, and there was no turning back.

Harden made his thoughts about Morey abundantly clear in the summer, calling the Sixers’ President of Basketball Operations a “liar,” claiming he will never be part of an organization run by Morey again. In the weeks prior to the Clippers trade, Harden said his relationship with the 76ers front office was beyond repair.

Harden gets what he wants, again

Though it took him months, Harden finally got traded to the Clippers, his preferred landing spot this offseason. In January 2021, it was the Nets. The following year, it was the Sixers.

Harden has constantly changed locations seeking to increase his chances of winning an elusive ring, but it feels like he never spends enough time with one team to win that coveted championship.

Now he’ll be part of a star-studded team next to the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook. On paper, we’re talking about a possible contender. But many things can happen between now and May.

Harden has to be prepared for that. Injuries have already held the Clippers back in the last few years, so the title challenge may not be that easy. Besides, the Western Conference is stacked this season. The question is whether Harden will stick to them anyway, because his reputation for constantly changing teams raises doubts.

The Sixers hoped they wouldn’t experience the same the Rockets and Nets did before, but they turned out to be just another team in Harden’s career. Even so, Morey still believes their decision to go after him made sense. “This bet I thought was very good,” Morey said. “I continue to think it was the right bet…Being good at my job requires me to go back and think, ‘Were there any different paths to take?’ I don’t see any knowing all the things that were available. So, I think it was the right bet. We’d do the same thing.”

“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden said. “Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”

Those are some strong comments, which is why they made so much noise around the league. Harden apparently called Morey a liar because the Sixers GM supposedly promised to trade him quickly if the guard opted into his player option.

Why James Harden called Morey a “liar”

“As part of NBA probe into his “liar” comment, James Harden told league investigators he was referring to Daryl Morey telling Harden he will trade him “quickly” following the $35.6 million opt-in for 2023-24, per sources. The 76ers’ stance now is they expect to keep Harden,” NBA insider Shams Charania wrote on Twitter.

Harden picked up his option only to get traded, something that didn’t happen thus far. The situation between the player and the team is getting ugly, as it doesn’t look like the Sixers are planning to grant his wish soon.

Most people believe that Morey promised to give him a max contract and then didn’t, making Harden lose $15 million in the process. Ironically, it was Morey the one who got him paid most of the time.

However, and regardless of Harden’s terrible play in the playoffs, injury-proneness, and questionable work ethic, Golden State Warriors star Andre Iguodala sides with him in this beef.

Andre Iguodala Shows Support For James Harden

“When you go into a contract negotiation, know what your value is and how you can leverage yourself,” Iguodala said on Gil’s Arena. “Know what opportunities you have on the other side, like to your safety net. What is James’ safety net?

“Daryl Morey has a history with China, where he can say something, and the backlash from what he says, there may not be any because there’s a history there with Morey and China,” Iguodala continued. “So, it was a great move out of leverage by James, one, because it’s gonna be hard to discipline James, because what did he do wrong? Right? And James will sell some shoes. That’s ultimately why he’s over there.”

“They always put players in a certain light, and what you’re hearing a lot now is, players, have too much power because we’re getting smarter and smarter,” Iguodala said. “Because we know how to move and we know how to say certain things, and we know how to use our leverage, because when we make mistakes, it’s used against us, correct? When they make mistakes, we’ve never put ourselves in the position to use their mistakes against them as well, and I just think he just had a perfect opportunity.”

The thing with some players is that they want to have it all, and that’s simply not realistic. Also, Harden didn’t lose $15 million, as he signed a two-year deal worth more. If anything, he made more money.

Most of the time, you don’t get to choose where to play while also making dozens of million, and Harden is only stuck there because no other team would have him at that price.

“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden said. “Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”

This seems to put the final nail to his Sixers’ stint’s coffin, as it’s hard to believe they can find a way out of this other than parting ways. But how did Morey take Harden’s comments? Apparently, they didn’t affect the GM.

Daryl Morey ‘unmoved’ by Harden’s comments

“Source: Daryl Morey is unmoved by James’ comments,” Jason Dumas of Bleacher Report tweeted. “He is holding firm in his stance that he will not trade him unless it makes the Sixers a better team. Meanwhile, I’m told James’ agent advised him against making that statement.”

Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer also reported that the Sixers knew Harden could react like this after telling his camp they couldn’t find a satisfying offer to let him go:

“A league source said Morey wasn’t surprised at Harden’s commentary and his attempt to make things personal given his agent’s reaction this weekend to being informed the Sixers weren’t able to find a suitable deal. The Sixers, however, are unmoved by Harden’s statement and still expect him to report to training camp.”

It looks like there’s no turning back between Harden and the Sixers. However, since he opted into his player option this offseason, the team has the final say in any trade conversations.

Sixers GM Daryl Morey reportedly didn’t want to honor his word about either offering him a max contract or trading him away. So, Harden has decided to take matters into his own hands — again.

The former Houston Rockets star will not show up to training camp, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Moreover, Harden has taken things up a notch by publically ripping Morey during his trip to China.

Harden Puts Morey On Blast

“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden said. “Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”

Truth be told, Harden isn’t worth a max contract right now, and everybody in the league but him have come to terms with that. Even so, he has every right to feel betrayed by Morey.

We’ve already seen what Harden is capable of when he’s locked in, but we’ve also seen how ugly things can get when he’s not, so this is definitely not the last we’ve heard of this drama.

However, that’s part of the past now. The Sixers stayed busy in the offseason, signing coveted free agents PJ Tucker and Montrezl Harrell in an attempt to coming back stronger this year.

Daryl Morey is confident the team is on the right path, which is why it will run things back with head coach Doc Rivers and Harden. For Morey, however, the key to the 76ers’ success this season will not only rely on The Beard or Embiid.

Daryl Morey says 76ers have another key weapon besides Harden, Embiid

In an appearance on The Takeoff with John Clark podcast, Morey claimed that Tyrese Maxey’s contribution will be pivotal for the 76ers’ high aspirations in the 2022-23 NBA season.

“He’s key to our season,” Morey said, as quoted by NBC Sports. “Obviously the new players on the team I think are two-way players and are going to set the stage, but winning the title really comes down to your best players. And probably the key things are we need Joel to yet again give us an MVP-level performance; we need James to be just himself — we don’t even need five years ago James, we need the guy we saw last year for most of the games; but the biggest inflection point is probably we need Maxey to take another step forward.

“And he can do it. He’s putting the work in. Look, it’s really hard. His rookie year was way ahead of schedule. His second year was way, way ahead of schedule. And to ask him to do another leap forward is asking a lot, but we do need it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he does it given how much time he puts in.”

No pressure at all on the 21-year-old… Embiid, Harden, and the veterans are the ones who must put the team on their backs. That said, the Sixers will also need Maxey to keep up with his good level in order to contend. But then again, he shouldn’t be the one to blame if things don’t go according to plan.

Daryl Morey went to great lengths to get his guy. The Sixers landed James Harden with one year left on his contract, hoping things would work out and that he’d extend his stay in the City of Brotherly Love.

Not only did Harden re-sign with the team, but he also took a significant pay cut to help them revamp the roster. Needless to say, Morey is quite thankful for that kind of commitment and determination to win.

NBA News: Daryl Morey Praises James Harden’s Commitment To The Sixers

“James, he’s a little later in his career than Joel (Embiid), so I would say as you get farther along you realize each year is precious, each season is even more precious,” Morey told NBC Sports. “He’s done more, I think, than maybe any star player’s ever done to take that much less money. We just got Montrezl Harrell. We couldn’t have done that without both him taking less money and constantly talking to Trez and saying, ‘Hey, let’s rekindle the magic we had in the past.'”

“Look, between the money he gave up and his commitment to the franchise from Day 1 to do what (head coach Doc Rivers) wants,” Morey added. “I’m someone who looks at data quite a bit. All the players on the team’s shooting percentages went way up off passes from him. Our team overall was elevated after he came. Joel and James were the No. 1 pick-and-roll combo — really (in) years; it wasn’t just last season. It just shows the overall impact and how he’s lifting the whole team to help us win a title.”

Harden has been criticized in the past for his lack of accountability and commitment, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Hopefully, this will be the year he’ll finally step up in the playoffs and prove why he’s one of the greatest offensive talents of all time.