Daniel House<\/strong><\/strong> to the bi-annual exception, so they cannot exceed the $156,983,000 tax apron at any point during the league year.<\/p>\nBoth players were signed due to the flexibility Harden gave Philadelphia when he agreed to a pay cut \u2014 he previously declined his $47.4MM player option to sign a new deal. Harden recently explained the reasoning behind his decision to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had conversations with (president of basketball operations) Daryl (Morey)<\/strong>, and it was explained how we could get better and what the market value was for certain players. I told Daryl to improve the roster, sign who we needed to sign and give me whatever is left over,\u201d <\/em>Harden said. \u201cThis is how bad I want to win. I want to compete for a championship. That’s all that matters to me at this stage. I’m willing to take less to put us in position to accomplish that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nHarden, who turns 33 next month, had a down season by his lofty standards, appearing in 65 regular season games (37.2 MPG) with averages of 22.0 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 10.3 APG and 1.3 SPG on .410\/.333\/.877 shooting. Those averages dipped to 18.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG and 8.6 APG on .405\/.368\/.893 shooting in 12 postseason games (39.9 MPG) with the Sixers last season.<\/p>\n
He was reportedly hampered by a hamstring injury for much of the season, the same issue that plagued him in the playoffs last year with Brooklyn. Harden famously requested a trade from the Nets ahead of the deadline in February in a deal that sent Ben Simmons<\/strong><\/strong>, Seth Curry<\/strong><\/strong> and other assets to Brooklyn.<\/p>\nWhen Harden officially signs his new deal, Philadelphia will have 12 players on the 15-man roster signed to guaranteed deals, as shown by our roster count. He was ranked No. 3 on our list of the top 50 free agents this summer.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n