Harden was eligible for a four-year, $210 million contract if he declined his $35.6 million participant possibility and have become a free agent. And he was anticipating a contract in that vary, sources mentioned, having taken much less the earlier summer time and having left a $161 million extension on the desk from Brooklyn in August 2021 and turned down a two-year, $100 million extension from the Rockets in February 2021. However Harden had little leverage to extract that sort of supply from Philadelphia. The Rockets’ curiosity in reacquiring him as a free agent cooled after they employed Ime Udoka as their head coach in late April, sources mentioned. Udoka was making an attempt to set a brand new tradition in Houston, not convey again the previous. He wished to focus on defensive-minded gamers like Memphis’ Dillon Brooks and Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez. -via ESPN / September 6, 2023