Los Angeles Clippers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Wiggins, Siakam, Green, Clippers, Durant

January 30th, 2024 at 7:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Warriors have fielded player-for-player offers for forward Andrew Wiggins, sources told Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

Though Wiggins is the Warriors player most likely to be moved before next month’s trade deadline, there hasn’t been an offer that has enticed them enough to make a deal. It’s key to note that they wouldn’t necessarily need to attach a draft pick to shed his contract, according to Slater. Wiggins is in the first season of a four-year, $109MM extension.

Golden State could go through the deadline without making a significant deal, despite its disappointing record. The internal expectations of making that kind of move have steadily decreased over the last month, Slater hears.

The Warriors remain in the buyers column, but they are reluctant to part with valuable pieces and don’t own their first-rounder this year. They are seeking a strong second option to pair with Stephen Curry but probably lack the assets to get that type of player.

They had exploratory conversations with the Raptors regarding Pascal Siakam before he was traded to Indiana. However, the Warriors’ most valued trade chip — Jonathan Kuminga — wouldn’t have been an ideal fit next to Raptors franchise player Scottie Barnes since their skill sets overlap.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

Warriors forward Draymond Green said he harbors no resentment for being left off Team USA’s pool of players under consideration for this year’s Olympics, according to Michael Wagaman of NBC Sports Bay Area. “I would like to believe that there’s some guys in that pool that I’m just not as good as,” Green said. “Didn’t quite think it would be so many great players in the pool because it just hasn’t been [that way] over the last couple of Olympic cycles. Then you look up and all of a sudden the ‘who’s who’ is there. I’m no idiot. You go with the who’s who and you figure it out.” Green was part of the 2016 and 2021 Olympic gold medal teams.
On that same topic, the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and James Harden are on Team USA’s 41-player list and are legitimate candidates to make the 12-man Olympic roster, says Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Coach Tyronn Lue is an assistant on the USA coaching staff and he’d like to see at least one of them wind up on the 12-man roster. “Hopefully, it works out,” Lue said.
Suns star Kevin Durant says he’s looking forward to returning to Brooklyn for the first time since last season’s trade. Phoenix visits the Nets on Wedneday. “I’m excited,” Durant said. “It’s always fun playing in Brooklyn, it’s always fun playing in New York. Can’t wait to see some of the people that I worked with that I got to know over the last four years. New York City has become my favorite city in the world just from me living there for four years. I miss it a lot. I built a lot of bonds and relationships with the people that actually worked in the organization.”

Celtics Notes: Theis, Porzingis, Holiday, Mazzulla

January 28th, 2024 at 10:01am CST by Arthur Hill

Daniel Theis considered rejoining the Celtics after reaching a buyout agreement with Indiana in November, according to Brian Robb and Souichi Terada of MassLive. After the Clippers played Saturday at Boston, Theis said he discussed the move with some of the Celtics’ stars before deciding on L.A.

“Obviously, I had a couple of conversations (with Boston),” Theis said. “I talked to Jayson (Tatum) a little bit there with Jaylen (Brown). But like I said, the Clippers were pretty fast, gave me the right chance at the right time. So, for me, it was just all about getting back on the court. Indiana just wasn’t right for me, it wasn’t a fit. For me, it was just getting back on the court as quick as I can and just compete out there and enjoy basketball.”

Theis was looking for an immediate opportunity to play after being stuck on the Pacers’ bench, and the Clippers were able to offer that with backup center Mason Plumlee sidelined at the time with a knee injury. Robb and Terada note that Boston may be looking to add another big man before the trade deadline, and Theis would have been perfect for that role.

There’s more on the Celtics:

Saturday’s loss displayed how shorthanded the team can be in the frontcourt without Kristaps Porzingis, who sat out the game after spraining his ankle Thursday night, Robb notes in a separate story. However, the injury is considered minor, and coach Joe Mazzulla doesn’t expect Porzingis to miss much time, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
After Jrue Holiday expressed a desire to sign an extension in Boston, Chris Forsberg speculated Saturday on Celtics Pregame Live that the veteran guard might be open to a new deal that starts at around $35MM and declines slightly each season, relays Nick Goss of NBC Sports Boston. Forsberg notes that Al Horford accepted a similar structure (at a much lower price point), and it would provide security for Holiday while preserving some financial flexibility for the team.
Mazzulla doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether the recent trend of players reaching the 70-point mark is beneficial for the league, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “I don’t really care,” he said. “Either way I don’t really care if it’s good or not. What’s good is that our teams play defense. If you look around the league one of the things that separates us — and there’s a few other teams — is the best players play defense.”

Pacific Notes: Suns Rumors, Caruso, Clippers, Powell, Barnes

January 27th, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Within a look at some of the potential trade targets who have recently been linked to the Suns, Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports reports that a source close to the situation has described Phoenix as “very confident” about its ability to make a competitive offer for Hornets forward Miles Bridges. Bourguet adds that Charlotte center Nick Richards is also a target, but that the team would likely only be able to acquire one Hornet or the other due to salary-matching considerations.

Bourguet also confirms that Nets forward Royce O’Neale is a legitimate target for the Suns, observing that O’Neale is more attainable than Dorian Finney-Smith due to his expiring contract and smaller cap hit.

The Suns would almost certainly need to use Nassir Little ($6.25MM) as their primary outgoing salary piece in any trade and would need to get to within 10% of the incoming salary, so acquiring a player who is earning much more than O’Neale ($9.5MM) would be tricky. Phoenix would presumably need to add one or two minimum-salary players and multiple second-round picks to its package for either Bridges or O’Neale.

The buyout market could also prove fruitful for the Suns, Bourguet writes, even though they’ll be prohibited from signing a player whose pre-waiver salary exceeds $12.4MM. P.J. Tucker would have interest in Phoenix if he’s bought out, according to Bourguet, who says the team has also been in touch with center Bismack Biyombo, a current free agent.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Veteran guard Alex Caruso, who left the Lakers for the Bulls as a free agent in 2021, tells Melissa Rohlin of FOX Sports that he still sometimes thinks about how things would have played out if he had remained in Los Angeles. “Yeah, definitely,” Caruso said. “Just because of how well I played with them when I was here. I know how I supported them. And I’ve gotten better. I was expecting myself to get better. It’s actually what had to move me on. I kept getting better and eventually I was at a point where I couldn’t stay here. I definitely have always thought about it because those guys (LeBron James and Anthony Davis) are my brothers. We’ve been through a lot together. Always good seeing them. Every now and then you think about what could’ve been.”
Rival coaches and executives are praising Clippers head of basketball operations Lawrence Frank for the way his gamble on James Harden has paid off so far, according to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. “I didn’t think it would work out,” one exec said. “A lot of people didn’t think it would work out. But he had it right. Russell (Westbrook) is playing within himself. Harden is sharing the ball. They have great chemistry right now.”
In a conversation with Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, Clippers wing Norman Powell spoke about his impressions of Harden and Westbrook as teammates, the role that coach Tyronn Lue has played in the team’s success, and how these Clippers compare to the 2019 champion Raptors, among other topics.
Viewed as a probable outgoing piece if the Kings make a major deadline trade, Harrison Barnes has been on a heater this week, scoring 32 points on Monday and a career-high 39 on Thursday, as Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee writes.

Clarifying The NBA’s New Rule On Post-Buyout Signings

January 24th, 2024 at 2:04pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s trade deadline is just 15 days away, which means we’re nearly in buyout season. Several veteran players on lottery-bound teams who are in the final year of their respective contracts will become candidates to be bought out if they’re not traded to a new team on or before February 8.

When the league and the players’ union finalized a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2023, they agreed to a new rule that affects the buyout market. This rule hasn’t been a factor yet this season, but it will likely be relevant in the coming weeks. And in the wake of the deal that sent Kyle Lowry to Charlotte, making him a buyout candidate, I’ve seen some confusion about how the rule works and which players are affected, so we’ll offer some clarity here.

First, here’s the new rule: A team whose salary is above either the first or second tax apron is not permitted to sign a free agent on the buyout market if his pre-waiver salary exceeded the non-taxpayer mid-level exception.

For the 2023/24 season, that means that any team whose taxable salary is above $172,346,000 is ineligible to sign a player who was cut this season if he was earning more than $12,405,000.

This applies to both buyouts and standard waivers, so regardless of whether or not the player agreed to give up any money as part of his release, he’s ineligible to sign with an apron team if he had been earning more than $12,405,000.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN noted earlier this week (via Twitter), these are the clubs whose team salaries are currently above the apron levels:

Boston Celtics
Denver Nuggets
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Miami Heat
Milwaukee Bucks
Phoenix Suns

That means that a player like Lowry, whose $29.7MM salary far exceeds the mid-level exception, would currently be ineligible to sign with one of those seven teams if he’s bought out by the Hornets. However, that list of teams is subject to change as rosters changes and salaries fluctuate.

The Heat, for instance, reduced their payroll in the deal that sent out Lowry for Terry Rozier, whose cap charge is several million dollars smaller than Lowry’s. The Heat are currently above the first apron but well below the second, per Eric Pincus of Sports Business Classroom, so if they were to further trim their payroll, they could gain the ability to sign any player on the buyout market (well, with the exception of Lowry, due to a separate rule prohibiting a team from re-signing a player it traded if he’s waived by his new team).

Conversely, if a team like the Sixers, whose salary is currently less than $3MM shy of the first apron, took on several million dollars in salary in a deadline trade, they’d become ineligible to sign a player like Lowry in the buyout market.

A team can be above the luxury tax line but remain eligible to sign a player on the buyout market, since there’s a gap of approximately $7MM between the tax threshold ($165,294,000) and the first apron. The Lakers, for example, currently project to be a taxpayer, but they have enough room below the apron to ensure this restriction won’t apply to them.

In order to be eligible to sign a player who had been earning more than $12,405,000, the team must have a salary below the first apron upon the completion of the signing — that means a team whose salary is $1MM below the apron can’t offer a player a rest-of-season contract worth $1.2MM.

If a team were to sign a player like Lowry or Gordon Hayward (who is earning $31.5MM) on the buyout market, that club would subsequently be hard-capped at the first apron and would be prohibited from having its salary exceed $172,346,000 for the rest of the season.

Outside of Lowry, Hayward, and perhaps Knicks wing Evan Fournier, it doesn’t look like there will be many buyout candidates earning above the mid-level who would be particularly intriguing on the free agent market.

Players like Gary Harris, Marcus Morris, or Doug McDermott would certainly draw interest, but I don’t see them as viable candidates for buyouts unless they’re traded to a team that views them as a pure salary-matching chip. Guys like Davis Bertans and Joe Harris may appeal to a team in need of shooting, but they’ve barely played this season, so if they were bought out, the competition for their services may not be particularly fierce.

Still, even if this rule only affects a couple players this season, it’s worth keeping in mind. After all, several of the teams in that aforementioned group of seven are legitimate championship contenders. Those are the sorts of clubs that would benefit most from adding one more depth piece, so the fact that that they won’t have access to certain targets on the buyout market is noteworthy.

Trade Rumors: Bucks Targets, Payne, Allen, Suns, Hornets, Kuzma

January 24th, 2024 at 12:42pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bucks don’t have a ton of trade assets left after completing blockbuster deals in recent years for Jrue Holiday and then Damian Lillard, but they’re perusing the market in an effort to upgrade their perimeter defense, reports Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.

According to Fischer, the Bucks have contacted teams to gauge the value of Portland’s 2024 second-round pick, which Milwaukee controls — it currently projects to be 35th overall, making it more valuable than a typical second-rounder. The team is exploring deals that would package that pick with wing Pat Connaughton and guard Cameron Payne, sources tell Yahoo Sports.

As Fischer explains, Payne fell out of Adrian Griffin‘s rotation earlier this month, but it’s possible new head coach Doc Rivers will want to use him more. If not, the veteran point guard would be “amenable” to a change of scenery, Fischer writes.

While the Bucks would love to acquire a player like Hawks guard Dejounte Murray or Raptors wing Bruce Brown, Bobby Portis‘ $11.7MM cap hit would almost certainly need to be includd in order to match their salaries, Fischer notes. Additionally, Atlanta and Toronto are seeking the sort of packages – two first-round picks and a starter-level player for Murray and a first-round picks for Brown – which the Bucks may not be able to offer, given their lack of tradable first-rounders.

Chicago guard Alex Caruso is likely also out of Milwaukee’s reach, given that the Bulls aren’t inclined to move him and would seek multiple first-rounders if they did, says Fischer. Players like Trail Blazers wing Matisse Thybulle and Clippers forward P.J. Tucker may be more attainable, Fischer suggests. However, Tucker’s appeal is limited, and Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report points out (via Twitter) that Thybulle has veto rights and may not be eager to play for Rivers again.

Here are a few more trade rumors from around the NBA:

The Suns are no longer considering the possibility of trading Grayson Allen at the deadline, league sources tell Fischer. Fischer reported last week that Phoenix was gauging what a package of Allen and Nassir Little could bring back, but that seemed like it was more about due diligence, given how well the former Duke star has played this season.
Responding to reports from Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports and Trevor Booth of Clutch Points stating that the Suns have interest in Miles Bridges and Nick Richards of the Hornets, John Gambadoro of Arizons Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) throws cold water on the Richards speculation, but suggests Phoenix could be in the mix for Bridges if the price is right.
While Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma has been viewed as a potential in-season trade candidate, he’s under contract for several more years and Washington appears to be in no rush to move him, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said on The Woj Pod. “Washington’s been very reticent with Kyle Kuzma,” Wojnarowski said (hat tip to RealGM). “… Teams tell me they call them and they’re not getting counters from Washington. If you want to register an offer for Kuzma, fine, you can do it. But they’re not at the point now where it seems like they’re really active in seriously trying to move him. It could change by the deadline, but I know (Wizards executives) Michael Winger and Will Dawkins like Kuzma, like having him there. I think they’ll be particular about what they might do.”

Team USA Announces 41-Player Pool For 2024 Olympics

January 23rd, 2024 at 3:54pm CST by Luke Adams

USA Basketball has officially announced a pool of 41 players who are in the mix for the 12 spots on the 2024 Olympic men’s basketball team.

While the pool is subject to change, Team USA’s 12-man roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics will, in all likelihood, be made up of players from this group.

The list figures to shrink as the summer nears due to players suffering injuries or opting not to participate for other reasons, but at some point prior to the July event the U.S. decision-makers will have to choose a final roster from the remaining candidates.

Here’s the full list of 41 players, 28 of whom have represented Team USA in a previous World Cup or Olympics:

Bam Adebayo (Heat)
Jarrett Allen (Cavaliers)
Paolo Banchero (Magic)
Desmond Bane (Grizzlies)
Scottie Barnes (Raptors)
Devin Booker (Suns)
Mikal Bridges (Nets)
Jaylen Brown (Celtics)
Jalen Brunson (Knicks)
Jimmy Butler (Heat)
Alex Caruso (Bulls)
Stephen Curry (Warriors)
Anthony Davis (Lakers)
Kevin Durant (Suns)
Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves)
Joel Embiid (Sixers)
De’Aaron Fox (Kings)
Paul George (Clippers)
Aaron Gordon (Nuggets)
Tyrese Haliburton (Pacers)
James Harden (Clippers)
Josh Hart (Knicks)
Tyler Herro (Heat)
Jrue Holiday (Celtics)
Chet Holmgren (Thunder)
Brandon Ingram (Pelicans)
Kyrie Irving (Mavericks)
Jaren Jackson Jr. (Grizzlies)
LeBron James (Lakers)
Cameron Johnson (Nets)
Walker Kessler (Jazz)
Kawhi Leonard (Clippers)
Damian Lillard (Bucks)
Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)
Chris Paul (Warriors)
Bobby Portis (Bucks)
Austin Reaves (Lakers)
Duncan Robinson (Heat)
Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
Derrick White (Celtics)
Trae Young (Hawks)

Adebayo, Booker, Durant, Holiday, Lillard, and Tatum were part of the Olympic team that won gold in Tokyo in 2021. Jerami Grant, Draymond Green, Keldon Johnson, Zach LaVine, JaVale McGee, and Khris Middleton were also on that roster, but aren’t part of the preliminary pool this time around. It’s possible some of them turned down invitations.

“The United States boasts unbelievable basketball talent and I am thrilled that many of the game’s superstars have expressed interest in representing our country at the 2024 Olympic Summer Games,” national team managing director Grant Hill said in a statement. “It is a privilege to select the team that will help us toward the goal of once again standing atop the Olympic podium. This challenging process will unfold over the next several months as we eagerly anticipate the start of national team activity.”

USA Basketball also announced today that Team USA will face Team Canada in Las Vegas on July 10 in an exhibition game. It sounds like that contest will take place during the NBA’s 2024 Summer League.

Los Angeles Notes: Russell, James, Westbrook, Harden

January 22nd, 2024 at 10:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

If the Lakers make a major move before the trade deadline, D’Angelo Russell could be part of the package. He’s on a two-year contract that includes an $18.7MM player option.

Russell’s strong recent play shows that he’s not distracted by trade rumors, Khobi Price of the Orange County Register notes. The veteran guard averaging 27.2 points on 55.9% shooting and 6.4 assists in his last five games since being reinserted into the starting lineup.

“You’ve got to be aggressive around these guys,” Russell said, referring to Anthony Davis and LeBron James. “You complement these guys by being aggressive – not passing to them. That’s easy to guard. You’re easy to guard when it’s like that. Just watching it and watching a lot of guys on the team make those decisions, when I came back, I was like ‘I’m going to be aggressive in those instances’ and I’ll see how it complements them. And it’s been complementing them so far.”

We have more on the Los Angeles teams:

The Lakers and Clippers will square off on Tuesday but a key player won’t suit up. James has been ruled out by the Lakers due to left ankle soreness, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. It will be James’ fifth missed game this season. The Lakers have a 2-2 record without him.
Clippers guard Russell Westbrook had a 23-point outing in the comeback victory against the Nets, his largest output since a 24-point game against the Lakers on Nov. 1. Westbrook essentially played center in a small-ball lineup on Sunday during the rally. “I’ve been emphasizing defensively for me, it’s huge this year,” Westbrook told Law Murray of The Athletic. “Guarding one through five, no matter what it is. Position, time, score, possession. Being help side. Rebounding, boxing out. All the small things that need to be done. I’ll do it. Whatever it takes to win basketball games. And tonight, my job was to guard the five and do a great job of being in coverage, reading defenses, communicating. And, you know, I did the best of my abilities to be able to close the game out.”
James Harden feels vindicated after forcing his way out of Philadelphia and demanding a trade to the Clippers. Many people were skeptical how Harden would fit in with the Clippers’ stars but the team has surged up the Western Conference standings. “Obviously it didn’t start off well,” said Harden, per Janis Carr of the Orange County Register. “It gave people so much to talk about in a negative way and now those people that were talking are nowhere to be found. Like, literally nowhere to be found.”

Northwest Notes: Jokic, George, Ayton, Blazers, Gobert

January 18th, 2024 at 8:54am CST by Luke Adams

Sixers star Joel Embiid racked up 41 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds in a comeback victory over the Nuggets on Tuesday, but after the game he had nothing but praise for opposing center and fellow MVP Nikola Jokic, as Bennett Durando of The Denver Post writes.

Embiid joked that there’s a “war” on Twitter between Sixers and Nuggets fans about which player is better, but suggested that Jokic has earned that honor, at least for now, after leading Denver to a championship in 2023.

“He deserves (the title of best in the NBA),” Embiid said. “Until you knock him down, that’s the best in the league, and he’s the Finals MVP. So until someone else takes that away, then you can claim that.

“But then again,” Embiid continued, with a smile. “I also believe in myself. … I’ve just gotta get there.”

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

Following a victory over Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Paul George said the 2019 trade that sent him from the Thunder to the Clippers for a package that included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and several first-round picks has been a win for both sides — and acknowledged that it may have been a bigger win for OKC. “I just think both sides won. I did think it was quite a lot that the Clippers were willing to give up, but their commitment to me is my commitment to them,” George said (Twitter video link via Joey Linn of SI.com). “… We knew Shai was gonna be really, really good, but he’s special. In a way, Oklahoma won that trade with picks and a future MVP. Great trade for both sides.”
After missing the Trail Blazers‘ past 11 games due to a knee issue, starting center Deandre Ayton was on track to return Wednesday vs. Brooklyn, but icy conditions in Portland prevented him from getting to the game, as Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report tweets. Ayton will presumably be available on Friday vs. Indiana.
Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups tried a new starting lineup on Wednesday, with Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, Malcolm Brogdon, Duop Reath, and Jabari Walker making up the 19th starting five the team has used this season. After the game, Billups explained that he wanted to make a change due to the slow starts the Blazers had been having (Twitter link via Highkin). The original plan, Billups added, was to move Shaedon Sharpe into Scoot Henderson‘s starting spot, but Sharpe is sidelined with an abdominal injury.
While Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert has been lauded for a bounce-back season on defense, he lauded his teammates for making things easier on him at the end of the court, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “We got people that can guard. We got people that can move their feet and take the challenge,” Gobert said.

Fischer’s Latest: Tucker, Suns, Warriors, Mavs, Blazers, Graham

January 17th, 2024 at 12:28pm CST by Luke Adams

After being traded from Philadelphia to the Clippers earlier this season, veteran forward P.J. Tucker is a “strong” candidate to be moved again ahead of the February 8 deadline, says Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.

According to Fischer, Washington is viewed as a potential trade destination for Tucker, who would likely be bought out if he’s sent to the Wizards. In that scenario, the Suns and Bucks would be among the teams expected to pursue the 38-year-old on the buyout market, Fischer adds.

Tucker is earning $11MM this season, with an $11.5MM player option for 2024/25, so unless he gives up a significant portion of his remaining money in a buyout agreement, he’d still have a real impact on his team’s salary cap for next season. With that in mind, the Wizards (or another trade partner) would presumably want a solid asset or two as a sweetener to take on his contract, especially if they’re also giving up a rotation-caliber player in the process.

Here’s more from Fischer:

The Suns are one of the more active teams on the trade market and have explored what a package that includes Grayson Allen and Nassir Little could bring back, Fischer reports. Those efforts are complicated by the fact that Phoenix’s draft assets consist of just four second-round picks, according to Fischer, who points out too that Allen has been arguably the team’s most important players outside of its three stars.
Although the Warriors and Mavericks have displayed interest in Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, Golden State has shown little desire to part with either Jonathan Kuminga or Moses Moody, Fischer writes. As for the Mavs, they’ve been linked to many forwards, per Fischer, including Andrew Wiggins, P.J. Washington of the Hornets, and former Mav Dorian Finney-Smith, now a member of the Nets.
Jerami Grant is the sort of player who would appeal to teams like the Mavericks and Kings, but the Trail Blazers aren’t expected to seriously consider offers for the veteran forward, according to Fischer. Portland guard Malcolm Brogdon, on the other hand, is viewed as a more viable trade candidate.
In addition to veterans like Doug McDermott and Cedi Osman, who were previously identified as trade candidates, guard Devonte’ Graham is another Spurs player who is available via trade, sources tell Fischer. Graham has been out of San Antonio’s rotation all season and has a $12.1MM cap hit for this season, with a $2.85MM partial guarantee for 2024/25, so he presumably won’t have positive value.

James Harden Hopes To Remain With Clippers Beyond Season

January 17th, 2024 at 10:11am CST by Luke Adams

Because James Harden is on a two-year deal and an NBA contract must cover at least three seasons to be extended, the Clippers star won’t become extension-eligible before he reaches free agency this summer. However, as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes, Harden indicated on Tuesday that he’s enjoying his time in Los Angeles and hopes to remain with his hometown team beyond this season.

“I’m here, home,” Harden said. “We have an opportunity. I want to be able to keep the core together for a few years and I haven’t had those opportunities the last few years. So things are going well and I’m happy.”

It took a few games for the Clippers to hit their stride following the acquisition of Harden on November 1, but the club has been on a roll since getting off to a 3-7 start, winning 23 of its past 30 games. L.A. now holds a 26-14 record, good for the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference.

Harden’s 16.9 points per game this season would be his lowest mark since he was a sixth man in Oklahoma City in 2011/12, but he’s among the NBA’s assist leaders with 8.4 per night, and his 41.9% three-point rate would represent a career high.

Prior to Harden’s postgame comments, Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and TNT reported during Tuesday’s TV broadcast that the former MVP would like to sign a long-term contract and spend the rest of his career with the Clippers. That suggests that Harden is conveying that desire both publicly and privately.

Still, as Timothy Rapp of Bleacher Report observes, this wouldn’t be the first time that Harden’s desire to spend the rest of his career with his current team was reported by the media or expressed by the guard himself, only for that not to come to fruition. Similar reports surfaced during Harden’s time in Houston, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia, and he ultimately asked to be traded out of all three spots.

Harden acknowledged on Tuesday that he “thought the same thing last year” about signing long-term in Philadelphia, per Youngmiusk, which is why he “did all those sacrifices” — that’s presumably a reference to the pay cut he took in 2022, as well as the role he accepted in the Sixers’ offense, which he later said felt like being “on a leash.”

Still, as long as his relationship with the Clippers’ front office doesn’t break down as dramatically as his relationship with Sixers president Daryl Morey did, it sounds Harden plans on remaining in L.A. past 2023/24. For what it’s worth, after Kawhi Leonard signed a three-year contract extension with the Clippers last week, he expressed a belief that “everybody is coming back,” while Paul George said he’s optimistic about reaching an agreement on a new deal of his own with the franchise.