On July 1, with the official opening of the NBA free agent market, it also ushered in a wave of transactions and signings. The Clippers are also officially shooting today. According to Shams of The Athletic, Harden plans to sign the Clippers to a two-year, $70 million contract extension with a player option for the second year. At the same time, in the free agent market, the Clippers made a quick move and signed Porter Jr., who was swept away by the Rockets. In addition, the Clippers and George's contract extension has not made any progress, and the Clippers revealed that he has little hope of staying with the Clippers, and there are only two ways to go in the future, one is to sign first and then trade, and the other is to sign to other teams freely. In addition, the Clippers are also looking to trade them after Westbrook and Tucker execute their contracts.
First of all, looking at Harden's contract extension, 70 million for 2 years, and the player option for the last year, it is obvious that Harden has made a big concession, the 3500 annual salary is slightly below the market value, and the most important thing is that there is only a two-year contract, which requires a lot of courage to make compromises. In fact, Harden can use his status as a free agent to ask the Clippers for a multi-year pension contract like George. From this point of view, Harden has now figured out that the Los Angeles Clippers are a hometown team after all, although the roster is too old to have a small chance of competing for the championship, but he still wants to leave the last dance in his hometown and start the CBA journey he has always dreamed of.
Secondly, looking at the Clippers' signing of the thorny Porter Jr., I have to say that the Clippers are really obsessed with collecting these talented players with problematic personalities. Porter Jr. has good personal ability, but because of his personality problems, he has not developed well in the Cavaliers and Rockets. He was traded to the Thunder by the Rockets at the beginning of last season and then cut and went to Europe to play for a while. Now that his life has undergone so many major changes, I hope he can turn back as a prodigal son. His addition can be a good complement to the Clippers guard line, because he has the ability to be a two-way guard, can be a knife guard next to Harden, or can play a backup point guard.
Harden stayed in the team for 70 million for 2 years, and Porter Jr. joined the backcourt, which also directly shows the team-building strategy of the Clippers this year. One is that he is unwilling to give older players big contracts and lock up the future reconstruction space, so George, who asks for a pension contract with the highest salary, basically can't keep it. The second is the younger signing of Porter Jr. in the backcourt, coupled with the incompatibility of Wei Shao and Harden, so Wei Shao and Tucker, these older players, are basically leaving. The Clippers have been strong on paper this season, but injuries and age issues have highlighted, and timely adjustments are needed. There will definitely be bigger multi-party transactions coming next, so let's wait and see.