{"id":451409,"date":"2026-02-03T15:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/451409\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:35:09","slug":"los-angeles-clippers-james-harden-exploring-trade-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/451409\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Clippers, James Harden exploring trade, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">INGLEWOOD, Calif. &#8212; The LA Clippers and guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/james-harden\/395388\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/james-harden\/395388\" target=\"_blank\">James Harden<\/a> are working through whether the sides can find a deal by Thursday&#8217;s NBA trade deadline, sources told ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/team-page\/cleveland-cavaliers\/5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/team-page\/cleveland-cavaliers\/5\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>\u00a0are one of the teams expressing serious interest in Harden, with the sides discussing a Harden for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/darius-garland-358181\/1134262\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/darius-garland-358181\/1134262\" target=\"_blank\">Darius Garland<\/a>\u00a0swap, sources told Charania. The 26-year-old Garland, a two-time All-Star averaging 18.0 points and 6.9 assists in 26 games this season, is dealing with a right foot injury and has not played since Jan. 14.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Harden, 36, has veto power over any trade because he&#8217;s technically under contract for only this season. The second year of the two-year, $81.5 million deal he agreed to this past offseason is a player option, which isn&#8217;t fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Harden sat out Sunday&#8217;s win in Phoenix and Monday&#8217;s home loss to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/team-page\/philadelphia-76ers\/20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/team-page\/philadelphia-76ers\/20\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>\u00a0for personal reasons, according to the team. Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said before Monday&#8217;s game that Harden was at his home in Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">After the game &#8212; a 128-113 loss &#8212; Lue said he couldn&#8217;t comment on any trade discussions but added that Harden &#8220;means a lot&#8221; to the franchise. When asked if he hoped Harden would be with the Clippers past the trade deadline, Lue said, &#8220;Who wouldn&#8217;t want to have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/james-harden\/395388\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/james-harden\/395388\" target=\"_blank\">James Harden<\/a>?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Harden has helped lead the Clippers back into contention for a play-in spot after a dismal 6-21 start. Harden recently told ESPN that he felt &#8220;blessed&#8221; to be playing in his hometown of Los Angeles and was confident the Clippers could &#8220;come all the way back&#8221; from their poor start to the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Clippers are Harden&#8217;s fifth team after stints in\u00a0Oklahoma City, Houston, Brooklyn\u00a0and Philadelphia. LA acquired Harden from the 76ers in 2023 to pair with superstars <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/kawhi-leonard\/512591\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/kawhi-leonard\/512591\" target=\"_blank\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/paul-george\/469218\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nba\/player\/paul-george\/469218\" target=\"_blank\">Paul George<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">George left for Philadelphia as a free agent in summer 2024 and was recently suspended 25 games\u00a0for a violation of the NBA&#8217;s drug policy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Harden recently passed Shaquille O&#8217;Neal for ninth on the NBA&#8217;s all-time scoring list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. &#8212; The LA Clippers and guard James Harden are working through whether the sides can find&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,185674,75911,82],"class_list":["post-451409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-james-harden-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-395388","tag-los-angeles-clippers-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-12","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}