James Harden, during last year's offseason, took a huge pay cut to stay with the Philadelphia 76ers in hopes that the front office could make an addition that would help the Joel Embiid-led core get over the hump. Not even a year later, and here the Sixers are, having exited the playoffs in the second round once again, fueling rumors even further regarding a potential Harden departure from the City of Brotherly Love.

In fact, these rumors are nothing new. Starting around December 2022, many sources, including Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, believed that there was mutual interest between the Houston Rockets and Harden's camp regarding a potential reunion. But now, the loud sentiment is that the Rockets now believe that Harden's camp was only using that rumor as leverage to get as huge of a contract as possible from the Sixers.

Whatever the case may be, the Sixers reportedly now have greater hope relative to the past few weeks that James Harden would end up re-signing with the franchise in free agency.

“For the Sixers, a return to Philadelphia doesn’t seem as bleak as it did a month ago. There’s varying levels of belief that Harden could re-sign with the Sixers depending on who you talk to,” Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote. “Sources have said the Sixers are more optimistic that he’ll re-sign. Perhaps that’s why there’s a report that Harden is “giving renewed consideration to staying put.”

That should be music to Sixers fans' ears, regardless of how disappointing James Harden's Game 7 performance against the Boston Celtics was. They won't have much room to make a major free agency addition should Harden choose to depart in free agency (unless they deal Tobias Harris' expiring deal), so getting Harden to re-commit should go a long way towards ensuring that Nick Nurse's Sixers remain as competitive, if not more so, than last season's team.

Nevertheless, the Sixers reportedly don't want to pay Harden a maximum contract, so that will remain a major roadblock in future negotiations. But it appears both parties are now more willing to meet each other in the middle, if the Sixers' reported optimism is anything to go by.