Cup of Cavs: The James Harden saga continues to impact the East

The first sip

James Harden is so freaking funny.

Harden, who requested a trade earlier this summer, has been pretty quiet on that front. Until now, when overseas in a room full of teenagers, Harden made a lot of noise. He has raise the temperature all the way up by publicly calling Daryl Morey a liar and seemingly at some handshake, totally under the table agreements with the 76ers. We have not seen a player ever get this close to exposing how the business works.

It’s also worth remembering that Harden’s trade demand, as well as the Damian Lillard trade saga, are the two big NBA trade stories still hanging out there. And both — but for the sake of this blog, we’ll focus on the Harden one — really impacts the East. Harden actually not playing for the 76ers — and maybe going West — maybe takes a contender off the board. And it impacts Joel Embiid, who is maybe the next star to hit the trade market. And that impacts the East too, whether he leaves the conference or is a New York Knick in the near future. (That impacts Donovan Mitchell’s future too, perhaps.)

The ripple effects are still be felt from what this Harden saga unfolds. Remember that as it unfolds.

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