NBA Rumors: Did Philadelphia 76ers fire Doc Rivers to retain James Harden?

NBA Rumors: There’s reason to believe that the Philadelphia 76ers fired head coach Doc Rivers in an attempt to retain James Harden.

As the NBA offseason quickly approaches, the Philadelphia 76ers will be heading back to the drawing board. After firing head coach Doc Rivers, the Sixers not only have to find a new head coach but they also have to try to retool their supporting cast and figure out if James Harden is going to be part of the team’s future or not.

Interestingly, two of the team’s bigger questions may be connected.

According to a recent report, the belief surrounding the Sixers is that Harden was one of the bigger “driving forces” for Rivers’ firing. If that is indeed true, that brings up a whole different wave of questions for the Sixers heading into the offseason.

Are the Philadelphia 76ers making moves to appease James Harden?

The first is, “Are the Sixers making moves to retain Harden?” It wouldn’t be all that surprising but is that the best way forward? Secondly, if this is indeed the case, where does Harden fall in line when it comes to the head-coaching candidates that will be considered? Will he have a hand in that list too?

Again, all of this is speculation on a report. But it is quite interesting.

On the other hand, perhaps this is more smoke than fire. Objectively, most teams probably fired Rivers at this point in their tenure. He’s been with the team for three years and has lost in the second round of the playoffs in each season.

It was probably time for some sort of change anyway, whether Harden was a “driving force” or not.

Nevertheless, the Sixers have some big-boy work to do this offseason. If they are going to remain amongst the Eastern Conference championship contenders heading into next season, they have several issues to address over the course of the next few months.

The replacement at the head-coaching position and Harden remain at the forefront but there are potentially other smaller moves that must be sorted out as well. From all indications, this appears to be the start of what will be an important and possibly chaotic offseason for the Sixers.

At this point, it’s hard to predict what the Sixers will look like at the start of next season. But from an outside-looking-in perspective, it does seem like the team would like to run it back with Harden and Joel Embiid at the center of everything. And that may not even be a bad plan from a macro point of view.