Harden To South Beach? NBA Odds Favor Miami To Land James Harden

• James Harden is favored to be traded by the NBA trade deadline with -140 odds.
• The Miami Heat have +250 odds to land James Harden.

MIAMI – With the NBA season less than a month away, the trade rumors surrounding the former MVP of the league, James Harden have started to heat up as he has added more teams to his desired destinations.

When the trade rumors first started, Harden had only mentioned that he wanted to land either with the Philadelphia 76ers or the Brooklyn Nets.

Now he has added the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat to the mix.

James Harden has added the Bucks and Heat to his preferred trade destinations along with 76ers and Nets, per @ShamsCharania pic.twitter.com/TdZIaXtTxC

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 10, 2020

With those trade destinations being released, online sportsbooks now have odds on if Harden will be traded by the trade deadline as well as which team he will end up with.

Starting with even if Harden will be traded, all signs are pointing to him being on his way out of Houston. He has made it clear that he does not like the direction that the organization is going and wants to play for a competitor. Also, Houston has already traded away Russell Westbrook who wanted out of Houston for the same reason.

With their franchise player wanting to jump ship, Houston could look at this as an opportunity to rebuild and gather picks.

Where things get tricky though is the asking price for Harden. Harden is easily a top-10 player in the league which sounds good on paper, but in reality, Houston will want something of equal value in order to even consider pulling the trigger on any trade. Some potential suitors for Harden, such as the Nets which are one of his target destinations, have already said they would not consider trading Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant for him.

That being said, these NBA odds could go either way as the NBA is very unpredictable but, being that it is difficult to trade a player of Harden's caliber, NBA bettors could look to make a profit on Harden not being traded.

The four teams that are on Harden’s desired destinations, the Miami Heat, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, and Milwaukee Bucks, are all staggered throughout the odds board.

The Heat are seen as the favorites here being that they have the most reasonable pieces to offer. The real question here is if Miami is willing to part ways with their young pieces. What is really driving their odds at the top is that when Harden announced his desired landing spots, Jimmy Butler showed his appreciation by liking one of the posts on social media.

Following the Heat are the Brooklyn Nets and surprisingly so. The Nets are clearly one of Harden’s top landing spots as he was teammates with Kevin Durant back in Oklahoma City and he also has a great relationship with Kyrie Irving as well.

Just recently, however, the Rockets have made it clear that if they were to trade Harden to Brooklyn, they would not settle for anything less than Irving or Durant which could be an issue considering that the duo has yet to play a game together.

That being said, the Nets' odds might look enticing, but more money can be found in another team’s odds.

As for the Philadelphia 76ers, they are sitting with the fourth-longest odds but could possibly have the best chance at landing the former MVP. Like Houston, the 76ers also have trade rumors amongst their organization surrounding Ben Simmons.

Of the teams on Harden’s list, Philadelphia would be the most willing team as they have been actively looking for a trade partner for Ben Simmons. Knowing that, NBA bettors should take advantage of the longshot situation here.

The Milwaukee Bucks have the longest odds and unsurprisingly. The Bucks have plenty of issues of their own to worry about other than James Harden such as resigning Giannis Antetokounmpo. Also, the Bucks have just acquired Jrue Holiday as well so there is no need for Harden right now on Milwaukee.