{"id":746364,"date":"2026-05-28T17:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/746364\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T17:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:33:14","slug":"central-notes-harden-pacers-giddey-pistons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/746364\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Harden, Pacers, Giddey, Pistons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking to Marc J. Spears of Andscape<\/a>, Cavaliers guard James Harden<\/a> admitted he\u2019s \u201cstarting to think about\u201d life after basketball but believes he\u2019s still a little ways away from retirement, noting that he \u201cdefinitely\u201d wants to play 20 seasons. The former MVP will be entering his 18th year in the NBA in 2026\/27.<\/p>\n

Harden, who said in his post-game media session after the Cavaliers\u2019 season came to an end on Monday that he wants to stay in Cleveland<\/a>, expressed the same sentiment to Spears. The veteran guard is confident that the Cavs can be even better next season after he has a full offseason and training camp with the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the guys I\u2019m willing to do whatever it takes,\u201d Harden said to Spears. \u201cSo, if I got to play off the ball, less shots, I\u2019m willing to do it. I have no problem with that. You can come talk to me about anything and I\u2019m willing to do it. That was the mindset. \u2026 I think having a full year will definitely help coming off this push. \u2026 Coming into my 18th year, I don\u2019t have no pride. I just want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Central:<\/p>\n

The Pacers are holding a pair of pre-draft workouts this week, with Nimari Burnett<\/a> (Michigan), Tucker DeVries<\/a> (Indiana), Sam Hoiberg<\/a> (Nebraska), Emanuel Sharp<\/a> (Houston), Peter Suder<\/a> (Miami), and Seth Trimble<\/a> (UNC) visiting the team on Thursday and MJ Collins<\/a> (Utah State), Barry Dunning<\/a> (Pitt), Nate Johnson<\/a> (Kansas State), Jaxon Kohler<\/a> (Michigan State), Kowacie Reeves<\/a> (Georgia Tech), and Ernest Udeh<\/a> (Miami) participating in Friday\u2019s session, the team announced in a press release<\/a>. Indiana doesn\u2019t currently own a 2026 draft pick, but the team is doing its due diligence since it could trade back into the draft and will likely add a few undrafted free agents to its training camp roster.
\nJosh Giddey<\/a> signed a four-year, $100MM contract with the Bulls last summer and is owed more long-term guaranteed money than anyone else on the roster. However, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the 23-year-old is viewed as a franchise cornerstone, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times<\/a>, who suggests we need more time to get a better sense of how highly new head of basketball operations Bryson Graham values Chicago\u2019s point guard.
\nYossi Gozlan of The Third Apron<\/a> (Substack link) evaluates the Pistons\u2018 upcoming offseason, considering whether or not it would make sense for the team to operate under the cap to try to pursue an impact free agent, given the trade-offs that would accompany that approach. Gozlan also explores how the team could add more offensive help with two non-shooters \u2013 Jalen Duren<\/a> and Ausar Thompson<\/a> \u2013 about to get more expensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Cavaliers guard James Harden admitted he\u2019s \u201cstarting to think about\u201d life…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[91897,7,14883,91898,113,126,3866,560,9083,965,91899,81375,2441,6,15010,114,74820,8968,7148,7952],"class_list":["post-746364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-barry-dunning","tag-basketball","tag-emanuel-sharp","tag-ernest-udeh","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-james-harden","tag-jaxon-kohler","tag-josh-giddey","tag-kowacie-reeves","tag-mj-collins","tag-nate-johnson","tag-nba","tag-nimari-burnett","tag-pacers","tag-peter-suder","tag-sam-hoiberg","tag-seth-trimble","tag-tucker-devries"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116653405281288195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}