The James Harden sweepstakes have heated up and it seems that at any moment, reports could surface that James Harden is being traded from the Houston Rockets. He does not want to play for this organization anymore and with the way things are trending there, they have no shot at winning an NBA title anymore.

The former league MVP has made it known that he wants to be traded to a championship contender and the few teams that are apparently on his list are the Brooklyn Nets, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, and Philadelphia 76ers. 

All five of these teams were playoff teams last year and have high championship aspirations entering the 2020-21 NBA season. The biggest questions that remain though are if these five teams even want Harden and if they are willing to sell their soul to the Houston Rockets in order to acquire him.

Everything about the James Harden-Houston Rockets saga is dreadful and neither side is going to come out of this situation without long-term, negative effects. No matter where Harden goes, he is going to be heavily criticized and judged and if he does not win a title this year, the slander will be even worse. 

For the Rockets, the way they have handled this situation is even worse. What superstar or All-Star level player is going to want to come play for this organization after seeing the way they handled this situation with Harden? They have proved to everyone around the league that they do not care about what their best player wants and as a result, this will have a big-time, negative effect on their reputation moving forward.

At the end of the day, James Harden is going to be traded at some point this season, it is just a matter of when. Here are 4 players the Houston Rockets must target when they decide to trade James Harden.