Colorado’s Fort Collins — It’s possible that the Philadelphia 76ers won’t have to wait much longer to see James Harden

Although Harden was not present for the Philadelphia Eagles’ first practice on Tuesday morning at Moby Arena on the Colorado State University campus, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Harden is anticipated to travel to Colorado as soon as later on Tuesday to join the team for training camp.

Sources told Wojnarowski that it is unclear at this time whether or when Harden will take part in practice.

Coach Nick Nurse of the 76ers stated, “I do know that he wasn’t here today,” during practice on Tuesday. “As we have stated, if he arrives tomorrow, we will prepare to make some changes to things.

“We’ll observe the situation.”

Harden also skipped Monday’s media day in Camden, New Jersey, where Nurse, the president of basketball operations for the 76ers, and Harden’s teammates all voiced optimism and hope that this issue could be resolved.

In light of this, reports claim that Harden received the 25% of his contract that he was supposed to get by Sunday on Friday, having already received the 25% payment that was supposed to be given to him on July 1.

The 76ers will also continue to run on two timelines while they wait for Harden to return: one in which he is back in the fold and another in which he is not.

The nurse mentioned having a Monday plan A and plan B. Following his first practice as head coach of Philadelphia, he said that his time managing the Toronto Raptors at the beginning of the 2018–19 season, when he had to assimilate Kawhi Leonard into a well-established team and Toronto went on to win the championship, had helped him adapt to the 76ers.

Nurse stated, “I don’t think it’s been much of a distraction at all so far.” “To begin with, I’m grateful for this second opportunity to start with a fresh team. There are numerous tasks to complete in order to bring the personnel up to date and keep everyone in the building sort of in sync. There is a ton of work to be done on it.

“Let me simply add that there are occasionally discussions about it that maybe take a few minutes each day. That’s all for now. That’s not too horrible, then. Once more, I believe the players are doing an excellent job of paying attention to what we’re doing and making an effort to pick up some of the new ideas and concepts that we’re attempting to apply. Thus, that is our only option.”

As opposed to the Ben Simmons predicament from two years ago, Harden’s teammates seem to have no ill will toward him and are still hopeful that he will return.

Tyrese Maxey expressed his excitement about the prospect of Harden returning to the 76ers in the near future. “We would love to have him back with us as a brotherhood, but right now we have to concentrate on practice today.”

The 76ers will practice in Colorado until Friday before taking a plane to Boston to play the Celtics in the preseason opener on Sunday at TD Garden (6 p.m. ET, ESPN).