Harden is not god but guess what **** for brains, he is the franchise player. What kind of moronic team sides with another dude vs their franchise player? Just because everyone knows more motion needs to be done in the offense doesnt mean you challenge Harden in front of everyone else and tell the coach to sit his ass down. Cp3 forgot his place, forgot that Harden is the one who brought him here and gave him another chance to compete for a title after he fcked up in NO and in LA. More importantly instead of challenging Harden he should've worked on his game more, lost more weight and maintained his quickness and health. A leader is supposed to LEAD the change and not tell others to change for him. If he was scoring lights out instead of missing 1/4 the season due to injury and playing like trash in the playoffs then Harden would've listened to him.
He can be mad if the front office said one thing in front of his face and another behind his back. No reason for them not to be completely honest with him on what the situation is. He understands as well as anyone that this is a business.
LOL whatever bro, you dedicate yourself to a team and community and within a matter of moments you are somewhere else. Harden was emotional when he got traded too. I love how you arm chair gms are very understanding that this is a business Again the trade wasnt inherently wrong, it was how it was done. God man.
1. Harden recruited Paul. For a whole year Harden recruited Paul. All throughout the 16-17 season. Harden called him. Talked to him during Rocket/Clipper games. Talked to him during All- Star break. Harden told Paul he wanted Paul here, he needed him. They talked about sharing the basketball. They talked about roles, how they were going to play. They talked about contracts. Harden told Paul we would max him out if he opted in and asked for a trade. They also discussed playing with other players. Specifically Kevin Durant, Paul George, Lebron James, and others (Love). Lebron and Cp3 were and are close friends. Cp3 wanted to know that Harden would be agreeable if LBJ wanted to come. Harden told him YES. Harden wanted to recruit Durant and George. Cp3 was agreeable to that. 2. After talking back and forth many many times Cp3 decided to ask the Clippers to trade him to Houston by him opting in after the season before free agency in 2018. CP3 did this because Harden ASKED him to do it. We were not going to be able to create space to give CP3 a max contract without giving away one of Capela or Ego or including one of those two guys in a SnT after the moratorium. So James (after consulting with Morey and being notified that signing Paul outright to a max deal in July of 2018 would cost us Eric or Clint) asked Cp3 to go to the Clippers with the opt-in trade scenario. The Clippers wanted to keep Cp3 and had already told him they were offering him a 5- year max deal. Ballmer loved him. But Harden repeated to Cp3 what Morey had told Harden. Cp3 would not lose a dime by opting in and being traded here rather than opting out and signing a 5- year max with the Clippers. (On a side note: If Cp3 had signed a 5-year max deal in 2017 and stayed with the Clippers he would have made a little over $200 million over 5 years, his cap hit for 2019-20 would have been $43 million, and he would be on a roster with George and Kawhi...or possibly Lebron and George. All sorts of what ifs for Cp3.) Cp3 opted in because he was committed to James and the Rockets and he took a $16 million haircut to do it. Over the same 5 seasons he's going to make $184 million. Yes, that can be justified with lower cost of living, no state income tax, etc. if he plays out the deal in Texas. That's not the point. 3. When Cp3 approached the Clippers about the idea of an opt in and trade he informed them he was leaving and going to Houston but he was selling to the Clippers an opt-in trade so the Clippers could trade him and receive some value back. But, remember the real reason. He did it this way because James asked Cp3 to do it this way so we could keep both Eric and Clint. He did it because he wanted to win by playing alongside James Harden on a team that had the assets and salary cap position to add another major piece. He did this because it represented the best chance for Paul to win a championship. Look at the risk he took. He played on an ending contract to get here. Yes he had assurances. But in light of the what happened afterward.... what does that mean? We DUMPED him! What if he had suffered a terrible devastating Achilles injury (like Durant just suffered) during that 17-18 season.... that would have cost him at least a year? Do you think for one minute that we would have flipped out a 4 year max deal to Cp3 like the Nets for KD???????? The answer......... in hindsight....... is a resounding Thunderous (pun intended) ...... NO! We would have used #TwoChoppers as a convenient excuse to get out of paying Cp3 after he made the sacrifice to get here. #TwoChoppers wouldn't do it would be the excuse. And Cp3 would have been screwed out of $100+ million right there. This would have been the narrative after we had basically promised him a max deal to get him to come here. Fast forward to today. Cp3 BUSTED HIS BUTT for this franchise. He played hurt. He played on one leg last year against the Warriors until it finally give out!!!! Everything Cp3 does is about winning! Talking in the huddle??? Being bold??? Pointing out bad basketball play and giving the correct solution??? It's all about winning with Cp3. Harden knew all that. He knew what Cp3 was all about. And Harden CHOSE Cp3 to recruit him to play together. Harden can plausibly deny recruiting Dwight. He can put that off on Morey. He CANNOT deny recruiting Paul. He knew Paul's age and physical limitations when he recruited him. He knew Paul's temperament. He knew exactly how it was going to be with Paul. Harden made commitments. And Harden bailed on his commitments. Harden is MORE bullheaded and stubborn than Chris Paul is. And his character as a man of his word is now virtually non-existent.... especially when you compare his word to Cp3's word. So does Cp3 feel betrayed by Harden and Morey?????? Betrayed is putting it mildly. There's another word for it. Starts with an F. That's really how Cp3 feels here. Is that important? You tell me. Harden and this organization just screwed over the president of the players union, one of the major clients of Leon Rose, and the best friend of Lebron James, who incidentally is like the vice president of the players union. Oh Iggy??? He's up there too. Heavily involved. Do you think Iggy wants to come here now?????? Go look at the list of clients of Leon Rose and Rich Paul, Lebron's agent. How do you think those agencies feel about Harden, Morey, #TwoChoppers, and the Rockets organization?????? In case you can't figure it out..... the answer is NOT GOOD!!!! We just made a ton of enemies in the world of basketball. This hurts Morey's ability to transact and it hurts our franchises ability to attract primo free agents for the next 10 years at least. Player agents have their way of evening up the score. That's why this deal wreaks. We'll now have to pursue a championship through trades and we'll have to worry about acquiring players that lay down on us. This was a terrible deal in terms of PR. And yes, Paul and many other powerful NBA people are pissed at Morey, #TwoChoppers, Harden, and the Rockets about it.
a ton of people didn’t even like CP before he came here, and he was only here for 2 years, so people aren’t attached to him he was injured often, declined heavily, and his contract was an albatross...it’s not surprising that many aren’t singing his praises on his way out
We knew he’d decline. We signed him to the contract. Then we told him he wouldn’t be traded and sent him to a rebuilding team. I agree that he’s gonna be just fine with his hundreds of millions of dollars but that’s still doing someone dirty
Look, I understand that CP3 was butthurt a bit (and rightfully so in ways), but he signed on to with this core already in tact to win a ring. His injuries over the last 2 season came at bad times where the Rockets realized they had to go in a different direction. Now I would have loved for the Rockets to switch philosophies against the Warriors in game #6 and have Paul take over for half of the game. They wouldn''t know what hit them at all. But it didn't happen and perhaps we still lose to the Raps anyhow. I know last year we would have beaten the Cavs handily to win a ring but then we would never have gotten rid of Paul like this and added Westbrook so if we still win a ring in the coming years it's all for not.
Not sure why anyone would feel bad for CP3...the dude gets paid waaay more than he’s worth and he knew he wasn’t worth that much. He cripples any team that is trying for a championship bc of his demands. This is someone looking to get paid, while “maybe” getting a chip in the process if it happens...if he actually wanted to give his team a good chance to win he’d have taken far less.
Well said man. people don't want to understand that we have done CP3 bad and this will reflect terribly on hardne, Morey and Tilman. CP3 even at this age is a voice of reason and role model for several up and coming stars, moreso than Harden This better be our year or we not winning **** for next 5 years for as long as Harden is here.
Your first sentence disagree with your last or you dont know how business works. The front office might have said that until James or the Owner comes in and says something different. The truth is he only has himself to blame. Im not happy with the way he's acted or played so I guess what goes around comes around.
Dude half the media and people know CP3 toxic and predicted this when people like you were probably saying it would never happen. NO ONE CARES ABOUT CP3'S CROCODILE TEARS. Literally Rondo warned us all and CBS Sports did a 1 hour special on how they predicted the Rockets would get tired of paul.
I dont give a **** about any players feelings as long as we increase our chances of winning a title. Do I think wb will give is that chance !!! No and the same goes for cp3. Those players are making unfathomable amount of money, theyll be ok, and from the the way things transpired you can tell cp3 wanted out.
IT HAD BETTER WORK. Because @Clutch nailed it. We threw away our future with this move. In my opinion more in terms of relationships and doing good business more than in terms of assets and trade flexibility relinquished. IT HAD BETTER WORK!!! Because if it doesn't...... it might be time to put the screws to Harden and trade him to Toronto. Remember...... what goes around.....
We weren't winning anything with that joke of a salary and wasting our cap space for 3 more years. Voices of reason and being a role model doesn't directly add to the win column to secure a high seed (which is so important in the postseason) This sideshow drama is nothing compared to that BS LeBron pulled during last season's deadline.
