A lot of the posts on this thread (when we actually landed Harden) were hilarious too - http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=227853. Lot's of hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing, but also some guarded optimism.
To me, it's the results that matter. You can console yourself that you made the "right" decision, but that doesn't pay the mortgage.
Heh, being compared to Bigtexxx hurts the most I think. I did say I was wrong twice before though, it's just buried somewhere in my posts. I heard that Oden had mismatch legs or something? That they were different lengths, I guess that could have been a alarm that he would have so many knee problems. I really thought he'd be a dominant center too, he had a soft touch around the rim and had natural defensive instincts and I agree, given that they already had Roy it made a lot more sense to draft Oden. Any ways, I'll continue to take the punishment for the Harden thing! At least I wasn't one of those people that thought Martin would fill in for Harden just fine at OKC though!
She has no interest in basketball whatsoever. She was a big fan of Matt Maloney- that's when I first met her. But other than certain players, she could care less. She doesn't understand why Harden would grow his beard that long- thought that maybe he could move faster without it. She's very smart in everything but basketball. And she picks an unlikely winner once in a while.
this might sound like a ridiculous and stupid post now, but back in 2011, martin was actually better than harden
Better scorer statistically yes, but he was not a better player, nor did he have the potential Harden had. Martin is just a gross NBA player.
Back in 1999 Steve Francis was better than LeBron... Martin was Mr. 3 quarters, Harden was and still is a young stud who beast in the 4th.
Funny thing was, anyone who really paid attention to OKC when Harden was still there already KNEW that Harden was the 2nd best player on that team. Those couple times we beat them in OKC (when C.Lee went off and some other miraculous junk happened), the truth is, the real reason we won is because Brooks kept letting Westbrick take the ball OUT of Harden's hands. Had Brooks just let Harden 'do what he does', then we would never had been able to come back against them. So actually, not only did I gain a serious RE-appreciation of Harden while he was still there (I had hoped and dreamed that we would somehow manage to draft him when he came out), but I *also* became firmly convinced that Westbrick is and will remain a permanent albatross around that organization's neck - as long as he plays an integral role on that team, that team will never win a championship. It's not that I particularly dislike the guy, and he's a good player.. he just.. goes berserk at the worst times. It's a part of who he is. Until he overcomes that fatal flaw, that team is cursed. To which I say: GOOD. I hope he plays there another ten years
I'll say I liked the trade but did not like Harden before he was a Rocket. I do now. If I can change, you can change. We all can change.
I wish we could do something like this with the "experts" and sports commentators on ESPN. I remember so many of them saying how OKC won the trade and how Harden's his ceiling was Joe Johnson.
Why are you guys letting JayGoogle have it when this dude said he would rather have Gibson than Harden?
