According to reports, Horford would probably be in a Thunder jersey along with KD if he felt more comfortable about KD and Westbrook's long-term status with OKC.
Guess Morey doesn't expect any stars will want to play with Harden in the next few years. He traded Harden's cheap salary during the next 2 seasons for one extra year + a player option year. Bye bye cap flexibility. GSW was able to sign KD because they had Curry on a value contract.
you want more than 10 million next year? Gotta dump Ariza and Sewer. At least Sewer will be an expiring by then and easy to get rid of.
Ah got it, for some reason I thought the last year was a player option. Good god did we get a sweet deal for him with the first extension.
I felt the same way, if KD truly wanted to stick around, he would have "gotten it out the way" very early and not have any feelings of doubt. Like LBJ, now that he's won the title, there is a very slim chance (with him, I can't say "impossible") that he leaves CLE even though he is an RFA.
So this was Morey's Plan B after not getting Durant. I'm not a capologist. Does this mean Morey is giving up on the 3-star dream? Can we still have room to get 3 superstars in the future?
If a star player wants to play here, they will. As long as we don't have toxic contracts, you can always create space by trades. Look at how KD went to GSW or Wade to Chicago. I don't see a scenario where $10mil space will make a difference.
Terrible mislabeling... We basically just lost cap space for this year...you shouldn't be able to renegotiate
Holy ****, I guess most all of us were wrong about Harden. I only recently thought he'd be tired of Rockets, I guess he likes it here. Yay!!! Houston will be relevant, maybe next year FA's or through trades we could do something. So happy he's not running to ****ty LA THANK YOU, HARDEN!!! I like that he's calling it home and not bolting (it'd be super easy right now).
This. Morey is betting on harden not turning down his biggest contract ever to go play in a "big market" team. Harden would be high on crack if he left all that money. Harden for life confirmed. After he retires hire him as a defensive assistant lol jk
I am so proud of Le$. I loved how he stood up for James. I did not even know you could renegotiate a deal like that in a the NBA. I know you could extend but I did not know you could just tear up the contract and give out more money. This just makes Durant look like more of a p***y lol.
Rockets did the classy move here. Making sure the best player on the team is getting paid the most amount of money. Ryan would have been making more than him if it wasn't for this extension. Keeping you best player happy & giving you more time to build towards the future.
totally out of left field, love it! always thought he would leave to the Lakers after this contract. Makes me excited, this is freaking awesome!
The $10mil in cap space this year was going to be wasted of we signed anyone left on this market. Extending Harden was good because he's our franchise player. I had my doubts about him staying, but this is a good indication of his current feelings about being the guy in Houston. I'll take it. I don't want to go through what OKC and Cleveland went through with their lifer franchise players. With that being said, I still think there will be a major acquisition. I felt it would be via trade before, and this extension confirms that now. It does make it more difficult, though because one of our assets goes away: the ability to take on bad contracts for no salary.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">D'Antoni said <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Warriors?src=hash">#Warriors</a> are "penciled in." Pencils have erasers. "It's not inked in." <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a></p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751862388937232384">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">James Harden: "Last year wasn't a great year for me. But it won't happen again." <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a></p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751860793222656000">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">James Harden on Durant, Warriors: "I focus on the Rockets." ... Said there's only one basketball, so you have to figure it out.</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751862225954975744">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Harden asked about studying for D'Antoni's offense. D'Antoni joked he should watch "my last team in L.A." <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lakers?src=hash">#Lakers</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Funny?src=hash">#Funny</a></p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751862607653462016">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Morey: "Now we're building a new core with James here." <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a></p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751863105487974400">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Morey said this time reminds him of 2014 FA. Everyone wrote <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a> off after Parsons left, miss on Bosh. Then went to WCF.</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751863421121929216">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">James Harden said he thinks about his legacy "all the time. "I can focus on my legacy" now that he's here long term with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a>.</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751863819639533568">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Harden: "We're going to creep up on guys." <a href="https://t.co/ElNGrzBhj0">pic.twitter.com/ElNGrzBhj0</a></p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751864468338913280">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">James Harden plans to bring <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a> together next week to start working out.</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751867912189730816">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Harden delayed his extension until <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a> could go through free agency. Wanted team to be as open as possible. Finalized Friday night.</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751868144025636864">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Outside of actual extension, biggest plus for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a> is they can now sell a "core" team to future FAs. Build around Harden, D'Antoni squad</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronBrianSmith/status/751868328184909825">July 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Cap space is overrated and everyone has taken notice of that. As long as you have tradable contracts you don't need space... at all.
