[Harden Trade] Jeremy Lamb & Steven Adams Watch

I lold

 

Actually he's 24/28 for all 3 games and 7/8 in FTs the last 2 games. Kendrick who?

Obviously these numbers won't continue into the regular season, but Adams can run the floor, catch & finish and even showed a couple of post moves. Maybe he can average ~11/8 while KD is gone.

 

It's just pre-season but Adams' stats look like he's trying to step up his game offensively.

I would never take back that trade, but can you imagine if we ended up retaining Adams somehow? Beverly and Adams would be the most aggravating defenders the league while Howard locks down the paint and Ariza the perimeter. Even a mediocre Harden on defense would put us in top 3 NBA defense.

 

It will never justify having a chance to have three top 10 players, and another top 30, all under the age of 25, when you just went to the Finals. You do everything you can to keep that core together. It's damn near impossible to assemble a core like that in the first place.

 

1 superstar > 2 role players.

 

Because breaking up a core like that is utterly stupid. It is almost impossible to assemble a core of 4 players that young that are that successful playing together and don't mind playing together (Harden was happy off the bench, how rare is that). You can never win when you have the ideal situation and say "f it" because you are cheap.

 

um when the trade was made, there was no guarantee that marc gasol would be an allstar...he was the 48th pick in the draft.

 

it's a fun thought, but as others have said, we probably don't have Howard without having a high-performing Harden. It's easy to forget how much the league was surprised by the elevation of his production and offense with starter's minutes in Houston. This had to be enticing to Howard, given Harden's age and a good organization.

 

What I meant was, if Morey had pulled off the Harden trade WITHOUT giving up the pick which turned into Adams. For example if we signed Lin for less, or instead of signing Lin earlier in the off-season maybe sign and trade someone else?

 

I don't fault OKC for it. Given their ownership's adverse spending habits, Presti had to work with a set of monetary parameters. It's debatable whether or not they could have kept Ibaka, Westbrook, Harden, and Durant but imo Harden was ready to bail for a max contract no matter what and Ibaka with the right agent could command very close to a max being the elite defender that he is - something like Hibbert money.

It's the same problem Golden State will face soon. They can't possibly retain Curry, Klay, Harrison Barnes, Iggy, Bogut, AND David Lee. They'll prob make a similar choice (keep the franchise Curry, keep a big, and try their best to keep Klay). But imo Barnes, Iggy, and Bogut are on their way to being overpaid in a few seasons.

 

Then stop being cheap owners and give him a max contract, so you can keep your "almost impossible to get" situation intact. At the least, for the last year of his rookie deal before you have to pay any extra costs. It's not debatable that they could have kept all 4. They could have, but were too cheap to do so.

 

Since nobody's posted it yet, here are Lamb's percentages:

31% from the field(15/48)
18% from 3 (3/17)

It's taken him 48 shots and 25 free throws to get 53 points.

 

Howard doesn't come here if we don't have Harden....

 

He's saying if we somehow managed to trade for Harden and kept that pick. Note he includes Harden at the end...

 

On the trading block now.

I haven't seen Lamb play much at all. Does he still show signs of potential?

 

30-10-9 for Harden in 37 minutes

3 points for Lamb in 3 minutes

Huge point per minute advantage for the Thunder last night.

Presti is a genius.

 

the oldest looking 21 year old white guy I have seen.