Can somebody familiar with the CBA explain the Harden trade to me from OKC's perspective?

Naw, it was a horrible trade from jump. When you just went to the Finals with a core of 4 players, all 25 and younger, you don't get cheap and break it up. You bite the bullet and chase a dynasty.

 

Whoever thinks that OKC won that trade is an idiot, plain and simple.

Any myth or urban legend that Harden couldn't play with Westbrook and Durant needs to be slapped across the face with the fact that Harden averaged 10 shots per game during his last year as a Thunder to go along with 6 free throw attempts every night...and this was as a non-starter.

Scott Brooks and his putrid offense is more of a reason why Harden wasn't starting than the whole "Harden, Westbrook, and Durant can't play together" BS people want to make up. When all three were on the floor it was some of the best basketball I've watched in the past 10 years with Harden playing the role of distributor, Wesbrook being the slasher and Durant being Durant.....no one can convince me that that trio PLUS Ibaka wouldn't have demolished the Spurs last year.

 

Because of the trade OKC will never see another finals. Eventually Durant and Westbrook will leave to get a ring. Because OKC is in a small market it will be next to impossible to assemble a championship team again.

I say that it will eventually be a top 3 worst trade in NBA history. Morey done good.

 

They knew in the end he had to rely on the referees for his points and would not be that effective in the playoffs so they got a cheaper version in Kevin Martin.

 

So what you are saying is that a 1 year rental of Kevin Martin, a benchwarmer, and the second coming of Kendrick Perkins is better than having James Harden?

 

Wow.

You are an idiot.

 

That's funny considering Kevin Martin's career playoff numbers are comparable if not worse than Harden's career playoff numbers.

 

Not every owners are like Les Alexander. Presti was forced to trade him and took the offer he considered better at that time.

 

This is hands down the worst post in the history of this website. Perhaps the entire internet. Bravo.

 

No killer instinct eh (tbh, you know once someone says killer instinct they're trolls from lakersground, it's like how people from the south say y'all)

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It did basically win a series, but eh

 

This is unreal. I don't think even the most ardent OKC fan would argue that they got more than 50 cents on the dollar. Harden is already First-Team All-NBA and was in the top 5 in MVP votes. But one year of Kevin Martin, and Adams and Lamb are better? OKC was playing Derek Fisher big minutes in the playoffs the last two years.

 

Presti is the GM. However, he doesn't set the budget.

The Owner in OKC gave him a budget to operate under, and Presti does the best he can under the circumstances. If OKC really wanted to keep Harden, they could have bitten the bullet, amnestied/traded/kept Perkins, and made the roster work.

However, eating millions in salary and luxury taxes is a LOT easier to say as a fan than as an owner of a small market team. Fortunately for fans, some owners are more liberal with their pocket books than others.

 

They didn't want to spend the extra and thought the team was good enough to make to the finals again without Harden.

 

nice, a sample size of one. did you watch all 6 rockets playoffs games last year?

 

OKC are a small market team by choice

They're also the 5th most profitable team in the nba because of the ridiculous arena deal they get.

 

Did you? Doubtful, you do have a lakers vocabulary there, Harden's closing wasn't the issue, it was those minutes beforehand, no greater example than game 5.

 

Combo of Westbrook and Durant was enough. Im some ways I think Westbrook might still be better than Harden. The Rox gave away a solid super big with max potential 5 in Adams...

 

Gave away Adams? That's just Presti's quirky drafting ability.

 

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/OKC/draft.html Ill give Presti this... he knows how to Draft. Since 07 he has picked up a Plus rotation player in every draft.

 

We have Dwight Howard and Harden is the reason for that. I don't think houston is losing any sleep over Steven Adams. Best case scenario for him is robin Lopez which is a nice starting center but no top 5 center in the game. And Westbrook is a beast and if harden is worse (I don't think so) but if he is that's not a sloth at harden who put up 25 6 and 5 on 44% 36% his first 2 yrs with us. U know he's the only player to ever do that before age 25?

Okc lost that trade hands down and gave up on multiple rings. U wanna no how the showtime lakers won so much cause they had a team like that young okc team there. Just a lot of elite talent. They had 3 top 10 players who all have made 1st team nba before age 25. Now let that settle in and tell me they really made the right move.