I'll give you leadership, I'm not saying 1a, like you said, he wasn't the best player on the court. It's like you're telling me Lebron was the 1b in 16 championship win. The smarter part, if you can't understand that, you're just hating because I don't agree with your insane idea that Harden is like Westbrook. Westbrook will jack up terrible shots, even when his teammates are open, and even make his teammates worse. As in, he'll make consistently bad plays, as opposed to James Harden making the right plays, getting the ball to the open man, let his teammates touch the ball. Of course, people are now claiming that the right plays at the final quarters in the series w/ GSW were bad plays and rather would see him take bad shots because he's the leader of the team. That's exactly what Westbrook would do, and Harden did the opposite. Dedication to the sport is showing up and not being afraid to talk honestly in post-game, out there recruiting for his franchise and team, garnering team support inside and out of Houston constantly, making sure we're in the conversation for free agency plays so we can put together a better team in the off-season. The leadership part, you just talked about CP's leadership to say he was better than Harden. So how can you not know what I'm referring to here? Harden is out there training with the young guys and developing them, making them part of the team even before the season starts. Cp himself praises Harden for his leadership. So... what do you not understand about this? This means Harden took a team from 2nd from bottom of West Conf and took them to a top-4 seed in the playoffs. Made it to the semi-finals with everyone in and out of the damn lineup with a lot of volatility because the roster wasn't solidified yet. Tuck talked about this in his post, why Harden is the MVP of the league. We had Gary Clark starting in a few games for crying out loud. If it was Westbrook? Barely 8th seed and not even get out of the first round. KD? Jumped the ship to join a 73-win Warriors team. Lets say Zion becomes an MVP winner, which is very much possible. I'm very very confident, Harden outperforms Zion in the same predicament, and I wouldn't be surprised if Zion eventually decides to jump ship too. That's what I mean by Harden is out here handling the situation instead of breaking under pressure. You're right that they're not coming out and saying they regret their picks at the time. But the media has flipped the script now, and Russell Westbrook is improving, yet no more MVP awards even with 3 straight seasons of averaging triple doubles. No praise, just criticisms, and Russell Westbrook isn't taking it well either on media conferences. You don't care to argue this? Really? You're the one bringing up the summit on a whimsical remark I made towards the OP. And here you are all butt-hurt, and comparing me to your 9 year old, even after I tried to brush this off by telling you what I'm referring to as a "bandwagon fan". And you STILL didn't get what point I'm making. You think somehow I'm here to personally attack you because you don't even read properly on the posts I'm making. I said I have a few friends that have the same opinion as you, and those friends are all bandwagon fans. That's what I find ridiculous, that you somehow have this idea that trading Harden for Zion is a good move to make when you don't even know if he's going to reach MVP-level, and you speak on the same intellectual level as my friends. I find it highly suspicious that you truly stay awake and watch the games. I've witnessed Harden's greatness on court, I cannot say enough about Harden and how hard it is to come by such talent. Yet you want to blow it up because you think we won't have a shot next season, even with us willing to spend into LT. Finally, back on to your point. Here's the difference. Westbrook has an all-star playmate, who was an MVP candidate in PG, and he's never made it past the 1st round in 2 seasons playing with him. Harden, on the other hand, has made multiple Conference Finals appearances, once without any all-star playmate. Also, Harden is getting knocked off by GSW in 3 playoff meets (who are "technically" the best team ever put together), whereas Russell Westbrook is running into teams he's supposedly able to beat with rosters that supposedly have more talent. These are huge post-season differences in success. You were telling me that it doesn't translate in the playoffs, yet why is there this discrepancy? The parallel you claim is in "style of play", yet their styles of play are totally different. Russell Westbrook's style of play is 100% reliant on his athletic ability and stamina, while Harden does not. Harden, therefore, has longevity on his side, and can still play very well against teams that have freakishly athletic players on the opposing team.
So your reasoning of getting rid of Harden is we are not winning a championship with this squad. But what happens after we blow it up and rebuild? We'd be hoping for one of our draft picks turns into a Harden-esque player and that's at least 5-7 years away from now, if we are extremely lucky. Philly went through hell to be where they are today and they are still nowhere near a championship. So no, the idea of trading Harden is asinine.
Because Harden can still improve we have no idea what teams are going to do, if KD leaves and Klay leaves, etc. Morey can spend into LT in upcoming season, can make a lot of moves MDA might get fired, or be forced to change his philosophy Plenty of upsides, even if the odds are against us. How about everyone else's potential risks against Zion? Can be a bust Can get chronic injuries (Greg Oden) Never develop a reliable jump shot Never learn to play well against higher competition in NBA, myriad of 7 fters here who can guard him, score on him, etc. Lands in a bad organization who doesn't know how to develop him properly Style of play doesn't translate in NBA
Harden + CP3 for Zion and a bad contract would not work because the salaries would not match. Also, if we are taking on a bad contract that will prevent us from signing a superstar which is what CP3 contract is currently doing. So I don’t see how this makes us any better.
No harden is guaranteed (barring injury) top 20 player for like at least 6 more years . He can definitely pull a dirk type renaissance. His game is built off strength and skill not explosive athleticism . He is explosive , don't get me wrong , but he isn't elite there . Zion is total unknown . Sure , he's a great athlete , but that means only so much in the NBA. His skills are totally unproven at the next level and he might not be good enough to take a team to the playoffs for multiple years , let alone excel in them . Donovan Mitchell performed well in the playoffs , but rookies being great (while becoming more frequent) is still more the exception than the rule . Paul's deal ends in 3 years . We can plan for max space when Paul comes off the books. So I'll take another year of a decent playoff run , maybe we get incredibly lucky or someone improves unexpectedly
Lol then harden would be on New Orleans . AD would probably choose to stay . It would be like the harden and Howard show but down in New Orleans and with AD (duh)
NO would be dumb to do that You have the first pick and can trade AD for another top 5 pick plus fillers If I was a GM with the first pick, and didn’t have all stars already on my team(AD don’t count cause he still wants out), I would never trade the first pick for a superstar over the age of 27. Just accept the rebuild and try to build a decade long team with young potential. Not waste the first pick on a aging superstar. That’s ****ing stupid unless AD says he’ll stay with harden, but you still only get 2-3 years of all star level play from
trade away probably one of the greatest players to ever play the game in his prime for a rookie? lmao
No, but Morey better be hounding Pelinka about that #4 pick. NYK has a better offer for AD (DSJ, Knox, #3, 2 Dallas 1sts) and there are no other better deals for LA than CP3, EGo and Capela. It opens up tons of cap and we can draft Darius Garland who's a stud.
Moronic. Ofc we want to keep Harden who is one of the best three players in the league (on a good day the best). I wish we could restructure the team (**** this awful system), but even if we don't Harden alone will make us contenders.
