Well to be fair, a good GM will probably use Head to get Harden just to excite the fan base and get them to come to the arena. Thats the kind of exciting move that separates great GM's from crappy GM's.
IF Harden continues his upward climb, then he is going to demand a max salary eventually. Do you think the Thunder will give him that?
I said it BEFORE the playoffs began: James Harden is my early pick for Sixth Man of the Year next season. I think this kid is the second coming of Jason Terry, only perhaps better. People have overlooked him, largely because of his willingness to take a reserve role for the good of his team (a reason why OKC took him over Evans) to allow a defensive stopper like Sefalosha to start over him. He's got the stroke. He's got the handles. He's a complete offensive player. The defense isn't great, but it's not bad either. OKC is building around KD, Westbrook, Ibaka, Perkins and Harden. Harden's not for sale.
Is it really that hard to understand? Their salaries will resemble that of the spurs in tim.durant max,westbroook will be close to it,ibaka and hraden will be 8 to 9m types, once you assmble a good young core,you need to pay them accordingly.
Agreed. He's pretty much as untouchable as Ibaka. Untouchable in the sense of "why the heck would they trade him" way more so than "he's an mvp candidate. The NBA playoffs spotlight on role players/ non-stars is like NCAA tourney for draft prospects, somebody puts together a few solid games and suddenly everyone is salivating over him. Both Harden and Ibaka are good players. Both are role players doing a good job on a contending team. Let's not pretend like they're franchise players.
100% agree with everything you said except Harden's defense has improved a lot this season and I'm not sure if he will come off the bench next season. There are two ways of looking at it: Harden should continue to be their big scoring punch off the bench and finish games or he should start and it's on Sam Presti to find another 6th man to take that role next year.
Would it really make sense to start Harden alongside Westbrook and Durant? I like the balance in the current rotation.
I don't think starting Harden would be the best thing. The problem is Thabo was so pathetic on offense this season it makes people wonder. All he has to do is hit the wide-open corner 3, but he is miserable. Another consideration is Ibaka's growing offense. If he makes another big jump next season, OKC should be fine starting games. After he was made starter, there were several times where he had 8-10 points in the first quarter as teams focused on the big 2. Remember when Scola would do that with Yao and McGrady? I'd keep Harden as 6th man and just bring him into the game earlier unless Thabo was having success locking up the best scorer on the other team. Next season, the important thing with Harden is to get his minutes up to about 30 and have him finish.
As a basketball fan I love the guy. I love that OKC picked him up at the third pick. I love that he fits with that unit and could easily fit on pretty much any roster in the league. He has an unmatched intensity and he performs in the clutch. As a former wildcat I hate him. Come on, he's an ASU guy...
Favorite non-Rocket. I actually lived in the dorms with him freshman year at ASU. Very quiet but nice overall when I would see him out at parties.
If the OP is serious, then THAT above is your Herrerra knockoff. My take: the beard's got Jedi powers.
LOL! Every guy that plays good in the playoffs wont end up on the Rockets roster one day. M<orey should have dealt for them befor ethey played good. I know tats hard to understand the concept but Morey at one point has to gamble on guys good enough to eventually break out like Harden did, like a Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo. This is a guessing game. If her were good enough he would have agood idea as to how to get these guys before they come into their own like these players though. Its pretty hard to do. As it stands we can not get these guys now unless something spectacular happens for us and rare.
This thread = what? Why would the Rockets even want Harden? They have Martin and IMO C.Lee is starting material (and was a starter on team that went to the finals) so why give up anything for Harden? I don't think he has superstar potential. You can argue that Lee is just as good as him because his defense is FAR superior than Hardens and it's not like Lee can't score. I think we need to look at the regular season and Harden's inconsistencies instead of him just getting hot for a few playoff games. Then we end up overpaying for him similar to Ariza. Besides I think the Thunder really like Harden so oh well.
Harden is a nice young player, but no way I would trade Martin for him. C & SF are all we need to be thinking about as a priority. If we move around guys at PG, SG or PF in the process, I don't mind, but only as part of a bigger deal to address our needs.
Not that the thread isnt terrible but i think that if we got harden we would be trading either martin or scola for him... and at that point we are full blown rebuilding so position strength doesnt matter. We just need to find potential stars which harden is. I think the reaction over one game is insane but i have loved harden for a while and would have been exstatic if we had say traded scola for him at the deadline. Hardens defense is actually really good. Anyways like you said its not happening.
