Woj: Inside look at James Harden's trade to Rockets

Don't worry. We are giving up our pick almost assuredly, because we'll make the playoffs as a 5-8 seed and finally have to fulfill our agreement with the Nets from the TWill trade.

So there you have it. No lotto picks, no Toronto pick, zero chance at getting a top young player in the draft now. This is all or nothing. Harden is a top 20 player now, but can he become to 10? Top 5? Because our franchise STILL has zero shot at a title in the next five years if not.

 

if that happens, then you are an extremely young 5-8 seed with enough cap space to sign a max guy or close. You are on your way to contention.

But it won't happen, you still look like a 30 win team tbh. i just don't think you are a bottom 3 team anymore. You look more like Detroit or the Nets over the last few years, 5-9 mid lottery range.

 

Or you were wrong all along.

So adamant that they would NEVER let go of Harden and there was even less chance they'd take a package we'd offer that included Lamb.

Fact is, they didn't NEED him to be a superstar from the bench, and so they made the play to accumulate assets to support the superstars that they DO have and do need.

 

well it's fairly obvious i was wrong all along. the trade did happen, didn't it?
i'm not sure what you expect me to say. i'm not a teenager, i'm not going to battle reality, so you'll have to look elsewhere if that's what you expect.
i'm just trying to understand the reasons why such a trade would happen when it made no sense a month ago.

 

This trade seems kinda like that Drexler trade from back in the day

 

I think Harden is not that good of a goto player especially if you take out his flopping that is a big big part of his game, but we gave up nothing in my mind for him. When lamb develop (3years for now I thing) who I think going to be a great player he will be close to be a free agent. We can always get him if presented. Well done move.

 

Harden was great enough in the western conference playoffs to get the hinder to the finals. That he might have struggled a bit guarding Lebron or Wade? Yeah... And? Who doesn't? Westbrook struggled guarding Mario Chalmers. That he complained abou too few shots? F'ing awesome!! You can be damn sure that's something MJ or Kobe would have done. He's got that desire to be dominant.

This is a great trade for the Rockets.

And a very very good trade for OKC. As the article notes it seems as if these more out of the blue trades do well for their GMs, relative to the months of posturing.

You got to give to get.

 

LMAO the funny thing is Harden isn't complaining just to complain. 5 shots and 22 mins in an NBA finals....anybody who wants to be "that guy" would complain. WB was complaining about shots after he shot 1-1,655 during their finals last year.

 

Pizza rolls okc joke... now wonder if harden would play better now on eggrolls..

 

BREAKING NEWS: NBA voids trade due to Rockets' premature extension discussions with Harden and his agent! Stern!!!

 

NOT FUNNY durvasa.u r violating the sacred html rule

 

Morey is always behind the pecking order.... OKC gained more than lose... on the other hand, Morey settled for an above avg player, and given up rockets future picks.

Harden for Martin and Lamb is already fair enough. they got a proven veteran and a promising rookie.

 

for the best young shooting guard in the game. doesn't seem very fair, does it?

 

That was a very nice read, interesting set of events.

 

OKC could have found a better deal than that elsewhere. Morey acquired those picks in order to trade for an all-star and potential superstar. We'll see if Harden can live up to those kind of expectations.

 

If you look at it from the Thunder's perspective, that's hardly fair.

A proven, up and coming, young 2 guard, for a rookie w/ "potential" and Martin, who was basically a salary dump before he performed balls out in the pre-season.

Thunder FO aren't stupid, they knew Martin didn't have much value after last year's debacle, hence why they added those picks, and also tried to get Parsons and our own pick as well.

 

Can't believe you actually did that.

 

Great point. My question is if he doesn't live up to expectations where does this leave Daryl Morey?

 

The guy is one of the top 3-5 SG's in the NBA. Period. What gives you any indication that at age 23, already in this class, that he won't live up to expectations? Couple that with the fact that we have a budding young core of Lin/Parsons/Asik/DMo/TJones among others .... AND we have room to potentially offer another max contract to pair an AS up next to him.

Morey got a top 3-5 SG for a guy we had NO plans of keeping around, a rookie who has not proven ONE thing on the court, and a draft pick that we have ZERO clue will pan out when we get to that point ....

Ask yourself this ... if you were betting on who would "live up to expectations" between Jeremy Lamb / the unknown Toronto draft pick a AND James Harden, who would you place your money on? I say there is small chance that either of those two guys (Lamb/unknown) turn out better than Harden TODAY at age 23.