a small stretch of games is not the definition of how good that team is and much of that stretch weren't even against legit teams. they very much are a flawed team without KD imo. take him out and the lost depth of the previous two years squad and they aren't a finals team to me
The problem with OKC was that they traded the wrong guy. I get why the Big 3 couldn't coexisted because they had a lot of overlapping, rather than complementary, skills. I also get that they couldn't afford three max players. They should have traded Westbrook and got a lot more. Harden was undervalued because he was the 6th man. I've been saying this for a long time. I don't care if the 6th man is as important as a starter. If you are not starting, you are perceived to be not as good. Trading Westbrook would have landed them more assets. Besides, Harden's game would mesh much better with Durant than Westbrook did. Westbrook is Allen Iverson on steroid. His game doesn't complement. He's better playing as a solo star. If they kept Harden, Durant, and Ibaka and whatever they could get from trading Westbrook, they would be contending with the likes of GSW and SAS now.
i remember that day too and was completely surprised. Thought it was an interesting move. Never said to myself he would be a mvp caliber player though. morey himself has admitted he didn't know harden would be this good. so he didn't really think he would be a superstar in reality
You take a chance on it and Morey obviously did. But there's a difference between turning into a good player in this league and being a mvp caliber player. Harden has become basically a top 5 player you actually can start a franchise with. To me I don't believe anyone saw that coming even morey admittedly himself but of course im glad it turned out that way.
oh really? might want to look up some quotes on Morey on that one and how he has said he didn't know Harden would be this good. Don't be so quick to assume
interesting take but I think the only reason why Harden was the choice was bc his contract was up between the two right? so he was potentially on the move before anyone else
I agree. Harden was a monster in OKC. He got traded here 3 days before the regular season began and immediately dropped 37 and 12 as a starter in his debut on the road. He then dropped 45 points in his very next game. That is the caliber of player that OKC had coming off their bench.
That was such a small part of why they traded Harden. They main reason by far is because they didn't want to pay him his max and have to pay luxury tax penalties as well. They still offered Harden a little bit less than his max. If he had accepted it, then he would've stayed in OKC.
"SnT" stands for "sign and trade"....so it's a type of trade. All I wanted was clarification on the parameters of the question b/c the Kobe example was also an instance where a player forced a trade. There's no need for you to be a dick.
I did not think that Harden would ever become as good as he is right now which is basically a top 5 player in the NBA and an MVP candidate. I still thought that he was very good in OKC tho. I had him as a top 25 player during his last season there. I thought he would average around 20, 5, and 5 in his 1st year as a starter but he ended up being a 26 ppg scorer.
also lets not forget in 2012, morey was originally after Eric Gordon one way or another once the FA period began that summer. Either through a trade or RFA.
They could have signed him to the max. They had the room if they traded Westbrook. With Westbrook gone, Harden would be handed the rein of the offense. I'm sure he would stay with Durant and be the starting quarterback of the team. They should at least talk to Harden and see what his intention would be after the contract expired. At the end of the day, their biggest mistake was undervaluing Harden as their best playmaker.
That too. I don't have the exact numbers. Keeping Perkins was also a big mistake. But most people believe that it's the decision to keep Ibaka that pushed Harden out. Even if they amnestied Perkins, they couldn't keep the Big 3 and Ibaka, or else they would have to get rid of lots of contracts and totally depleted their depth. If I were them, I would keep Durant, Harden, Ibaka, trade Westbrook for some nice pieces, and amnesty Perkins for better bigs. Look at the league now. There are plenty of good bigs to have. They could get some nice ones by trading Westbrook.
13 in a row bro. That's the longest all year. KD took Steph's mojos and now he's reminding us how good he is. Javale is playing less dumb and Matt Barnes isn't half bad. It makes me sick to my stomach but they're still gooood even without KD.
You're right, by the strict definition of what Morey has said, no, the Rockets brass didn't see him becoming an MVP-caliber player. But I think you're selling them pretty short. At the beginning of his tenure, Morey always sought superstars, and this was his big coup. They surely had questions and some uncertainty about how James would hold up against starter-level defense, but I think they felt pretty confident about the move and the player they were bringing in - and the fact that they could build a team around him. This is more to the point of the trade rather than whether he would be in the MVP conversation. Besides, it's a pretty sweeping statement to say that "nobody" saw him reaching these heights. Just because you and OKC didn't doesn't mean that others couldn't have. And your argument seems to be that it wasn't a bad trade from OKC's standpoint because the thunder played well the years after James's departure. I disagree. They went to the finals with the nucleus of Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, and broke that core up because of money. It might have been impossible to keep those three for their entire careers, but not for the short term. I think they should have bit the bullet, paid the luxury tax, and shot for a ring. They would have had a nice window to do it in.
you can disagree if you want. from okc's standpont they did play very well after James was gone. That's not an argument. They won 60 and 59 games following. That's the truth. If you choose to disagree with something that's true then that's on you. Just because Houston ended up with the best player in this move, doesn't automatically mean it was just plain terrible from okc's perspective and in their specific situation.
