Manu alone won't win you a championship, but no superstar by himself will. I think he and Yao would have gotten further than we ever did with Tracy. As to why he never got thaat max deal. He never hit the market in his career, he has always wanted to be in San Antonio. If he would have I think at least one team would have offered him the max. If Rashard Lewis, or Arenas can command it, I would think Manu would.
Manu was NEVER the 2nd best SG in the game at any point of his career. Not even close to it. Especially when Brandon Roy was around. His best year was 4 seasons ago when he was already 30 years old and put up 19.5/4.8/4.5 Nobody in there right mind would've traded Tmac for Manu. Manu took advantage of his situation and played the best role he could. Which was to play off of Parker and Duncan while being coached by one of the GOAT. If he was relied upon to be option 1 or 1A like you're suggesting I think he would've failed miserably. I think the fascination with Harden is that he does bring similar things to the table as Gino but at a much younger age thus providing a higher ceiling. Is that worth the Max? It's certainly debatable depending on your roster and pieces you already have in place but regardless of those things but it won't matter because after this playoff perfomance he's getting the Max no matter what.
Manu has a career PER in the 23 range. His PER last season was the 7th highest in the league. Sounds like someone who could have gotten near max money at some point if was willing to move away from SA.
Oh so now were strictly using PER's to determine how much a player should make? That's not my point anyways. I don't doubt Gino *could have* gotten max or near max money. Point is Gino took advantage of his situation and made the most of it (playing for one of the GOAT coach, the greastest PF ever, and a borderline all-star/superstar PG). He was a perfect fit for the Spurs and the Spurs were a perfect fit for him. I don't think Manu would've experienced the same type of success as the Alpha dog.
It was a Realgm.com "reporter" lol. I can just see it: "Hey guys, I got a pass to the next post-game, what questions should I ask?" I can see the Realgm members peppering him to possible questions to ask that help them settle their important debates on the internets, just like the GARM would. And dude was fool enough to do it. lol
Is James Harden worth the wait? With James Harden not to close to re-signing with OKC, two teams have shown their interest in Harden. Houston and Dallas. Now we have one of the highest rated players of the draft Jeremy Lamb at that position who I will come out and say now, will not have a great rookie season. He will be the sixth man coming behind Kevin Martin and I just don't see him playing well on the bench. Now once K-Mart leaves that's a new story. He will play well besides Lin at the 2 in the starting line-up but what if we bring in Harden? Surely we don't want Dallas to have him. Dallas is our division rivals that seriously goes after every player Houston does as well. Howard. Smith. Paul. Anytime we want a star Dallas is there too. Now I'm not saying Harden would be a bad addition. He could be great as the #1 on the team. The only problem is we want to see the potential greatness of Jeremy Lamb. So should Houston trade away Martin, put Lamb at the 2 and see his potential and if he doesn't play well get Harden, Trust Lamb and keep him at the starting 2 in the 2013-2014 season and hope he plays well, or bring in Harden and let Lamb develop off the bench? I'd be fine with Harden back in OKC and allowing Lamb to get some time to shine but what do you guys think?
Harden wants the Max.... this his market value... SO i think OKC will sign him to the max and amnesty perkins.... they can always trade him later
-First things first- If you can get someone like James Harden at this stage of his career, the last thing you need to be worried about is the "potential greatness" of an unproven rookie. There are minutes to be had even if they were to trade for Harden this season, and Lamb will get rotation minutes to show his "greatness" or whatever you want to call it. However, you just dont make personnel decisions now based on projections on an unproven rookie. With a roster like this, you just want to keep enough readily available rotation minutes for the rookies to work their way into the rotation so you can see what you have in them. If they are good enough, then there is no way they wont see the floor this season. Bringing in Harden wouldn't concern me one bit especially since Martin is likely to be dealt in any deal that would bring in Harden pre-trade deadline. I see this worrisome post all the time on here about Harden/Lamb- STOP WORRYING ABOUT LAMB WITH THIS WHOLE HARDEN THING. If you can get Harden, you get him, and worry about Lamb next. -Secondly- whats the concern with Dallas having him or not having him? The Rockets and the Mavs both wont be competing for a title this year so they both just need to worry about themselves. They are both in position to sign him in free agency, but only the Rockets have the assets to trade for Harden if Presti decides they aren't willing to match an offer for the max. If Morey wants to land Harden the way he needs to do so is to trade for him at the deadline, given Presti and Harden dont agree to terms on a deal by October 31st, and Presti decides that they do not want to Amnesty Perkins to re-sign Harden in July of 20013. If he can't trade for him beforehand then you might as well just chalk it up to a swing for the fences when he hits free agency. However, Morey has shown recently to have a pretty good track record when signing RESTRICTED free agents. The stars have to align pretty much if Morey wants to sign Harden as a free agent. The best way to aquire him is to try and trade for him on October 31st if OKC and him cannot come to terms.
he choked during the finals. dunno if he has what it takes. he's more of just like a rich mans Jason terry.
We need to avoid players who will keep us in the middle. Harden is the type of "asset" you pick up after you get your franchise player, not before.
This was my position before - but I've been convinced otherwise by some of the argument of those in this thread and others. Yes, he disappeared in the Finals, and for sure, it should count against him. That said, his stats speak for themselves and he legit took over games in the playoffs. I would personally be more comfortable seeing another year of similar production, but it seems to be a very good gamble to take in giving Harden a max contract. I'd still be surprised if he doesn't stay with OKC though.
I don't think Harden is max player, definitely not on Rockets. It was fun to watch him with the Thunders, and he was really big throughout the playoffs, except for the Finals. In closing minutes, he out-shined Westbrook regularly and sometimes even Durant. He's young and has potential, but I also noticed that he got away a lot with fouling on defense, and was sent to the FT line unusually often. His clutchness has a lot to do with the refs. Whether he's young and good, or he plays for the Thunders, for some reason, he gets super star calls, sometimes even more than LBJ. He's very good, but will he be as good, if he doesn't get that special treatment any more? I am quite sure that Westbrook will have a better career. As far as I am concerned, Rockets players don't get calls, definitely not super star calls. I want Harden, but not as our max player as this point of team rebuilding.
absolutely a max player. the max allowed for a player with his experience is 14 mil. is he not worth as much as several team wanted to get an often-injured Eric Gordon? He absolutely is. You have a 23 year old healthy player who's rapidly improving and who's already playing at an all star level. How could he not be worth max...
Harden's efficiencies & percentages are all great, the question is whether or not he can maintain them as a "max" player with max player usage/minutes... His usage is in teh low 20's...that's like Luis Scola level. Superstar/franchise players are up in the 28-30+ range.
