Shams: Harden has added bucks and heat to “preferred destinations”

The Rockets have done nothing but say they are looking to keep Harden, and not trade him. These reports are all other teams or Harden's PR team trying to screw with each other through the media. Morey gains nothing by publicly stating that he's willing to include Simmons in any Harden trade, but anyone with half a brain knows that if there's a deal to be had with Philly, it will 100% include Ben Simmons. Same goes for Miami, Boston, whoever else. The asking price for Harden is well known, regardless of what the media says teams are offering the Rockets.

 

If what you wrote is true... Stone and the rockets front office are even worst than I thought.

If teams are genuinely calling and with better offers, the rockets need to leak it. Just as teams like the Heat and sixers leaking info regarding not including hero or Simmons or the warriors leaking zero interest.

The rockets have Zero incentive for Keeping calls or offers for Harden under wraps. That does nothing to build pressure, competition and leverage.

 

He obliviously has room to improve and I think you're right and peaked is a poor word choice. I guess what I'm trying say is I don't think he will improve to the point where he can be considered a first or second option on a team whose goal is win a championship.

 

LOL you think the rockets give a **** where harden wants to be traded? Stone has the organization in his best interest, not hardens. These updates are dumb af.

 

You guys know that with Miami as serious player for Harden this will force Morey to offer Simmons now right? Where as before he thought with the Brooklyn crap offer we had no real options?

Harden expanding his list has helped Stone a bit now

 

The reasons you just listed are exactly why I firmly believe Miami doesn't even want James Harden. They have an almost perfectly built roster as it stands, with so much room to grow organically. Herro, Bam, and Duncan are still so young, and they have great veteran leadership both on the court and off. It's a really great organization from top to bottom right now. I'm not sure they want to upset the apple cart, and completely change the way they do things. I know Harden is beyond a generational talent, but there's something to be said for culture and longevity. Harden just simply isn't a Riley-Spoelstra-type player.

 

even if we acquired Ben Simmons, we’d still be looking for that 1st or 2nd option on a team who’s looking to contend

Philly only became a contender after adding Jimmy Butler to Embiid and Simmons, and in the playoffs, they had to put Jimmy on ball as the primary playmaker and Simmons in the dunkers spot because teams expose his weaknesses in the postseason

 

stop it. A 20 year old isn't even near the realm of a peak. He should still be in college. he can't even legally drink for crying out loud

 

Well, i could even agree with that but yeah, that's not like saying he has peaked already

 

Just responded to a different post of yours, but yes, they do. If you leak every offer you get then people are going to be a lot more hesitant to give you their real offer. You saw what happened with the Lakers two years ago. Teams don't want their players to know they are getting shopped.

If we leak that Morey offered Simmons, then Morey may have to more forcefully come out and say they aren't trading Simmons to keep their situation cohesive. Then no other team is going to offer us a big name because they don't want it to get back to that player.

Just because a bunch of goofballs on Twitter and message boards now think they can get Harden for peanuts that doesn't mean that reflects the calls that are really happening and how our front office is approaching.

My guess is the offers aren't great right now but will get better.

 

Agree with everything you posted.

That's the problem imo. Other teams are creating this perception (true or not) that the market for Harden isnt of much value.

They are trying to depress the market thereby reducing competition among any parties that may actually be interested.

Rocketa doing nothing is not a good solution to this. They have three recourse. Leak better offers/interest real or fake. Loudly proclaim there interest not to trade him and lastly counter the negative story about Harden currently leaking into the media.

 

I don’t think the rockets want to trade him right now
They want him to play until the deadline

 

That’s what they need to do .

 

wasn't really on board with herro initially.. but then watched some of his gametape, including that 37 pt playoff game against the celtics, and some of his training videos from this summer. out of all the players being thrown around for the harden trade, herro does seem to have the most potential.
he's definitely more steph curry than klay thompson from how he can handle the ball, shoot off the bounce, create his own shot, and get into the lane. he also has a lot of advanced secondary moves in his game already. his shooting form looks as pure as klay thompson's.

this could be a pretty good buy-low opportunity for the rockets and get a player under team control for the next 7-8 years. it's a big roll of the dice to bet on someone still so unproven, but gotta take risks like that to eventually build a championship team. tilman also won't have to deal with morey and he can re-acquire his favorite player, luxury tax savings. basically kills 3 birds with one stone for tilman.

 

Again, how does perception among fans or media affect anything that's actually happening behind closed doors?? James Harden is currently in COVID protocol, and is slated to be cleared on Monday for basketball activities. Until then, you aren't going to hear a peep from the Rockets. They gain nothing by loudly proclaiming anything as of right now. Let moron beat writers across the country speculate and make **** up all day.....it doesn't change anything. People are going to write garbage about the Rockets either way. They've been doing it for years, this is no different.

 

could be the case...many Heat fans were on board with acquiring Harden when I was reading what they were saying earlier, but only for Herro and whatever to match salaries

I think Miami wouldn’t mind Harden, but they won’t break the bank for him...I think they’re more focused on Giannis until he officially signs that super max

 

Morey already leaked to the media that he isn't trading Simmons for weeks now. Rockets discreetly sending info to various media of reports to the contrary does nothing to stop other teams from negotiating.

The lakers incident did nothing to stop teams from bidding. AD only wanting to join the Lakers and having only 1 year left kept teams from bidding. In that case leaking LAs offer only hurt the lakers, which of course benefited NO when they got their 4th pick.

One has to give clutch sport a lot of credit in that case. They drove boston out of the chase simply using public relations. Using AD father and invoking the racial history of boston.

 

This is the thing. If you don't keep up with someone like Herro outside of Rockets basketball, you wouldn't get the full gist of how good the kid already is and can be. His name doesn't quite hold the flashy Ben Simmons all star headline. But you can be sure it's going to start very soon. The league is definitely on notice. Truth is, this is what it comes down to for the majority of casual fans. They just see now, oh ben simmons is an all star sign me up and not being able to dive into the actual players and dissecting what they bring to the table. Again if we're talking bout rebuilding, what better way then to start with a young budding prospect like a 20 year old Herro. It's the same exact thing as drafting a top 5 pick at this point but we had the luxury of getting to see a year of him in the league and how his game translated, especially during the playoffs on top of that. He wasn't a top 5 pick but in a redraft he 100% would be easily

 

Harden is making this situation real bad for himself in my opinion. Owners and mgmt from other teams are looking at this guy in a different view now.