Woj: Rockets want to trade Harden "sooner rather than later"

I think one of the biggest positives is we know Harden loves playing basketball. I don't think that he would do anything to take himself out of a regular season game.

 

Before the season started and before he played like ass, I suggested a three team deal with the Sixers where:

Philly ends up with Harden
Chicago ends up with Thybulle, 1st from Philly and a 1st from Houston
Houston ends up with Simmons, Lavine and a couple of 1sts from Philly

Simmons and Lavine and a couple of 1sts for Harden wasn't bad at the time.

 

I’m glad James has been professional especially for coach Silas’s sake. I’m still not convinced that if Silas can figure out a rotation that can defend and play to Wall’s, Harden’s and Wood’s strengths on offense that this group could not contend. Other than the defending Champs, I don’t see any juggernauts. James’ s best option maybe to stay put, although he may not see it that way for other reasons.

 

Of course another team can pay him the same or close to it. Thats my point. He really doesn’t want to be here because he knows others can pay him as well. $50M is still a **** ton of money and money talks (usually). Like I said he obviously has no interest in Tillman’s money so if he’s not interested in that what makes you think he’s interested in hearing/discussing who, what, where, when or why went wrong?

 

I'm hoping that Cousins can give us even 70% of what he did at the height of his career. A 70% Cousins with Wood against LeBron/AD is way better than the small BS we rolled out in the playoffs. Our backcourt with Harden, Wall, and Gordon should be able to murder the Lakers' backcourt.

 

Yes, if the Rockets play well and James gains confidence in this group, there is a chance he decides to stay.

I can already tell that the Rockets are going to have defensive issues inside because of Wood. He isn't a terrible defender with the right players around him but who the Rockets are running out at the 3 and 4 are not going to get the job done next to Wood.

The problem is that the right players to run out at the 3 and 4 are not on the roster.

 

That's what OKC fans were wondering for a while after KD bolted.

 

You know who would look great defensively next to Wood?

I'll say it.

Ben Simmons.

 

Your faith in Wood averaging 45 points per night to make up for Ben's lack of elite scoring is pretty high.

 

Maybe, but certainly not at the expense of James Harden.

 

You don't think Wood could be an effective defender in a line up like:

Wall
Harden
Tate
Tucker
Wood

I think this could be a decently effective defensive lineup.

 

I think he'll struggle against monsters like Nikola Jokić, but against the rest of the league he'll be just fine. He lacks sufficient assmass for those matchups....but so do most players. That's where Boogie comes in, to provide additional assmass for exactly those kinds of matchups.

 

More effective than what they have trotted out there in the first two games? Yes...... but even with that line up there are going to be defensive issues inside because Wood can be pushed around and loses focus. The Rockets really need to put more size around Wood in my opinion.

 

I wonder who Tilman was going to borrow the money from?

 

based on your informed opinion of the rockets thinking and or your opinion of what they were value in a return assuming Simmons is 1a, who do u think they’d value next as a centerpiece between mpj, brown, herro?

 

I think it would depend on the matchup. Against the two teams we just played, yes we need a player like that. Against a team like the Clippers it may not be as significant.

Obviously you have to have that player on the roster to be able to play matchups like this.

 

huh? the ultimate apology or sign of respect isn't offering $50M... it's to man up and actually tell harden that as an owner, you ****ed up pretty bad over the past 2 years.

if anything, i'd feel disrespected if i were harden and tilman thinks he can just throw money at me. i doubt that harden even gives a crap about the dollar amount of his contract at this point and it just shows how out of touch tilman is if he thinks that's gonna fix the relationship. tilman needs to show harden that he realizes he screwed up as an owner by cutting so many corners, and that he will learn from his mistakes and will spend to create a championship level roster and organization.

 

Maybe he did tell him those things or maybe he didn’t. Either way Harden ain’t hearing any of that.

 

Can we draw that many conclusions yet based on the two data points we have, who happen to be the two biggest skill centers in the WC - precisely the people against whom you'd expect wood to struggle? Of course, these are also players you'd expect to see in the playoffs, so the "unrepresentative sample" argument only gets you so far. I'm just guessing that the primary plan is for Boogie to take a lot of the minutes against those giant players. Nothing I've seen suggests Wood is a liability guarding low-to-middle-tier wing players in space, which is what you'd really want defensively from someone who toggles between 4 and 5 for a lot of the game.

 

Yeah, but did you hear about the exhibition where he scored 99 points and grabbed 92 rebounds?


Wasn't in the official stat sheet of course.