Did we get less for james harden than we gave up for Westbrook?

People talk about things without expertise all the time but if you want to hold that against the guy's character sure but I fail to see how that directly defines his experience and knowledge of the NBA. If that were the case his Sixers team wouldn't be tied for 1st in the East right now.

 

If we are going to go with CP3 was a Harden recruitment and give him credit for that then why are we going to crucify Morey for the Westbrook trade when it was Harden and Tilman who pushed for it to happen? I'm just trying to find consistency in these arguments.

 

Oh to answer your question, the difference between cp3 and wood is that cp3 forced his way to hou, while wood just wanted to get paid by the highest bidder. Stone made it happen where hou could be the highest bidder, Morey just added some players together as cp3 fell in his lap. Lou will, bev, Harrell and a first is actually quite the haul for someone just falling into your lap, I would still do the trade but in hindsight that was a lot to give up.

 

Morey had the chance to team Embiid up with Harden but blew that too like he did year after year when he failed to put talent around Harden. Now Philly is going to be knocking against Bkn for the next 5 years like hou did against gsw. History (of fraud) truely does repeat or rhyme. Embiid probably going to force his way out in a few years.

 

If Allen did come here, I don’t think Cleveland will give us KPJ for free.

 

What you just described is actually literally fraud and should be investigated. I was at least being more figurative when I called him a fraudster!

 

How did he blow it? Because he didn't put his best offer as his first offer? I don't want to go deeper down into the rabbit hole but I just find it unnecessary to praise Stone by crucifying Morey. Morey is one of the best GMs in the NBA and Stone has shown competency thus far. Both of those statements can be factual AND exist at the same time.

 

Maybe Morey tried to sell Philly to Harden along with agent/family & offered fair market rate. Harden said no. And Houston sent him where he wanted to go?

 

The difference is cp3 is a great player and Westbrook sucks. It's Morey's job to decipher that. People who say it is Tilman's fault for pushing the trade through ignore the fact that Morey was in discussions for Westbrook in the first place! He may have gotten cold feet over the price tag but he was still interested in the player, which says all you need to know about Morey. Tilman is a restaurant casino billionaire who doesn't know two shts about basketball and probably just wanted a name brand player for ticket sales. What was Morey's excuse?

 

How did he blow it? Harden is in bkn. Your job as gm is the closer, to close the deal. But we already knew he isn't that guy by his history of trying to add talent to Harden in hou so it is nothing surprising.

 

It's been a while but please point me to when/where the bolded occur.

As for what was Morey's excuse I can't tell you that but I can tell you that it's not the first time an owner has pressed his GM to make a transaction (draft/signing/trade) that made little to no sense outside of said owner's brain.

 

No, his job as a GM is to not get f*cked on a transaction while making his team better. You crucified him for just that with the Westbrook trade but now you're wanting him to get bent over by sending Simmons/Thybulle/Maxey/picks? Please pick a lane and stay in it.

 

What do you mean? That's common knowledge. Tilman pushed the trade through last minute when fo was getting cold feet, but prior to that it was the fo who was in trade discussions to begin with (in order for them to get cold feet). It's just putting 2 and 2 together.

 

Your statement alluded to the fact that Morey wanted Westbrook before Tilman got into the discussion and that's what I want to verify/confirm because, again, it's been some time and I don't recall Morey jonesing for an efficient player that can't make threes prior to Paul George forcing his exit to the Clippers. If that happened please send me the article/news link and I apologize.

 

You are making my point for me. He chose to get bent over for Russell Westbrook but for James freaking Harden he decides it's the time for prudence? Only a true fraudster would think that way, someone who can't tell the difference between harden and Westbrook.

 

Tilman got into the discussion last minute to push the trade through. What do you think was going on prior to last minute as the trade was being formulated? Who came up with the trade?

There are interviews with Morey on how the Westbrook trade went down. Discussions started the second pg was traded and hou were the ones calling up okc.

 

Therein lies the gap--choice. What choice did he have in regards to the Westbrook trade when both his owner and his franchise player called for the trade to happen? What choice did he have in regards to acquiring his former franchise player when the other team's GM didn't allow him to counter Brooklyn's offer? I mean it's not as if Morey was trying to acquire a player from a franchise that might have, oh I don't know, no reason to help him out in winning a championship. Full disclosure: I supported Stone's process of trying to extract everything possible from Philly/Morey. It's a business and that's what he should have done.

 

As for jonesing for an inefficient player, I dunno the answer to that but if I were to guess, harden told Morey to get his best friend here. And as we all know now, Morey built a culture of entitlement around Harden, anything harden wants he gets, even to the detriment of the franchise / team.

 

I have seen some terrible logic used around this message board.

yeesh. This thread has a ton of it.

 

Its almost like making moves to tank is a bit easier than making moves to make the finals or something.