You say that as if we had playoff or championship aspirations for the current roster. Stone pretty much admitted that the plan was to tank these past three seasons while accumulating talent in the draft. Bringing Harden back is not the answer. Fertitta would be a pushover if he did that. I find it odd that people have been complaining about the lack of accountability, but there's this sentiment that bringing Harden back would be a good move.
doesn't matter. dude is talking about choking while this team is one of the worst in the league. he most certainly is one of the better answers. definitely over bringing other scrubs and overpaying them who can't do nearly as much as him fertitta is an idiot. that's never going to change
Harden is a regular-season player, not a post-season one. It's definitely right to say he's going to choke in the playoffs because that's what history has shown him to do. Harden is not going to get us closer to competing for a championship. He'll demand that the organization cater to him and then demand a trade if things don't go his way. He'll get us to the playoffs and then we'll get knocked out by a better team. During this rebuild phase the goal is to find tomorrow's NBA superstars.
another casual talking bout this championship or bust mentality. and only applying it to Harden. As mentioned over and over and over that's not even close to why bringing back harden is the move. how about you catch up to the actual topics already discussed before saying something i've already heard LOL at finding tomorrow's superstars as if that just happens overnight
Id like to see the Rockets mirror the Kings from the Adelman days. When Smith gets his College shooting touch back you got your Stojakovic. Sengun mirrors Divac with his post moves and passing. Green could be your Bibby. Id like to see Porter move to 6th man like Bobby. Eason is playing that defensive specialist who can score like Christie. We just don't have a CWebb.
Championship or bust is not a casual talking point. That's what Stone has said. "The goal is to win championships." plural. Harden will hinder the rebuild process because you're going to have to overpay him and then trade some of the young players to put a team around him. This will result in another failed bid for a championship while exhausting the draft capital we got for trading him. I don't even believe the rumors are true that Harden wants to come back. He's using Houston as leverage to negotiate a bigger contract with the Sixers. That's what he does when things don't go his way.
yes it is a casual talking point especially when folks are trying to apply it just to harden. I could easily use that logic and dismiss literally every other alternative you would even want to bring up to sign instead of harden. but that logic is stupid in this case which is why that isn't even the reason. If you actually understand the levels to a full rebuild you might understand but clearly you don't. Why tf would you be trading for harden when the entire point is him declining his option and just signing here outright this summer. There is no draft capital being used whatsoever if you don't think it's true then stop talking about him. the leverage angle is also another dumb point. He doesn't need any kind of tactic as if hes some player trying to hang on in this league. He can get a deal wherever he wants
Green is likely to give us more than Bibby gave those teams, as good as he was. Which could help make up for the gap between Jabari and Webber.
If you can pry Bridges away from the Nets and draft Wemby, that will be the best supporting cast that Harden has ever had with the Rockets including the team with CP3 that would have beaten the Warriors if not for an injury. That would be a playoff team next year and a contender in 2025. All the Harden chokes in the playoff stuff makes no sense for the Rockets in their current state.
I've kind of soured on the Harden idea, his remaining window does not match up with the players on the team and honestly if you get Harden, you might have to bench Green. Green is something of a chucker who struggles off ball and Harden is as ball dominant as they get. I just don't see that being a solid match. I think you pass on Harden, even fi the team lands Wemby, and just try to make an eventual run when the young guys develop. Maybe he could come back and be a bench coattail rider when he reaches that part of his career, but I don't think you build around a 34 year old James Harden.
https://heavy.com/sports/philadelphia-76ers/tyrese-maxey-max-contract/ A max deal could be worth five years and about $200 million for Maxey, though he could choose to take a shorter deal to get himself to free agency—and a bigger share of the NBA’s new TV deal, expected to start in 2025-26—faster. The play of Maxey is one reason the Sixers have not been considered a sure bet to keep guard James Harden in place after this season. Harden will turn 34 in the offseason, and has struggled to stay healthy (and in good condition) in the last three seasons. He missed a month with a foot injury in November and December, and has dealt with an Achilles tendon problem more recently. There might not seem to be much logic to it, but there continues to be talk that Harden, who has a player option for $35.6 million this summer, might bolt Philadelphia to return to his comfort zone in Houston, where he played more than eight seasons before forcing a trade in 2021. Harden going to the Rockets is still a longshot, but the Sixers are ready to hand more responsibility to Maxey, whether Harden sticks around or not. Forward Tobias Harris’ max deal expires after next season, and there is a chance the Sixers could retool entirely around Maxey and Embiid. “There are some in that organization who would not mind at all if Harden left,” the GM said. “I don’t think he will, but he could and even if he doesn’t, he is not going to get a real long deal from the Sixers. He is getting older, you don’t know how much of a commitment you want to make him. But Maxey, the guy is a culture-setter. He works hard, he is relentless. He has fit in with whoever they put him with, that is not easy to do in this league. Moving forward, they want him to be a face-of-the-franchise kind of guy. He has the talent. They have the belief in him. It is only a matter of time, really.”
Jesus christ, 5 years 200 million for a first time max...and the option to possibly hold out for even more. Inflation hits all sports, but the last 10 years have been bananas for NBA salaries. Harden averaged 14.5 million his first 3 years with us, and that was less than a decade ago.
You have a point. Up ‘til a point: Harden is not a bum. He’s good. And PS let him ply his aging good in Philly.
Harden has looked terrible the past 10 or so games. Playing some of the worst stretch of basketball in his career since that Chicago Double OT game. This Achilles injury is definitely gonna bring down harden and the 76ers. A couple weeks before that he was looking like the perfect fit for Philly. Hopefully he gets healthy so we can see what him and embiid can truly do, otherwise I see a very quick exit. On another note, since I see a lot of people wanting Harden to return to the rockets. This playoff series will change a lot of people’s mind imo on bringing him back especially on a max deal. Achilles injuries take quite some time to heal, with Hardencontinuing to age I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts to continuously get injured throughout the seasons while regressing his productivity.
