Exhibit 44 to bring Harden back- 3 year lack of max kellerman content on Clutchfans People who say they don't want Harden should say what realistic option they want instead eg: "Still don't want - KPJ has convinced me!" "Still don't want - The TyTyme is NoNow!" "Still don't want - let's get D-lo out of LA via the Max" It gets ugly fast.
I'm a "Harden at the right price" guy, but the option I would most want out of all point guards we could realistically land next season is Scoot Henderson. If we land #3 through #6, I hope the front office will seek a deal to trade up and get him, even if it's kind of an overpay, as long as we don't have to give up Green/Jabari/Sengun. He's just such a perfect fit for our roster. And I would definitely not sign Harden if we get Scoot. If we don't get Scoot? Biding our time with roleplayers on shorter deals would be wiser than giving Harden a four-year max contract if that's what it would take to sign him. I want to get a better sense of who we should build around and who might be expendable in trades before we get rid of all our cap flexibility. It would be nice to have Harden and be pretty certain we're fighting to make the play-in next season. But ultimately it doesn't matter that much whether we win 30 games or 35. My eyes are on a championship and I doubt Harden is a significant factor in winning one.
There's too much of the "Ringz or bust" going on. Sure, Harden is not winning a title here, but he makes the Rockets more winning in general. The squad as constituted plus all except for 1 or 2 rookies is probably a 25-30 win group of no hopers again which is bizarrely also a tremendous improvement. The slim pickings in the FA market outside Harden hold little hope of helping much. You might not think much of a 36 win play in season, but a 26 win season with OKC getting the draft prize... Just not acceptable
I'm concerned more about his body at this point. It seems like he has gotten quite a bit more injury prone since he left Houston. The problem is that every injury takes a way a huge chunk of his athleticism, to a point where there's not much left anymore. His play takes a huge nose dive while he ramps up again, and it's taking longer and longer. For example, the Hamstring thing took him literally a whole season. He hurt his achilles, and he looked really bad trying to play through it post all star break.
26 wins is our floor if we do literally nothing this offseason and nobody has a big breakout season. That's 2 wins for going from Silas to Udoka and 2 wins from player development (same amount we improved from last season to this season). You scoffed at just adding roleplayers, but having a real starting point guard (even if it's not harden) and a real bench easily carries us above 30 wins. I also want to say, I don't really think you can be too "rings or bust". That's why we're here!
rings or bust is a horrible non existent logic that doesnt apply in reality to this current rockets, when there's no non harden scenario that brings the rockets a realistic chance at winning it in the span of his next contract here.
How can people genuinely sit at their keyboard and type "Harden's washed" without feeling like a moron? Is he the Beard of old? No. He still put up 45 points against the Celtics, dude is legit still a star level talent in this league, some of y'all are crazy.
It's possible in 3-4 years, which is exactly when a huge bad contract could get in the way. That's when our young core will be starting to get into their mid 20s, same age range when Boston made it to the finals.
no it doesn't get in the way because his contract will be done. and no in 4 years they are not going to the nba finals with literally anyone else. fake fantasies is just stupid logic Tatum and Brown made it the finals for the first time as 25 and 27 year olds. In 4 years none of the players will be this age
4 year max is what worries me. I'm fine with a 3 year deal for Harden. You don't know this and acting like you do while flinging random insults is, frankly, some sh*tty posting. Do better.
3 or 4 literally doesn't make a difference. yeah i do know it because its common sense. mental hoops doesn't change that. do better? like who you? of all people? nah pass. you stay shitt posting all day. I do what i want. you have no business telling anyone what to do. if you feel insulted then it certainly speaks to you
Because they dug in 10 toes down in quicksand and can't pull themselves out due to ego run amok I tried to explain this recently on here to someone that not too long ago outside of injuries Harden was playing MVP caliber ball along side KD who top 3 candidate before injuries came about, which wasn't that long ago, and now he is playing that with another finalist MVP in Philly but his impact and numbers still could be mentioned as a 5th place or so candidate, just not annual finalist like those prime Rockets yrs And with Embiid and Maxey shouldering a nice share in reg. season and Harden coasting along(plus injuries = rest) he should have more than enough in the tank to show a somewhat old Htown version while not being worn out as was the case carrying the heavier load with Rockets in past postseasons Don't expect him to avg 45, but wouldn't be surprised if he has another 40pt outburst, especially if Embiid is going to miss another game (or maybe he series) To me if you have a legit big 3, the first two are no doubt stars while the first in pecking order is a superstar (usually)
I heard harden is selfish and a bad influence https://www.instagram.com/reel/Crwj3snMWot/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Projecting out the potential "albatross" of Harden's deal Assuming Harden at 4 years 160m declining, and Cam Johnson 3 years 80m Poor old Tilman "may" have to pay the tax in 2026 - 2027, assuming Green, Sengun, #4 AND Bari ALL earn a max contract. Harden's money in 26-27 is basically chump change due to the cap spike, and even with it removed, you likely would not have any cap to spend in its place (it just lowers the amount you are over the cap). The future bad money thing just doesn't seem to be too risky to me.
You know I was probably being cheap and unrealistic thinking he would come back for 30 million a year. Im still paying what it takes though. I think that my real goal would be not being locked into the fourth year and if for any reason he wanted to apply options to the third and fourth years that may be better for both parties. I think then you just have to start thinking about how to field a team around him that can get better over the next three years and play consistent enough defense in the regular season to make the playoffs. I think that the player we saw last night he’s going to be able to show up in the playoffs over the next few seasons, more often than not. However, I don’t think we can rely on that a whole crap load in the regular season. one thing I noticed was that Philly got a little bit lucky last night. I think they went way too hard into the Harden only Rockets playbook. It worked for them, but there was not enough offensive diversity at the end. I wonder what (if any) the trade cost of JJJ would be? #3, Smith or Sengun and Christopher?
