They won't do it,but if I were okc,I would offer harden to the bobcats for the #2 pick and a player. That's not to say harden isn't a good player,but after this season,someone will offer him more than okc can't really match without losing Ibaka. Now they could also move perkins and collison for an expiring and let cole aldrich play,but that's a step backwards right now. The guy I keep bringing up if he checks out medically is lopez. I think durant,westbrook,ibaka,lopez is a more balanced team going forward than one with hrarden without ibaka.
Yeah because they are smart. They extended this player before he went on the market and had to pay a premium for him. Thats what smart organizations do.
If they were gonna lose, OKC has to be happy that Harden stunk it up in the Finals in the process so no team would ever overpay him now. No team would ever offer him the max coming off of that debacle.
I disagree. He had one bad series after a brilliant season and post season. Teams will be willing to offer him 4 years, $13.7 million per year(I.e., the max).
That would be crazy. Although I didn't realize the 'max' was that low. He's considerably better than Martin, who seemed to be on a reasonable deal until this season.
Yeah, the max for a 4th year player is really low (for outside teams, it's 4 years, starting at $12.9 million for the first year, with 4.5% annual raises). Given this, I am pretty sure that even Eric Gordon (who is probably at the same level as Harden, and coming off a serious injury) will get offered the max by some team as a restricted FA.
They can keep Ibaka and Harden if they deal Westbrook to a team with cap space for a lesser PG - Like Lowry (just an example). Recent history shows that you don't need an elite PG to win titles. Can't seeing them taking that risk though. Fans would erupt.
