You're crazy. We had 6 1st rd draft picks in the past 3 years. Did any one of them develop into star? The Toronto pick will likely range between 10 to 14, w hat are the odds that players in this range turned into star? I guess it's about 5% at most and you value the pick beyond a future all-star player? Wow, you're brilliant. Your comments on K-Mart and Lamb are baffling. We got James Harden and you're still not satisfied? Let's say we trade K-mart at the deadline, can we acquire a player that is as good as Harden? Unlikely. Also, Lamb is nowhere close to harden's skill set. I just got tired of all the pointless hate..Today should be a day of celebration, whiners really need to shut up..
Really like this move. At first I was a bit unsure since Kmart was doing well in pre-season, but then I realised he is 29 already and we got back a much younger and better SG. Really couldn't care less about Lamb. No complains here.
I like the move because we need a superstar-caliber player. We had too many mid-round draft pick players on the team so we didn't really need the picks. Long term though, the Thunder are looking good. But I love this move for us.
where's the kevin martin appreciation thread? He seems very happy about going to the thunder lol. I'm so excite!
SO basically the trade is Houston gets: Harden, Cole Aldrich, Hayward, some random dude Houston loses: Kmart, Jlamb, Pick from Toronto, Pick from Lakers/Dallas, 2nd round pick Ok let's get the small fry out of the way. The 2nd round pick and 1st round pick from the Dallas/Lakers team is irrelevant, Le$ Alexander buys picks like those all the time and frankly we don't have any roster space to spare on non-lottery picks anyway. In return for that they get OKC rejects: Cole Aldrich (former lottery pick and projected in the top 10), Hayward (poor man's version of Ariza but without cancer) and some random dude. Eh...I think Aldrich is worth a look as a backup center, I have no idea why he couldn't get PT over Perkins (who is negative on offense and argues with the coach). Basically a slight win for us IMHO, those pick can't be used with the depth we already have. The meat though is Harden for Kmart, Lamb and Toronto Pick. I think its worth it, "guaranteed lotto pick" sounds nice and all, but considering how bad the rest of the East is, that's gonna be in the 8-14 range easily. Kmart is a good player, but he's near his 30's, is injury prone and would probably leave/be traded this year anyway. Lamb is a good player, but watching him in SL he got outplayed by Carlos Delfino so he still has a lot of developing to do. More importantly though this is a consolidation trade, Harden is obviously better than either Kmart or Lamb, and this really beefs up our talent level. Morey's great at getting value for the assets on his team, so anytime we can consolidate its a great win for us. Plus, we didn't give up our core (Asik, Lin, Parsons) in the deal, so I think if Tjones or Dmo develop we'll have a scary and young team. For OKC though its obviously a great win for them. I dunno why they settled for picks, If I was them I would have asked for one of the 78 PFs we have on the squad, their big men are pretty thin (Ppat+our unprotected pick in exchange for lotto pick? Or maybe DMo/Tjones for the lotto pick?). Kmart is exactly what they need, he's basically the opposite of Thabo and would give them serious firepower, while Lamb could turn into Kmart 2.0 in a couple of years. So basically a win for both team. Oh yeah, I'm excited! We're gonna stomp on a lot of teams this year.
People get crossed up all the time, it usually means you were trying your best to defend your guy instead of chilling in the back because you don't want to get embarrassed...or you're too laterally inept like Battier and just gets frozen in place. Anyway I find it so funny people always make fun of guys who get dunked on/crossed up but then they complain that no one plays decent D anymore.
It isn't the fact that we gave up Martin, Lamb, and the Toronto pick, it's the fact that our odds of getting a top three pick in 2013 just hit rock bottom. That's not happening now unless someone has an injury. This sucks, because I don't think Harden can ever be a top ten player, but a couple of players available in the draft have that "potential". Yep, that means I favor a small chance of acquiring a future top ten player over trading for a top twenty player. The reason is simple. Top twenty players don't win championships. Top five players win championships and Harden will never be a top five player. All this trade does is prolong the inevitable. All this trade does is pretty much guarantee that we won't get Shabazz or Noel next draft or Wiggins the draft after that.
If you asked me last season to name two of my favorite players who aren't wearing Rocket Red, Harden and Lin would have been in my top 5...maybe my top 3. I was busy hanging out with the wife last night and completely missed this. I woke up this morning and turned on my phone to find a ton of texts from overnight...including one from my son who was spending the night out with a friend and was going crazy about it because he's a huge Harden fan. Really excited about this. Really looking forward to the start of the season...get it done, Uverse!!!
Fair points...but I'd also argue that it puts us in a far better position to go out and acquire a significant free agent after this coming season who will already be a proven player.
No. Not yet. I'd say Denver is. But add one more key starter...impact player....and this team is absolutely in that discussion of top teams in the West.
Take Patterson out and replace him with Lemarcus Aldridge, this team is in the top 4 teams in the west.
Remember, Morey isnt done yet, we have the ca sace to sign a max free agent in the offseason to shore up this trade. The reality is Harden is part of the end game and not all of it.
I dont actually think we got all that better this year. Martin was gonna have a real good year and is more able to creat his own shot than Harden is. This is a long term deal, and at that I like it. What I would like to know: isn't Harden a FA after this season? Is he restricted? Or is that our gamble, that we hope to resign him? Any ways, that deadl would've been much better for Orlanda than the one they got... One more question, we do still have our next years first, right?
We can offer him a max deal, and presumably we'll be doing that immediately. I don't see him turning down a max deal.
So can we offer him more than anyone else? Anyways, I guess Morey has already talked to him before the trade...