Cole Aldridge is 6'11 but Bill and co. pointed out he looked smaller than that when the Thunder were playing the Rox in preseason and I agree. (And, according to Bill and co., Lamb was 6'7.) He looked 6'9, to me. Definitely smaller than Donatas.
I don't see it that way. A young .500-ish team with cap space to add another max player is not mediocrity at all. Keeping last year's team would fit into your critique, but Harden, Lin, Asik, Jones, White and Do-Mo are all young players with upside. Ask the Sacramento Kings, or LA Clippers how well sucking every year worked out for them.
idk..... LOVE adding Harden to the mix... glad to get rid of KMart.... Lamb, 2 first rd picks and a top 2nd rd pick for a guy about to get a big payday.... In my mind, I guess it comes to down to Cole Aldrich... if he develops into a midlevel starter - then its a decent enough deal - if he sucks....then we paid too much.... imo
Thank you Everybody has an opinion and I respect that. But James Harden is just a high priced role player. No way he worth a max contract. We missed out on so many potential deals that management got desperate. When Harden falls short of CF's expectations alot of credibility will come in question
I like the trade. We gave up a lot, but 23 year old rising stars like Harden are damn near impossible to aquire if you don't draft them; especially when you're not a destination city or have other stars to attract players. I never thought the Toronto pick was gonna end up being top 5; in fact, I thought our pick was gonna be more valuable. What I really liked about the trade, other than the obvious fact that we landed Harden, is that we kept our pick, and the trade doesn't work against the value of our pick. As far as I'm concerned, we're still a lotto team. Replacing Lamb and Martin with Harden and Aldrich isn't really gonna change our fate in the short-term. We should still end up with about the same record, making our pick potentially special. But we are much better set up for the long-term, and are giant step closer to being very competitive. Best of both worlds. We got a franchise building block and we still have a chance at a franchise rookie with a little lotto magic...or an attractive draft pick to trade for an elite talent.
This is a good argument, is Harden worth a max contract? Its up to him to prove the haters wrong. Arguing that we would be in mediocrity because of this trade and we should tank isn't though, because: 1) Les Alexander said we'll never tank. You don't like that? Then buy the team, else STFU 2) You tank to get players like Harden. KD, LBJ etc. only come once every 10 years or so, and those guys are immediately number 1 picks coming out. So unless you can find a way to be the top pick (25% chance even with worst team) and on the year someone like that you're not going to get a player better than James Harden. Just ask all the perennial loser who have been tanking for the last 5-6 years and still haven't gotten anywhere (Minny for example already has had like 5 top 5 picks and our roster right now is better than theirs).
Rockets fans: "Dork Elvis ftw" OKC fans: We robbed them for a 6TH MAN NY fans: Once again, overpaid for an overrated! LA fans: Thank you Murray!!! Broussard's sources: The deal may go down as early as yesterday.
1. Why the HELL didn't Orlando think about swapping Howard for Harden? He's got to be better than their current poopoo platter of assets. The argument that Howard wouldn't resign there is bunk, because he would be the most reviled player in the league if he left a championship contender like that. It would have been A) OKC and B) Miami and Z) everyone else including the Lakers. Now Orlando is sitting in a nursing home bed somewhere, having soiled itself and now having to sit in its own excrement until a nurse finds out their diaper is full. 2. Analyzing this trade is very hard, because one way or another the Rockets have tied the next five years of their future at the very least into James Harden. Everything is predicated on what he ends up becoming. If he stays the same and caps out as a top-20-but-not-top-10 player, and we can't add another better star on top of him, then we've failed, and that would mark the end of the Morey era. If he improves as much as the sans-Durant sans-Westbrook stats indicate he can, then we've won. It is ABSOLUTELY clear in my mind, now reading all the stuff you Clutchfans have put out there, that Morey is prepared and probably very willing to stake his entire legacy as a GM on his acquisition of James Harden. Just look at the numbers. He is a stats geek's wet dream. He is Kevin Martin on steroids, not figuratively, literally. 66%TS? You've gotta be kidding me. Clutchfans (and myself included) were making a pile over Kevin Martin hitting 60.1% two years ago. AND Harden plays defense too. The Friedman article sold me: this IS the End Game of Moreyball. If Harden ends up regressing from his performance last year, then that's on the scouting department and management in general. They've gotta go. If he continues to blossom like Neo in the Matrix, then boom. There's your next Spurs Franchise in terms of continuity in the administration and confidence to build perennial contenders. Morey has clearly shown us he can scout and select those complementary rotation players to put a team over the top. What we're waiting for is the other part, the star building part. If he does it now, God bless. If he doesn't, then we know the answer also. Good luck Rockets. I'll be tuning in this year, after thinking the whole offseason until this morning that I wouldn't.
Hahaha. Well played, joc, well played. Ultimately, it comes down to whether Harden is worth $15.6 mil per year. Of course he is. He is a complete player who can do everything well, many things at an elite level, and some things at an all-world level. Sure, it won't be as big a bargain as Jeremy Lin at $8.3 mil per year, but most teams can't pay somebody like Harden $15.6 mil per year if they wanted to. Does anybody even remember how Harden was crushing the Rockets last year? Remember how we breathed sighs of relief when Durant and Westbrook would come back in and take the ball out of unstoppable Harden's hands at the end of the games we were about to lose, and we would snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Yeah, that guy. Now he plays for the Rockets. Seriously.
I like the trade but alot of people and ESPN think that OKC won the trade so I dont know I think we won cause we get a star player ...
BSPN is always worth a laugh. I was just reading the Toronto Raptors forums and I think one of the posters there said it best. Even if Lowry/Valanciunas/Bargnani all died in a plane crash, it would still be unlikely that OKC would win this trade. Harden is a top 3 pick that actually worked out. Any sane GM would trade three late lotto picks for that without batting an eyelash. Even if the TOR pick somehow is a top 3 pick, top 3 picks don't work out half as well as Harden most of the time.
Analysis from the point of view of OKC I like this trade and still very exciting as you all but it's time to cool down. I am wonder whether OKC is benefit from this trade than us. I found a article: http://blog.newsok.com/thunderrumblings/2012/10/28/thoughts-on-the-james-harden-trade/ This is a quite long article title "Thoughts on the James Harden Trade"from Darnell Mayberry.
Lamb is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad imo Martin will be averaging only 17 pooooooooooooints and those draft picks are all unknown right now...
