Maybe not... but I'm always more partial to quality big than a backcourt player.... I havent watched much OKC this year, but damn the guy is impressin me. Nice shooters touch and solid D and swats...
Sure they could have but that overrated player didn't want to accept a 4 yr offer. Thunder said, okay, bye! Enjoy your 8th & 9th seeds in Houston! We'll take Kevin Martin, who can be our new 6th man, willingly! He can give us your 14 points off the bench, and a better FT/3pt shooter. And the Rockets wanted to give us 2 good picks, along with prospect Jeremy Lamb, a deal we simply couldn't pass up. Thunder definitely made the right decision keeping Durant, Westbrook, & Ibaka - and that is why they'll be heading back to the NBA Finals. That other guy? At home, in the club, somewhere not on the court.
Let me quote Larry Coon: Players coming off their rookie scale contracts can extend for four additional seasons, although the team can designate one player who is eligible for five seasons at the maximum salary. A team can have only one designated player on its roster at any time http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/CBA-111128/how-new-nba-deal-compares-last-one Pretty straight forward. You can only have one designated player on your roster at any time. Both Westbrook and Harden are designated players, therefore they cannot be on the same roster for the life of their current contracts.
Yeah, it is interesting to note that there's a couple of new twists to the CBA that put teams in difficult situations. The poison pill loophole that we used to get Asik and Lin is another rule that makes it difficult for teams to retain their talent. I guess the players had to get something out of the new CBA. The changes couldn't favor the owners 100% of the time. I guess I shouldn't complain since those two new rules are the primary reason we were able to acquire Harden, Asik and Lin. I guess you could look at it as a good thing since it only comes into play if you have two rookies that are due for extensions and are both max guys. Irving will get max money but the other guys likely won't get max money so it likely won't come into play with Cleveland unless they get lucky in the next couple of drafts.
And he's wrong, you can acquire a 5 year contract from another team. From cbafaq, point 58 Rookie scale contracts may be extended for up to four seasons beyond the last option season in the contract, bringing the total contract length to five seasons. Teams can also select one player (called their "Designated Player") who can receive a five-year extension, bringing the total contract length to six seasons. A team can have at most one player on its roster whom they have designated for a longer extension, plus at most one player designated by another team whom they acquired in trade.
Choosing to pay big money to Ibaka and trade Harden seems pretty smart. Trading one year of Harden for one year of Martin plus Lamb plus two first rounders plus a second rounder was a pretty fabulous trade. On our side, the trade itself might have been bad, but the signing that went with it was terrific.
You can ask fans of OKC, most will tell you they made the right choice between Westbrook/Harden. If Thunder had traded Wesbrook for Curry, that's a different matter. They could unthrone Miami this year. That would be a fair trade which GSW might go for. Curry Harden/Sefolosha Durant Ibaka Perks How do any team defend against 3 of the best efficient shooters in the league?
Not to mention I'd imagine Westbrook would have been more valued than Curry, so they would have gotten more than just him. More pieces would have been added.
That overrated player carried them against the Spurs last year to get them to their first finals. And who said Harden wasn't willing to be the 6th man? I never heard reports of him complaining about his role. To make it seem like the Thunder were happy to see Harden go is silly.
OKC is second behind Miami in offensive efficiency. http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/offensive-efficiency Remember, chances are they have to compete against Miami. Curry defense is really underrated. He is a much better defender than Westbrook. Westbrook is an inefficient chucker, always had been and alwasy will be. If you cringe when Lin shoots 3's, RW0 is even worse shooter than Lin. RW0 hasn't had a year in which he shot better 3-point % than Lin this year. Think about that! Five years and not one year he shot better than Lin's .332 this year. Curry, on the other hand, will be one of the best 3-point shooters of all time. He is currently at .446 for his career. If they'd traded RW0 for Curry, not only they would've improved their defense, they will be unstoppable on offense.
While I agree with most of what you say about Westbrook, he's a better defender then Curry. It actually isn't even close imo.
.......are there people on Clutchfans who actually think that the Harden trade was a good trade for OKC? Seriously?
They should've traded Westbrook. Durant, Harden, and Ibaka is a pretty good core. Definitely on par with the Heat's big 3. Westbrook is very talented, but I've seen him single-handedly lose them games on too many occasions. He almost lost them the game last night.
they should have traded WB for picks and veterans and expiring. Harden not only can score as good as wb but he can also create for others, and he will know his role, he wont shoot more than durant unless he is hot.
