What's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would Westbrook still have gotten hurt by Beverley if Houston never acquired Harden.?
Seriously? The Thunder have enough offensive power with Westbrook and Durant. Sure, Harden off the bench was great, but you take the defensive starting PF, over the 6th man every day of the week. I said the same thing before we got Harden. Sure, Harden looks great here, but he was just a 6th man in OKC. Defense wins championships, not 6th men. As far as the Perkins trade, I think that was pure desperation to compete with the Lakers. Imagine if the Tyson Chandler trade went through (he failed his physical).
The Perkins trade looked good for them when they made it. Perkins hasn't met expectations since then. I think Martin is a great player for them to play the 6th man role. Obviously, he isn't nearly as good as Harden, but Harden was underutilized coming off the bench. You knew that situation was not sustainable. From a basketball point of view, of course they should have given Harden the max, ran with 4 max guys, amnesty Perkins, fill in the roster where necessary with coattail-riding veterans and journeymen, and pay luxury tax out the wazoo. The owner wasn't willing to sustain those kinds of losses and/or take those risks. Given that, Presti made the most of a bad situation, but yeah ideally you want the owner to just be willing to pay and pay for the chance.
Perkins was always overrated and they overpaid him. Jeff Green has looked better as a Celtic than he ever did as a Sonic/Thunder, though. I was never a fan of the trade, as it made so much more sense for Perkins to be in the East, since his primary value was as a big body to throw at Howard.
perkins was brought in to be a big body to put on bynum. it's just that perkins is only effective against bynum and not the other teams they have to face like miami
imagine if Morey was on OKC management. Trades away Perkin, sign Harden to a max, pick up Asik for dirt cheap.
It's what's keeping them from being truely great. Barkley has been pointing it out since last season. If they go cold from the outside they're a pretty average team. While the logic of keeping Ibaka over Harden makes sense someone on that team needs to step up and learn to make easy buckets from the post. In the absence of Westbrook why have they made Durant into the point guard? Why not try to get him face ups on the wing where he would be practically unstoppable?
It doesn't matter. Quality big men are harder to come by in the NBA than scoring wings. It's why some team always ends up paying a chump like Perkins (it's also why we took a chance giving 30 mill to a second string center who never played major minutes). So holding on to a young, shot blocking, rebounding big is sticking to conventional NBA wisdom. Hindsight is 20/20 and we now know what Harden is capable of but think about it this way: would you trade Asik for Eric Gordon straight up right now (I realize the money doesn't match but it's a hypothetical)?
This is the problem with small market teams. Look at the Lakers and Knicks, both teams are paying a lot of luxury tax but they are ok with it. OKC can't pay that so they have to cut costs and make these decisions.
