They offered him $53m over 4, he wanted $60m, that's $1.75m a year, it's barely the vet min difference, OKC made $30m last year (bad economy right?), Presti tried to nickel and dime him, that much is so blatantly obvious it takes a willful desire to overlook it, to not see how obvious it was, being a memphis fan, half expecting to lose your coach to nickel and diming, I'd think you'd recognise the symptoms And then played the "houston card" because well we weren't really headed anywhere. Instead of crying, no don't send me there, I'll sign, Pelinka went "5 year max? no state income tax? yeah we'll do that", as for Harden himself, I imagine he felt somewhat disrespected, because not only was he sacrificing numbers for the team, much like Bosh does and he was ok with that, but Presti expected him to also sacrifice money, yeah....no (Notice how the Justice League of Miami all get paid basically the same?)
There's also the fact that even IF Harden played a good soldier, took 53 million, sacrificed money, minutes, the chance to be a star, all for that ring...he had utterly no guarantee that Presti wouldn't just knife him in the back later and trade him whenever he felt like it or if the owner later decided that the lux tax bill was too high. Presti refused to give Harden a trade kicker, which pretty much belies his real intentions.
It's kind of easy to throw stones at the guy, when the team is about one game from elimination and their 2nd best player went down for the playoffs. Yet, the team has been a playoff contender, since 2009 and a championship contender for roughly 2 years. Any team not named Miami, LA Lakers, Dallas, or San Antonio has not had the kind of success and opportunity. They offered Harden a fairly sizable salary and he turned it down, that's not on the GM or even owner. I'm sure fans on the others would say the same things about Morey, since the team has picked up any electrifying players in the draft or went deep into playoffs barring the year with the Yao Ming injury against the Lakers. Morey is a really good GM, but posters do get carried away, sometimes.
So if Durant wanted the max, but OKC instead gave him a contract that is less than the max but still "a sizable salary", and Durant ends up going to another team. Is that still not on the GM? That's basically Harden's situation, in fact it's worse considering the fact that they still had him for one more year and all they had to do was give him a trade kicker as a loyalty guarantee. In other words, it wasn't enough that a 22 year old easily capable of being an all-star was willing to come off the bench and get the least spotlight. Presti also wanted him to give up both salary and trade kicker (which protects him during trades). There is still a good period of time before we can properly assess the true worth of the package Presti got, but if in the near future what he got out of it was conclusively far inferior than James Harden, then Sam Presti should get a ton of criticism.
i suspect the Harden thing is on owner. i disagree with the notion that Harden's performance was a major surprise, and i very much doubt it was a surprise to Presti. the part where it may be on Presti is what he got back. he might've put too much value into those picks and Lamb. he might've overrated his own drafting ability too. we'll find out in a few years, once Toronto pick becomes a player and has a few years under his belt.
Houston was his third option, so it wasn't like other teams knew what kind of player Harden was and Presti chose the wrong package.
Sure...you CAN make a Finals run without Harden, it's just much more difficult and your margin for error (due in part to the lackluster supporting cast outside of Durant Westbrook and a kind of dumb coach in Brooks ) is very thin. He gave up a sure Finals run this year, or about as sure as it gets, for the prospect of maybe having a few more - if Lamb, the 12th pick etc pans out. Finals runs are precious things, willingly giving one up, like Presti did, in the hopes of marginallly improving your future outlook, is always a mistake.
And? They would have had a better shot at beating that team with Harden then with Kevin Martin. Last years series was closer than it looked. Ginobili is a perfect example. He's not considered a superstar but the Spurs were smart enough not to give him away. The bottom line is the team was fortunate enough to have 3 young studs that loved playing together and they broke it up. If you think that's smart we just won't agree. People in charge of money go the cheap route and make mistakes all the time.
maybe. but nothing is sure thing and if westbrook doesn't go down we might not be even having this conversation. would they have been better, sure they would have but i doesn't believe that harden wouldn't have burden them with the lack of capspace. also, if you look at the way the thunder are constructed, it mirrors the way the heat are constructed. dwade - westbrook lebron - kd ibaka - bosh presti knew that he had to counter the big 3, which he did. He also knew that, unlike Miami (who doesn't have wiggle room anymore) that his team needed to be flexible. I for one still like the way the thunder is constructed. The thunder didn't need harden and they still don't need him.
Wishful thinking. tthe overvaluing of Ibaka is why they're in this mess in the first place. He's a valuable player but he is what he is, an undersized shotblocking 4/5 who doesn't have much of a post up game and is also not really a great man defender. Compare that with Bosh who is an all-star and likely HOF'er. No. Presti had a counter to the big 3. Then he got rid of 1. Until westbrook goes down - which he did, and then they're ****ed, which they are.
So he should build roster the way when top 3 player on the team gets injured, they should still be able to win title to not be overrated?
The point is that he had such a roster (great job on building it), and gave it up for financial reasons (which wasn't even gonna hit them for at least another year). I still think ownership is likely mostly to blame for not being willing to spend-- whatever their other salaries are, when you have a special group like this you should be willing to pay to compete.
Ginobili is actually a terrible example. He never demanded max money so San Antonio was always able to easily afford him.
Kind of off topic. Why did they not start Harden the season before they traded him? They would have got a better idea what Harden's value was and what a Westrook-Harden-Durant-Ibaka core starting lineup could achieve. Then they could decide what they wanted to do with the core.
Because they wanted Thabo to take on the other team's perimeter threat in the Battier role. I don't think it really matters though, Harden played the 3rd most minutes on the team as you'd expect, it's kind of irrelevant who was on the floor for the opening tipoff
There have been articles on TOR, GS, and WAS turning down the trade... not to mention the rumors of Harden for Charlotte's #2. So, who knows how many teams actually said no, but it is clear that the GM's in the league weren't sure if Harden's success was sustainable as the number one option..
I don't think anybody thought that serge was a better player than harden, so I don't get your point, which seems to be that presti thought serge was the better player. But serge was more important to the thunder because harden was simply a wing scorer and the thunder already had two of them: westbrook and kd, and serge represented an area of greater need, rebounding defense and low post scoring.
Ginobli, and any other player who clearly could d more as a top option, are perfect examples. I understand Harden wanted more. My stance is when you have a special group like that you pay. That type of group comes around once ever couple of decades. And Harden would have taken less than the max with a trade kicker (costs OKC nothing). And you didn't have to pay him max until next year, so chase a title this year. LOL
