Bledsoe is playing better than Harden. If he can keep it up for a season, he'll be a better player who also plays defense.
Whether or not this is a true statement, it's certainly irrelevant to the thread. It's about which trade was worse.
The Bledsoe trade can never be viewed as "terrible" for the Clippers, UNLESS they immediately lose Chris Paul. The Clippers managed to add "components" to their team (2 shooters to space the floor for Paul) by trading away a guy who was doomed to limited minutes at the best of times. The Harden trade for OKC is much worse since they lost a guy who was always going to be an all-star, in order to keep Kendrick Perkins. LoL.
I don't agree with this line of reasoning at all. First of all, OKC is already paying KD the max, WB the max and Ibaka 10M a year, if we put the max at 15M that's already 40M of a 60M cap. So if they pay Harden 15M as well, please tell me how they can afford the rest of the team? Secondly as good as Harden was OKC can't really play the 3 of them together, he's gonna be used as a very expensive 6th man and the guy who comes in when either KD or WB sits out. He's not really gonna be more than that in OKC, in that case they actually got more value out of the trade than Harden, it's just not noticeable because: 1. Lamb is still raw 2. Stevens is still raw and a rookie 3. Kmart left in FA 4. Dallas pick hasn't been used 5. Harden oth has already been in the league for 4 years It's like doing a Yao Ming for DH rook trade and then saying look at Yao Ming, he's so amazing while DH is this stick thin dude who can't do anything. This trade won't look as bad when Lamb and Stevens come into their own 3-5 years from now.
OKC basically gave away a known commodity (Harden) to gamble on the future of Lamb and Adams. There's always a chance the youngsters can become superstars someday, who knows. Similar to how Memphis traded away Pau Gasol for some picks and Marc Gasol .... who turned out to be a high quality big man ... but they are brothers so it's kind of expected that the younger brother would turn out that good.
what is getting the business in this thread. Rightfully so, I think. But what do I know, I'm just a volume poster.
He played 32mpg for them in his final season there. There's no reason to believe they wouldn't have increased that to "starter minutes" (36), even if coming off the bench.
I have to disagree some here. If you add Hardens 15 you come down to 55million for 4 players. A lot? Sure. But you can always go over the cap (even without paying luxury) - and to get a championship team it may be necessary to pay some luxury tax. And you really only need about 7-8 player in your rotation, so getting 4 guys for an average of 5 million doesn`t look too bad when you have those 4 studs already playing. In his last season with OKC Harden averaged more than 30 minutes - that`s perfectly fine even for the max. He might be a 6th man, but more in the Ginobili role - very valuable. Yao was a top pick. Lamb and Adams aren`t even top 10 picks. It´s true that you can`t really tell how they will end up, but in terms of value, picks outside of the top 10 (in weak drafts) aren`t really worth that much. They might luck out with one or both of them, but that isn`t really the point so far. And the Dallas pick won`t even be in the lottery. So a decent role player, two lottery picks outside of the top 10 and a non lottery pick for a sure fire allstar, possible superstar - that is a bad trade, you might even argue one of the worst in league history.
Let's cut the crap about how OKC couldn't afford to keep Harden. They offered him $54MM, he wanted $60MM. They weren't going to start losing money if they signed him to the extension he asked for. They are a ridiculously profitable franchise, especially for one in such a small market. Now obviously if they stopped winning their revenues would go down, but with the Durant/Westbrook/Harden core intact they would have been title contenders, year after year, until those guys left or got old. Simply put, OKC valued making tons of $$ over contending for the rest of the decade. And they clearly didn't realize just how good James really is. There's no way around it; it was a very bad trade (and one they didn't even have to make at the time). As good as Bledsoe may be, trading him didn't signficantly decrease the Clippers' title chances. In fact, getting Dudley and Redick probably gave them a better shot at winning it all (though I don't think they will).
I believe those 32 mins happened because thats the combined time kd and wb rested. Basically they had Harden playing off the ball when KD sits, or as the primary playmaker when WB sits. Their main problem is all their money would be tied to the perimeter, and all the comimentary pieces they have like sefalosha is bound to hit FA as well.
this line of reasoning only works when you think harden is some godly superstar, which he ain't. Harden ain't even on tmac's level and tmac was a borderline superstar. Harden is just an allstar player, nothing more nothing less. Making him out to be on KD's level or Klove's level or CP3 or Lebron's level, is homerism, plain and simple.
By crap do you mean this little thing called the salary cap? Miami had LBj, Bosh and Wade all making less than the max and they can barely afford to have 15 guys on the team, OKc already had wb and kd making the max with Ibaka making 10m and they can afford a 3rd max contract? True they wouldve survived a bit longer without trading harden but nobody can offer the same package we gave, a stop gap 6th man, lottery pick and a project sg. Look at the crap orlando got for dh, or what memphis got for pau gasol, if we got somebody they can lose harden for low first rounder and other crap.
No he's not Durant or Lebron or even CP3 (although those two are still better than CP3 by a good margin I think)....but Love is DEFINITELY not on the level of those three guys either. not even a quarter of the season done does not put Love in elite company. Love and Harden has accomplished nothing, if you are going to say Harden is just a All-star then you have to say the same to Love. They both haven't accomplished much in their young careers to prove that they are on that level. As great as Love has started off the season Harden started off the season blazing too last year...but you have proven you don't even watch the guy play and your bias against him is showing so this is just wasting time.
He was voted 4th best player in the league... and he doesn`t have to be a superstar to earn that contract. Guys like LeBron are greatly underpayed because of the max-system. Harden easily earns his current contract and if OKC had a chance, they would gladly take him back. Oh, and by the way I think despite Loves recent play I still think a lot of analysts would take Harden over Love. Both don`t play great defense, but Love still usually needs a good pass to score.
The salary cap is not a hard cap. You can go to 71 million without even paying a dime of luxury tax. Miami by the way is at 83 million. They could easily afford Harden the max and build a team around them. If they amnistied Perkins they even could`ve done it without getting to the luxury tax.
you're delusional. klove has been playing like this 2 out of the last 3 years, and the only reason he didn't play like this last year was because he was injured. no gm would take harden over klove, talent-wise.
