Would you trade James Harden for Kevin Love if need be?

Agree about the need for an elite perimeter player.

The reason why we need to make a Harden/Love trade is so that we can finally attract that elite perimeter player that we need with the prospect of playing with two elite teammates.

We would have beaten Portland if only we had an elite perimeter player on this year's team.

 

Thanks for posting. A few notes:


- Seems that Ethan Strauss, Tom Haberstroh and Amin Elhassan all believe that Houston would trade Harden for Love if it comes down to it. They also agree that 1) a package of other parts (Parsons, Asik, etc.) won't get it done, 2) Houston would currently say "no" to Harden only as a negotiating tactic of not giving your best offer right away.

- Elhassan made the point that perimeter scorers are easier to find ("dime a dozen") than bigs who can shoot nearly 40% from the arc and also grabbing 10 rebounds, suggesting that the reasonable thing to do is to do what it takes for Love and then find a replacement perimeter guy (or two)

-- The three of them all believe that the Warriors are in the lead. They think that the Warriors are currently offering Barnes and Lee, but would do Thompson if need be to get the deal done.

-- This seems to say that they think Thompson is a more desirable chip than Harden is. I think they are overrating Thompson and underrating Harden (as much as Harden annoys me) but this kind of shows how big a hit Harden has taken of late in terms of public perception.

I also think that they are overrating GSW's chances even if they offer Thompson. For one thing, GSW doesn't have the picks to offer (gave them to Utah to dump salaries to sign Iguodala) and if MIN is even iffy between Harden and Thompson, HOU can offer extra picks to break the tie.

-- One caveat given in their discussion is that no one knows what Minnesota wants yet-- prospects, picks or guys who can play and help win right away.

Interesting that all 3 of them agree that HOU should and would offer Harden if it is what it takes to get Love (and beat out the competition). Maybe this thread/discussion isn't as pointless as some people here think it is.

 

It's not a 5 or 6 game offensive funk that bothers me. I am 99.99999% certain that Harden won't play like that offensively over the course of the rest of his career, including the playoffs. Any guy can have a bad shooting 5 or 6 games.

It's the total lack of defensive effort for the entirety of the season that alarms me. He was already subpar defensively in 2012-13 but this year he got even worse, much worse-- like possibly the worst defender among "star" players during the last decade of NBA basketball worse, like making me think that "Good Lord, if I were an NBA player, I would hate having that guy on my team" worse.

Given this, the part where he continued to play no effort defense in the playoffs is no longer a just a bad defensive series, but a part of a trend that makes a reasonable person reevaluate the actuarial calculations of Harden's career.

Yes, he is still elite offensively. But it made me try very hard to remember the last leading star on an NBA champion team who has ever played such sorry no effort and ineffective defense in his 5th NBA season. Can't really come up with a name.