Except Klay Thompson will never be as good as Harden is right now (and Harden will continue to evolve) and Beal is not Harden at this time either. Harden has current star power and future top-3 in the league ability, I know you love to rag on James but come on; he is a better player than Love and you know it.
Trading Harden isn't comparable to trading Thompson, it's comparable to trading Curry. What chances do you put that at?
Harden is an excellent player even considering his crap defense. I would prefer him to Beal and Thompson. But Love is excellenter than all of them.
The Celtics have Rondo. They have the #6 pick. A ton of additional picks stockpiled. And they have a lot of cap space available next summer and beyond. The Celtics are coming off 25 win season. It only took 38 wins for the Hawks to make it to the playoffs this year. Don't tell me just adding Love alone in a crappy conference like the East can't close that gap. Add another star or two after that and we're talking title contender. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Ainge and the Celtics organization have that tough of a sales pitch to make to Love.
So in the case of all of these teams they haven't won anything yet players want to play there? Seems to contradict your point. If the Clippers can go from being the worst organization in all of pro sports to being an attractive destination because they have Paul and Griffin then why do you assume that Houston can't be an attractive destination too? We have Harden and Howard, right? Players want to get playing time and they want a chance to win a title. Harden signed and extension to stay here, Howard choose us in free agency, Anthony is supposedly interested in playing here. Jalen Rose is even predicting that Durant will end up signing here. I don't think there's much of an argument that can be made against Houston being an attractive destination these days. What a team has done in the past isn't nearly as important as the current team's potential. If all players were concerned about was past success then the Bulls and Pistons would have remained elite as players would have been flocking there to play. Likewise, if past success was the main concern of players then the Lakers wouldn't suck as bad as they do.
Are you sure we can get Klay Thompson for Harden? I'm thinking Golden State probably values him more as a Draymond Green.
Houston can be an attractive destination if the team starts to actually win. So far having Howard and Harden on the same roster has not translated into any sort of postseason success. We lost in 6 games in Round 1 this year just like we did last year. Right now, I just don't see why the Rockets are so much more desirable than any of the other teams being rumored as trade partners for Minnesota and Love.
There are never any guarantees, you can still lose to a team raining threes (Dallas in 2011), or to some silly foul call, or to some guy launching a hail mary that goes in. But there's a big difference between "what we will try to do in the future", like the Lakers and Mavs tried to sell Dwight on, and "what's already there". Love can not speak for anyone else, and if he was going to play the "let's see what they can bring in future", he'd go to the Lakers.
A team trading for Kevin Love will be doing so to become a much better basketball team first and foremost. Maybe the Warriors get better with the trade (only arguable because of duplication with wing shooters), probably the Wiz get better (even though their post is the strength of their lineup, and the balance on the perimeter is very important), but its arguable AT BEST that Houston gets better with this deal. Houston trading Harden for Love is risky, changes the entire makeup of this team, solves nothing defensive, and reflects negatively on the front office/ownership. Adding a player like Kevin Love adds a significant amount of talent to the PF position, but adversely taking basically the key to the Rockets identity offensively out of the organization could take away everything that you are gaining + some. I'm no stranger to the notion that Harden has serious deficiencies(mostly on the defensive end), and I'm not about to argue against those, but if you want to try and downplay Harden's impact on the makeup of this team offensively, than frankly you don't know what the F you are talking about. James Harden is the Rockets offensive identity and is the engine that has made the team have the success its had the past two seasons and for the foreseeable future. However, I know that you Carl do know that even if you wont admit it because of your disdain for James Harden the person & NBA basketball player that mirrors your disdain for Thomas Robinson, Brandon Bass, and Morey when you thought he traded your one true loves Omer Asik & Patrick Patterson. You are a great asset for the GARM, but your inability to be objective about the ones your despise will keep people from ever taking you seriously. You are better than this. Its a shame you stoop down to such a low level.
Not at all. The #6 pick alone should garnish enough to either become a very good player that adds 4 to 5 wins a season, or to be traded for that type of player. Going into the Summer of 2007 before the big 3 trade, Id argue the Celtics had less means to turn it around as quick, but they struck two deals in one summer that changed the game. You can't tell me that Ainge doesn't have enough tools in his shed to make not just a Kevin Love trade, but also bring in at least one more good player to help Love and Rondo at the very least get to the playoffs in the loathsome East.
I'm confident that Minnesota's return for Love won't include any of the players that received 2014 MVP votes. That's Durant, James, Griffin, Noah, Harden, Curry, Paul, Jefferson,,George, Aldridge, Duncan, Parker, Nowitzki, Anthony, Dragic and Conley.
The Rockets lost in the playoffs to a Blazers team that had one less win... it wasn't a huge upset at all. The "Harden/Howard" combo have been together 1 year... that is it.
Simple, we have two star players and cap flexibility to pay a third star. I seriously doubt that the fact that we lost a 4-5 seed series to a team with an identical record is going to cause players to not want to play here. Dwight Howard was pursued by pretty much everyone last year. Based on your logic why did he sign here? What had we won in recent history? Why is Anthony interested in Houston and Chicago? Why didn't free agents flock to Dallas after they won a title? It certainly wasn't because they didn't pursue the big name guys. Based on your logic they should have landed both Deron Williams and Howard but they didn't. Why did Chris Paul resign with the Clips last off season? What had they won...ever?
But I don't think the Celtics are selling him on merely potential or hope. They already have a high lotto pick and many more picks to come. They have Rondo. They have a ton of cap space. No, they can't guarantee Love that those picks will all pan out or that a big name free agent(or two) will sign with the Celtics. But at the same time, there's a pretty solid foundation in place there in Boston to be back to contending within a year or two. And I think it's a stretch to compare this to Dwight and the Lakers. The Lakers a year ago were an aging team that just lost their superstar to a devastating injury. They had a coach that seemed in over his head. The ownership situation was a mess with Jim and Jeanie Buss fighting over things. And Kobe and Dwight weren't on good terms. Love wouldn't have any of that drama to deal with in Boston.
Actually both the Rockets and Blazers had 54 wins. Portland was sitting at the #3 seed for most of the year.
Dwight signed here because he thought we would be a contender with his addition. Now I have no idea if Morey told him it would take an extra year or two to fill out the roster, but I can't imagine he's too pleased right now to have lost in the first round(or with the way Harden performed). Do we even know that Anthony is interested in the Rockets? That's just a rumor. At least we know Noah's been recruiting him for the Bulls. The reason free agents didn't flock to Dallas after their title is they were dumping salary after 2011, not taking more on. Yes, they did want Williams. They wanted Howard. And they struck out on both of them. It happens. There are 30 teams in the league. Sometimes you don't get the guys you were targeting in free agency. It's not a reflection on the state of your franchise though(unless it happens every offseason). As for Chris Paul, he resigned there because they offered him over 100 mil and agreed to get Doc Rivers to coach the team.
In order for Boston to acquire Love they will have to give up quite a few of those draft picks so those won't help rebuild the Celtics. As far as next year they don't have a ton of cap space. They're paying Rondo $13M, Wallace $10M, Green $9.2M, Bass $7M, Joel Anthony $3.8M, Bradley $3.5M, Olynyk $2.0M and Sullinger $1.4M. That's $49.4M right there. Assuming that Minnesota isn't going to want to take back much salary, then a trade for Love will likely leave them with very little cap space. Rondo wasn't very good after returning from his ACL injury. Will he fully recover? Will he remain in Boston after next season? If Rondo's gone then where does that leave Love? If he just wants to go to a team with cap space and no other stars then he might as well go to LA.
I stand corrected, the teams had the SAME record. This narrative on here seems to be that the Rockets were a 60 win team that lost to a 42 win #8 seed.
Since day 1 the Rockets have talked about the ability to bring in a third star, and it is something that they sold Howard on. There is no way to know if Anthony is interested in the Rockets as he has been under contract and cannot comment. So Dallas "striking out" happens, but a Rockets team w/o depth and in year one with H&H losing to a team with the same record is a catastrophe, but the Mavericks striking out "happens"? Chris Paul is a Clipper because he felt they gave him a great shot to win... just like Dwight Howard is on the Rockets... they looked at the team and thought they had a good shot to win over the next 4-5 years.
