Bill Simmons: “In the whisper circles, everybody seems to think he’s going back to Houston.”

No brainer
2-3 years of excellence and the last year for his service to the team regardless of his performance is quite worth it for our youngsters developmental and potential playoff experience.


Unless our plan is to gamble next year first round draft by being sht for the 4th year in a row, out of the free agents harden most likely will make us more competitive

 

looks good to me

let’s get the reunion going

 

Harden's game should age gracefully honestly. We have the money now, why not spend it? There's no better option out there.

 

Things are falling into place. This is not a Westbrook or Iverson type of player whose games were predicated on athletic skill . Harden is a playmaking genius whose game is totally dependent on skill and high IQ . Harden is one of a few handful players in history who is a generational playmaker and scorer.

 

Harden
Green
Jabari
Wemby
Sengun

Tari
KMJ
Garuba
TyTy
Tate

Championship Baby!

 

Iverson had both supreme skill with athletic physical ability, don't let the Fg% from him playing with those 7yrs of his Philly core 6ppg career scorers (mckie / snow) trick you into thinking otherwise

Later in career he had no problem playing second fiddle to Melo which is why his efficiency was better there

After that of course he was mentally tapped after being told to take a backseat to Stuckey and then Conley, but from 96-2008 he put on a show for being 5'10'' and weighing a buck fifty with bricks in his pockets

 

After signing harden, you need to bring in a couple of ready made vets off the bench. Guys like Josh Hart, Bruce Brown and a shooter or two like Alec Burke, Seth Curry or a Max Struss type. You need floor spacers for Harden and Green to operate. Wemby obviously can do it all from all over the floor at 7 freaking 5 foot at ripe age of 19!


I would also look at Naz Reid but I think the Wolves will give him enough to keep him. He would be the perfect 4/5 veteran backup .PJ Washington another defensive big would be good off the bench.

 

Harden won't do good for Houston now. He's a different player, and Houston is a different city. It needs a rebuild, Harden needs a different career.

Trust the process is why DMorey ended up in Philly, Houston needs to do the same and try to land a generational talent. We traded Harden to get here, we gotta follow-through.

 

But we're not gonna have more top 5 picks any time soon, at least none that depend on us losing games. There's no upside to continue losing.

 

This doesn’t make sense to me.

Rockets are in a desperate need for a PG…an elite playmaker…a floor general

Harden is 1 of the best in all 3 categories, and the takeaway is that he won’t do good for Houston?

all that trust the process stuff is done after this season…Rockets have been the worst team in the league 3 years straight, and our picks will start heading to OKC next year

 

My biggest concern with Harden isn't the on-court stuff, it's how much control he would have over personnel moves. That clearly didn't work out last time.

 

holy shite, that's a boatload of money to tie up for four years. And you're one hamstring pull away from a year and a half recovery period

pretty sure you want to be the team that trades for Harden when he's 22, maybe not the team that signs him for $200+ million when he's 34

 

Harden will probably make an All-NBA team this year. We'd be the first team to sign an All-NBA player in free agency since 2018-19. When you're a team that is trying to be better the next 3 years because we don't have our pick... you can't really hope for better than that.

And anyway the cap is going to spike with the next TV deal, estimated to be $171M in 2025, and Harden's deal wouldn't be indexed to that growth. By year 4 of his contract Harden's 4 year max would be in the range of ~25% of the cap instead of ~35%. That in itself makes signing big deals this summer effectively hugely discounted.

And if we're competitive by then and sign our young guys to extensions etc. so we're over the cap, Harden's $54M could be down to ~20% of our total payroll in year 4 with us still under the tax. Not particularly bad.

 

Reasonable take.

But U want to b known as the franchise that signed one of the best player at the position u desperately need and not the one that would rather pass on the opportunity and run it back with a dude still learning how pass to the player having a hot game.

 

How exactly do you plan for us to do that? Unless I am remembering wrong, we do not control our FRP until 2027 meaning tanking further gets us nothing. This means said generational talent will come from trade or signing. Who is out there that we can realistically trade for or is willing to be signed by us who is better than Harden?

 

If Harden coming back means Silas is gone, I'm all for it.

 

I don't know, I think people are forgetting all the "Can James Harden be a leader?"/Kevin McHale discussions that took place both while he was on the Rockets and after he was traded to Brooklyn . . . not sure those questions are behind us yet

https://hashtagbasketball.com/houston-rockets/content/is-james-harden-a-leader

https://houseofhouston.com/2017/10/08/houston-rockets-kevin-mchale-right-james-hardens-leadership/

https://clutchpoints.com/nets-news-james-hardens-proof-of-leadership-per-steve-nash

https://fadeawayworld.net/nba-media...ng-a-good-veteran-leader-on-the-rockets-uh-no

 

Bingo. a clear relevant bridge for the young core

RedNinetyFour on Twitter: "What people don’t understand is that you wouldn’t sign James Harden out of some delusion of contending. You sign him to drastically increase the odds of your team playing in games like last night’s. Those are high pressure reps for your young core. They need meaningful games." / Twitter

 

I agree with this emphatically. Getting Harden back would be great.

 

I see what you are saying, but looking at this year's (and even next year's) free agent class, whom else would you spend the money on?

Harden seems to be by far the best player potentially available. Worst case, at least he should still have more trade value than pretty much anyone else on the FA list.

Also, his game seems to be much less dependent on athleticism than e.g. Westbrook's was, so I am not sure that he would decline that much between 34 and 38. What we really need is just someone to intelligently feed our youngsters (and do some scoring himself when needed).