EXACTLY. Think, people. The Rockets' puff-piece sportswriters are gonna eff over their access to the organization (and their cushy jobs) by putting a spotlight on the Harden situation? Obviously Harden has mentioned to our players he misses those Houston titty bars. That gets back to management. But, until he signs with us, he isn't going to sign with us. Will Morey back up the Brinks truck in Philly to keep him (thinking as Morey so often does, "Then I'll trade his ass")? Something probably not lost on Harden.
All the executives in Chicago ( NBA combine) are saying the same things from what I heard on various nba podcast.
we can’t start the season without spending a lot on free agents or via trade. The NBA minimum salary is much higher than the current payroll. We might end up offering Marjanovic a 40 million - 1 season contract
He had a 4.1 BPM in the playoffs. Equivalent to a 3rd best player on a championship team. He wasn't a one way guy, defense was actually pretty decent.
No way, his 1 on 1 defense is awful (he can’t move his feet anymore). Harden also fell asleep a lot in back cuts by Brogdon. His saving grace on defense is he made good gambles on defense to get steals.
I thought he did well when switched onto Tatum for a couple of possessions. He's always been ass at off-ball defense, but on-ball, the Celtics began the series targeting him in ISO and it wasn't working as well as when they chose to target Maxey instead. Either way he's not at that "6th man on a contender" level any time soon. He's maybe at that level of OKC Harden, but they were only bringing him off the bench to stagger minutes with the big 3.
Honestly he did have some good possessions on Tatum, but Tatum always bails out the defense when he does his stepback 2 or 3. We can disagree on the 6th man on a contender, he has continued to make poor decisions in the fourth quarter. I would be fine with playing Harden quarters 1-3.
I'm open minded about him coming back but want to see what is out there to trade for first. If there's him or Porzingis I'm taking Harden all things equal. That being said, hard to believe there's not someone we can acquire under 30...
I agree with the idea here completely - Harden aint coming here on a discount .... unless Stone builds a contender. BUT* I do believe that there are multiple scenario's where you can turn this roster into a real contender. Stone has enough assets and cap space to add Harden as a free agent and three more quality players while keeping much of the young talent currently on the roster. It only makes sense to make those moves as a whole, you can't do part of it. It's all or nothing. Harden, one other young star, a really good player & a MLE guy transforms this roster ....
I don't see any possible way this roster can become a contender right now if you mean "championship contender". Contender to make the playoffs, sure, that's relatively easy these days since they added the play-in. But yeah--Harden couldn't win it all with the MVP Embiid... so, what then...? He's going to win it all with a pupu platter from this awful free agent class & no superstars currently available for trade? Maybe something will change and a big-name player will shake loose. But right now I'm not seeing it.
This is why the NBA publishes the tracking stats. Here's the stats when guarded by Harden in the BOS vs PHi playoff series: Brogden 4/16 Field Goals ( 25%), 1/7 on 3 pointers (14.3 3pt%) with 2 assists and 2 turnovers Tatum 11/25 Field Goals ( 44%), 1/7 on 3 pointers (14.3 3pt%) with 1 assist and 2 turnovers
I posted this in another thread but I'll repost here. This is from Kelly Iko's interview with Udoka this week for The Athletic. To me, here's Udoka's most interesting reply: But do you see free agency as more of a chance to give this team a facelift or simply adding pieces around a young core? I would say more complementary, honestly. I mean you want to do both. You want to add veterans that aren’t just a voice only, you want them to be out there, play and push the guys. But, as I’ve said, regardless of free agency and the draft, we still have a group of guys we want to grow, and we’re looking for internal growth. More so than necessarily looking for an outside guy to try to save the day. We want these guys to grow, but we’re going to add pieces to push and compete for time and are out there to play to complement the young guys that we already have. That sounds like the focus is around developing and building around our young core. Based on his response, it doesn't sound like he's trying to swing for the fences with a veteran. But, there's still all of the Harden rumors which seem to indicate a different direction. I assume Udoka has input and knows the team's plans but the Harden rumors just won't go away. One way or another I believe that we're bringing in a PG. Could be Harden if you believe the rumors. We've already interviewed Kendrick Davis and Marquis Nowell ( BTW I would love it if we brought him in as 2nd rounder or undrafted guy) and they are going to interview Amen Thompson on Thursday. If we don't get a PG in the draft then I've got to believe that Harden's a lock. If we end up taking Amen Thompson, then it wouldn't really tell us anything as he fits with or without Harden. Should make for an interesting couple of months.
NBA scouts disagree with you. If we keep the pick, he's the most likely choice Here's the current Vegas odds for pick #4 NBA 2023 Draft No. 4 Overall Pick Odds Amen Thompson -110 Brandon Miller +480 Jarace Walker +480 Ausar Thompson +480 Cam Whitmore +950 Scoot Henderson +3600 Taylor Hendricks +4900 Anthony Black +5500
Those aren't great numbers at all. Tatum's putting up less than 1 point per FGA, would need to see his FT's
What he is at this point is a #3 guy that gives you a few great performances here and there to steal you a couple of games, but other than that, he'll just play the CP3 role when things get dicey. Ironically, he made the biggest mistake of his career by leaving Brooklyn, having Kyrie/KD to close out a series for him would have been ideal. And yeah, historically speaking his big drop offs come in games 5-7. He's actually Jordan level efficient in games 1-4 for his career. Also we're only talking playoffs here. In the regular season he's obviously way more effective. He can drag this team to the play-in.
Kind of a silly statement to make. You can not like him and not believe in him as a prospect, but he's the consensus #4 on draft boards (even reportedly as high as #2 on some boards) so there's undeniably a very high chance the Rockets will take him. They've generally picked pretty in line with consensus under Stone.
I'd take Harden for 20-25 million per season. But even then I am still reluctant. I just want a clean start for these kids.
To an extent he is one of the best athletes and good playmaker. Just does not have enough fundamentals and shooting. At some point we have to start drafting the underrated guy with potential.
