Today's Hot Take: Trade Jalen Green for James Harden

Tomorrow's and the next months' topic.

 

Sure. If folks wants to get rid of green so bad I rather bring back a rockets great.

Our team really needs a playmaker

 

Don't get me started on Jalen brother. He needs to be dealt with this summer one way or another. We can't have this choker on our team.

But I agreed with your point but I think James is just not the answer anymore. He is in the twilight in his career and would hurt our defensive efficiency. I think growing Amen Thompson will be better than trading for aging Harden who is only going to get worse each season.

 

we don’t have to keep Jalen. We can move him in another deal. Also, Fred gets credit for showing up 3 games out of 7 in the playoffs after a terrible season? This guy is way overrated. If you watched him play all season and most of the playoffs it’s hard to want him back.

 

Since when is Harden shooting sub-32% from deep in the playoffs? I have no idea where u got that from

 

How in the BELL are we going from trading for the Freak/Booker to Stripper Gawd Harden??

This place is surreal sometimes! It's like I'm in some crazy Twilight Zone episode!


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I don't think we're going to find the perfect answer to this question, unfortunately. If they decide to move on it's probably going to be an imperfect answer that hopefully at least helps balance out the roster a bit. I don't necessarily disagree with your takes, I'm just kind of ambivalent/conflicted about all of the possibilities honestly.

Ant Edwards is probably the only shooting guard where if he were somehow available I would be pounding the table and screaming "GET IT DONE STONEY". Basically any other shooting guard under age 30, even like Booker or Mitchell (both probably unavailable), I'm making some variation of this face



I just know I don't want to add more age 30+ veterans, except maybe if it's a top 5 superstar level guy.

 

No thank you! I say go for Reaves or Ivey.

 

I think we have a bigger need which is "winning playoff games", and I don't think Harden fits that well at all.

 

Poor James, man. I can see why some Rockets fans keep wanting him back no matter how many times he continues to fail and **** the bed in game 7s. He's anti clutch. Maybe the worst game 7 performer of all time, but the thought of helping our MVP win one in Houston is the makings of a feel good story. I get it. Especially for those who only lived through the Harden years and didn't get to experience Moses, or Hakeem or the few short years of Clyde or Chuck or even Pippen. Yao and Stevie and T-mac. For some, Harden is the only MVP superstar Rocket they've known. There's attachment to that. Seeing Russ have fun and succeed and play well in a new role after years of getting trashed on makes you wonder if Harden is ready to adapt and become that and it would be amazing to see him have fun and all that, but i think the perfect dream died when history beckoned him and he couldn't answer the call. History won't ask again. Besides, he just aint an Ime player or person.

 

We would be trading a young big game shrinker for an old one. Harden might get us a few more wins in the regular season but doesn’t take us to that next level in the playoffs. I’m good.

 

I mixed up his game 7 stats with his overall stats. I took out his game 7 Fg percentage from the calculations of overall stats.

In the playoffs James harden is shooting 34% from the three and in game 7 hes shooting 22% from the three.

 

If you aren't getting a true star player for Jalen or Sengun, IMO if you feel you need to move either them, I would prefer to trade them for as many 1st round picks as you can get, and tradeable contracts. Give yourself as much ammo as possible to get a true star that FITS the trajectory, and timeline of this team.

HOWEVER.... regarding Harden...

If there is ever a point where Harden is at the point of his career where he can play sort of a Jeff Green role COMING OFF THE BENCH most likely or maybe a CP3 type of role with SA starting but being more of a coach on the floor, I'm totally fine and would actually really enjoy Harden coming back.

But the reality is Harden this Summer will still be:

A. Looking for a huge final contract, and will probably get that from the Clippers given how vital he is to their season next year to even be in the playoffs
B. Will still be a player that needs to be "The System" and still present the same post season liability of having a team caught flat footed when a defense takes him, and his creating abilities out of the game.

 

I'd honestly rather keep Jalen than do a swap for Harden or big trade for KD.