Morey never wanted Westbrook. In fact, Morey told Harden that a trade wasn't going to happen. It was the owner, after speaking to Stone that wanted Westbrook and told Morey to make a deal. Morey essentially had no choice, and made a deal that he did not want to make. It was also a big part of the reason Morey left the Rockets --- when the assistant GM is undermining you and the owner is stupid, it is hard to win... so Morey and MDA both wanted out and got out.
I actually remember this now and what I posted in the thread before bolting that year. That even though I disagreed with Morey a lot the trade was the antithesis of the type of moves and players morey would bring in. Low IQ/low efficiency chucker at the cost of picks and high IQ player that did well on this team? I didn't know stone was the one that undermined him though, he needs to go **** himself and leave this team
There's a lot of conjecture about all of that.... iirc Tillman ultimately decided to pull the trigger after Morey said it wasnt going to happen... but why were they even in discussions? WB was def not a Morey type player... yet, there he was kicking tires... why was he even on the lot? Morey had an interest... now if it was just for show to placate james, idk... but i assume ultimately DM didnt like the price... Tillman said price be damned, pull the trigger... so sure, maybe we overpaid bc of Tillman... maybe DM felt undermined from a negotiating standpoint... but Tillman didnt put WB on the radar... was this an attempt by Tillman to make james happy? was DM just trying to swing a better deal?
Harden wanted the deal. He was the superstar. He was going to get CP3 traded for what he thought made the team better, or he was going to leave. We've seen what happens when he is unhappy with the team, many times over. The deal was inevitable. And if the choice was Morey quitting on the team or Harden quitting on the team, retaining the superstar wins every time.
I have a pretty good idea of what happened at that time period. Daryl Morey never wanted to trade for Westbrook and he never wanted to trade Chris Paul and draft picks for Westbrook. The Thunder reached out to the Rockets - not the other way around, and Morey conveyed that information to the owner as required. Harden conveyed that he would like to play with Westbrook - Morey said that wasn't likely to happen and Harden accepted that. The GM (Morey) and the Head Coach both were against adding Westbrook. The owner spoke to Stone about Westbrook and the owner came back the next day and told Morey to make the trade happened. The owner wanted it done then.... it was a disaster, and it was a big part of the reason the coach and GM would leave. There are plenty of mistakes that Harden made, and Morey too - but this one belongs to the owner and somewhat the assistant GM.
The owner wanted the deal - the owner said that Chris Paul was the worst contract in the NBA. He wanted Paul traded badly. Harden said to the GM he wanted to play with Westbrook. However, Morey had already spoken to Harden and he was okay with them not adding Westbrook if it was going to be difficult. The GM and the HC didn't want it. It was discussed, Harden was already out of town. They agreed to not make the deal. The owner spoke to the assistant GM and the next day he called and told Morey to make the deal and get it wrapped up ASAP. My sources on this point are iron clad. This is what happened. Again, there are plenty of things to not like about Morey and Harden. There are a number of things that are fair criticism -- this isn't one of them.
I absolutely believe you. I believe your sources. I also believe the Harden - Paul pairing was toxic by the end of 2019. CP3 sucked that year. He was bad, looked slow and shot like 42% from the field. Who knew he was going to go vegan and have a resurgence with OKC? The Westbrook trade was bad. It was a bad trade at the time. I'm sure it was pushed by Fertitta. But I don't think there was a way in hell Harden was going to team up with CP3 another year after what happened in 2019. The question was, who were they going to trade him for? Westbrook was a bad choice for all the reasons we knew it was bad at the time. That said, I'd have been interested in seeing how that group that was going pre-Covid break would have fared. I know they got killed by the Lakers (and the Danuel House BS) but I felt like they'd unlocked something with Russ surrounded by shooters before the long break.
