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

Westbrook was 31. Wall was 30. Harden will be 36 two years from now. Have you seen Harden play after he was hurt just less than a couple of years ago? You want to pay a guy like that 50M a year?

 

CP3 is a deadweight now at Phoenix. If the Suns didn't get Durant, they would be a first round fodder. And Durant might not last very long anyway.

 

Lol @ all the rejects in here thirsting for a loser bum to come back.

 

Yes, have you seen him play this season? He’s been great.

 

Getting Harden back would be great because he would bring creation and struckture..but not for a max contract. he is still very good but not worth 50 million. if houston is his home he has to take a paycut. we need the cap to rebuild the team.

 

I’ve warmed up to the idea so long as Tilman opens his wallet if/when a buyout is necessary to further advance our team. I can’t imagine paying a 36 year old Harden $50mil would be pretty

 

Top 12 player, the best playmaker in the nba. If bums like Tobias Harris and Wiggins are making 40 million harden is worth 50 million

 

It really depends on the draft. If we end up with Scoot then obviously there isn't room for James. If it's Wemby or Miller he could definitely be an asset depending on the contract. He could help Jalen out a lot. Say what you want about Harden but he's a student of the game and he stays in the gym. He's had a trash influence with KPJ around him so that's probably stunted his development.

Just please get rid of the head bozo. This team could finally develop

 

Harden is probably a demigod here so I am not faulting fans.

But still he is old.

 

it would be worth to give him the full season on PG...it would be fun basketball, everybody would thrive and we would have probably witnessed his quick jump on the next level of sengodness...

even if not satisfied with results you could trade him for a big haul then because he is a statpadder parexcellanse

 

not really. they're the favorites to win the title. that's literally the point you try to build a team to. that isn't dead weight in any way. suns would still have gone through a playoff run without durant with the original team they had.

This is literally Tilman logic. he should trade him for westbrick. oh wait that did happen

 

westbrick and wall aren't skilled and their iq level is literally not even close to harden. those are terrible examples. both players literally relied on their athleticism

not sure what's happened to you as of late but as far as this take, it's pretty appalling.

 

folks around here are literally ass backwards on what realistically was/is going to happen with this franchise. That's why most people on this board were never ready for what a full rebuild is and lack any sort of competent understanding of it. They've proved it for the last few years when it started and counting.

It's funny how for years when the rockets were contender relevant these folks were laughing at the likes of knicks/sac etc for being that team signing irrelevant fake stars to big contracts while having high draft picks. They stayed sucking. Now that same logic wants to be applied to the rockets but now it's what they should do. Makes 0 sense

 

people will be like don’t sign Harden, let’s sign FVV, Draymond, or Middleton to huge deals instead…or just throw away money signing mediocre role players that would make zero impact in the wins and losses column like Theis, Schroder, and EG before them

make it make sense

And as for Chris Paul and his contract being some deadweight anchor, if that’s the case, how did KD end up there? The logic around here is that contracts given to the likes of CP3 or Harden this offseason make it impossible to build some imaginary future contending team 2-3 years from now. Hmmm, guess not

 

"deadweight anchor" since he was traded for westbrick.

went to okc and got a team that was projected to not even make the playoffs into the playoffs while being that bridge for SGA who is now thriving. oh and nearly eliminated the rockets with that very inexperienced team.

goes to phx continuing to be all nba/all star player and into the playoffs/finals. something booker could never do until he got there. Now KD joins him and favorites to win the title.

Apparently deadweight anchor gets into the playoffs and title odds. last i checked that's what you play the game for.

Instead it has shifted to lets save money. wooooooooo. as long as we tell everyone we have cap space and high draft picks we can celebrate. yayyyyyy

 

Perhaps we should pump the brakes and see if Harden can make it through the rest of the season healthy before Clutchfans forces Mr. Tilman into signing him to a massive new contract for his age 34-38 seasons.

Spoiler

 

Westbrook and Wall’s contracts were 5 year extensions signed 1 year before their previous contract ended. So they were essentially 6 year deals.

Huge difference with Harden signing a 4 year deal as a FA.

And of course the biggest difference, Harden is an elite shooter. If Westbrook or Wall could shoot like Harden they’d both still be all stars.

Look at Klay. He’s got 1 Achilles and 1 knee and is will still be great for a while because he can shoot.

 

Let's just be real here.

You know what breaks down NBA bodies? Playing defense. The 48 minutes of grinding out high effort physical exertion.

Harden barely moves when he is on the court. Walks the ball up, stands at the key, waits 20 seconds. Makes his move which ends up being like ten steps at best. Then rests the next 30 seconds at the free throw line.

This dude could play till he is 45.

 

The worst that Harden could do for us is be off the court due to injuries. Which would be bad, a lot of dead money, but then if you're massively overpaying guys like VanVleet you're leaving a lot of money on the table anyway?

Even if he declines somewhat he's still going to be vastly superior to running KPJ out there every night.

Only way I could see the argument for not signing him is if we land Scoot and just want to go all-in on the youth movement. Although even then, I think you can figure something out with the rotations and small ball to make it work, so you probably still pull the trigger.

 

How long did it take for him to get back from that injury to his current level? Just one injury can wipe out a whole season of max level performance. And you pretty much has a window of 2 years for him to be a part of a contending team if we are lucky.