Murray ain't gonna happen, though I'd be more excited about that than any other trade mentioned so far. TBH, I'd be good with D Mitchell, too, but don't see that happening either.
What do you mean? I understand that he wants to go. Im not yet ready to stop convincing him to stay as we could be a good team but im WAY more open to trading him now than before. If he did this recent stunt on purpose that is a different story. Ok? LOL Murray and Woods isnt winning crap. Im sorry but that isnt a championship window...that is hey lets compete for seeds 6-8 for the next 5-6 years. Im not saying dont get the best package available, but you DO need to tank if you are serious about winning a chip. You need top end talent to win in this league. Team who tank get those generational talents and are in a position to win, that's how it is.
Teams are also idiotic if they think Harden wont follow the coaching staff's instructions as well. He's one of the smartest players in the league.......as a person.....his actual IQ is def in question right now lol.
Exactly. We'll never get a superstar back in a Harden trade, and while trading for an established 2nd-tier star may sound good, it ultimate just gets us a couple of years of 2nd-round exits at best. At this point, our best bet might be to identify the next young player who could eventually bust out big in a few years. Combine him with others for salary matching purposes, and insist on an metric ass-ton of FRPs from perennially bad teams like NYK and CHA. Simmons and Brown are 24, and Murray is 23. None are superstars at this point. Harden was 22 when we traded for him and Murray is the only one of those three close to that potential. We might be better off if Stone focused on a deal that nets us the most probable-lottery picks over the next few years. and maybe try to steal someone who just hasn't yet had time to break out big-time (a la Harden in 2012). For example, a multi-team deal to get us Michael Porter Jr. (22 and in only his 2nd year) and Herro (20), plus enough FRPs for us to hopefully draft our next superstar.
The more I think about it the more I feel Harden can have his cake and eat it too.. IF his priority is to win a title... he should leave VIA FREE AGENCY after his opt out in 2 years...his game will still be top 5 since he has no offensive weaknesses and does not depend on athleticism... give this squad a chance and if an acceptable trade doesn’t come to fruition just opt out and pick your contender... He would likely have to sacrifice some Money or take a one year deal.. etc... but he could enjoy his lifestyle for another year or two and then leave the right way to win if we can’t do it here..
Dam another athletic article about harden. “Expanding his teams to Portland and Boston” expand to all 29 bro, it’s not going to change the asking price or the level of difficulty to get a trade done.
So basically you want to keep kissing Harden's ass some more, dually noted. I never said Murray and Wood were a championship duo, I said they would solidify us for 5-6 years. Solid squad and championship squad have two different meanings. And we can agree to disagree about the tanking situation. The Clippers didn't tank after CP3 and company left and added Kawhi and PG13, the Heat didn't tank when they added LeBron and Bosh in 2010, and your Rockets didn't tank and added Harden. All of those teams are still considered contenders except for Houston and none of those teams lost games on purpose. Lottery picks don't equate to crap. You might have 10 guys every decade that are hall of fame players, which equals to about 1 guy a year on average. Morey knew this too and that's why he didn't care one bit about draft picks.
No, I want to win. I want to win a chip. If Harden buys in, that is best way to do so. The fact is, all organizations are like this with their star players, that's how the NBA is. Solidify us with mediocrity if we do not tank dude. I dont care about "solid" squad. I care about championship squads. Houston is not LA or Brooklyn or Miami, we arent gonna have FA lining up to play here, that is the reality you need to understand. And the Heat had some very bad years after Lebron. And none of those teams are winning a championship this year and probably not next year either. My Rockets had Daryl Morey running the show. He's not hear anymore and we are in a completely different situations. And Morey would have tanked if he was allowed to. The James Harden trades....arent gonna be like what they were before. Most championships teams have tanked to get their superstars. Look at Dallas, Bucks etc. None of the teams you mentioned lost games on purpose but they also realistically arent that close to winning a championship as it stands now. We will have our pick next year and that's when we should tank, it will be a very good draft. We should then trade Wall and whoever to get more draft picks unfortunately. MOREY IS NOT HERE. You have to tank, if you want to win in our situations.....period, end of story.
Key word here is "if". Let me tell you something, when people show you who they are believe them. Harden has showed he doesn't want to be here. The organization has tried, bent over backwards, fans here on CF and Rockets fans in general have gone to bat for this guy. Harden is by no means a dumb guy. He gets all of this. But he has made it perfectly clear that he no longer wants to play here. At some point we have got to move on and stop begging this guy like our name is Keith Sweat. Think of it this way, 8 years of playing with the Rockets and at age 31 is enough of a sample size to determine if Harden can lead us to the promise land. At 31 years old James is still young enough and still in his peak prime to return some great young talent and picks to the Rockets. Glass half full not glass half empty. Let Harden go bro, just let him go. We got the best years of his career here, no point in crying over spoiled milk. Now tanking does work in some scenarios but my point is there are plenty of teams that have been bad for years while trying to tank and collect high lottery picks and still suck. Knicks, Kings, Pistons, Suns, Hornets, and more teams come to mind. The reason why the draft is such a major major gamble now is these kids only play one year of college ball. So when you draft them, you are basically drafting a big question mark. But then you have guys like Christian Wood who go to the G League and bounce around from team to team and suddenly the light bulb goes off for them. Lol it's hard to explain why some guys get it and some guys don't. Some guys come in ready, some guys have to get ready, and some guys will never be ready. Most times it takes about 3-4 years for most teams to really figure out what they have in a player. Not trying to argue with you, just simply pointing out the simple fact that there are multiple ways to build a contender that don't involve tanking. Hope I gave you something to consider brother.
We should trade Harden for Murray, Durant , Lebron and AD. A 4 team deal should work and that way we have veteran players and some young guys to carry the load after lebron and KD are done! Get it done Mor... oh wait ! Can we stop with the stupid trade scenarios that would never ever happen. That would be awesome. Merry chirtsmas!
Harden hasn’t remotely showed signs of slow down. I’d guess his window of elite play is a solid 3-4 years and all star level another couple beyond that. His game should age very well.
I'm more interested in what Murray can bring with him. Throw in Harper Hempel and Denver has themselves a deal.
If this was some ploy here(and not Harden being Harden) than why bother with the instagram post? Why say anything period? That's an idiotic statement. He's being dragged nationally. What was the plan here? To sit out one game as a statement? That's not gonna make this trade go faster. Im fine with moving on from him more than ever, but if there is a chance to change his mind by winning games, I will do that too. But IF we are going to move on and you want to win a chip Tanking has to be in the plan. Those are poorly run organizations....but i guess if the Rockets are poorly run, no matter what we do. Yea but there are also better examples out there of people who have tanked Golden State, San Antonio, Utah, the Sixers, Atlanta, Denver, NO, Lakers, Suns, Grizzlies, Dallas, Miluwakee, Boston got their big three from tanking. You have to go big with tanking and be good at drafting....Its not like I want to tank, if we could do it your way, that would be great but honestly...I dont see it happening. Man...I just want to win...and honestly the future looks very bleak for the Rockets.
