It was no secret Philly wanted Harden badly and we know Harden had them as one of his select few teams... But what if they were his clear #1 with the Nets being a concession he made just to get off the Rox? My point - what if Stone chose that package from the Nets with the foresight of Harden most likely leaving the Nets after this year to go to Philly? It certainly makes a lot of sense when you think about it... For those who think he isn't leaving...why hadn't he resigned if he was truly committed? By not doing it is a distraction to the team so clearly there's a reason and that reason is he's leaving...and I don't think it matters if they win or lose.
Harden plotted the whole thing to try to get his championships, set us up for the future, come back to try to win one for Houston, and load up the team with assets He’s a god damn hero
This is just Harden telling the team they better get their sh*t together, he's done carrying people that's not why he went there. He's right, maybe they need to hear it to get serious. Second half of the season is their last chance to put a good run and some chemistry together, otherwise he knows all too well what it's like to face the Warriors without enough firepower.
In hindsight it all looks good and you can argue that Rockets should have taken the Cavs approach in rebuilding if they kept allen and re-signing Him and drafting Mobley. This means that Wood would need to be traded. The issue was the Rockets didn’t want to dump 20 mil a year into one player who isn’t a scoring franchise centerpiece.
No way that Stone or Harden could have assumed things would happen with no history of them happening. Kyrie not wanting to play due to vaccination rules and drawing it out like this no one could have predicted, not even Kyrie. Harden who has not been injured at all his entire career, all of a sudden starts to miss games due to injuries, no way Harden would calculate that into a decision. KD being injured was the only thing in recent years which we knew could happen, but the assumption was he would likely be ready in playoffs if he did get injured. Miami to me makes more sense for James. From what I have read he does not like Brooklyn. I think Miami would entertain him, keep him warm (maybe the cold weather has something to do with his conditioning, or he can get whatever Lebron and DWade were on out there, because they did not look human for a few years and stayed relatively healthy), and the team has some solid depth and flexibility to make other roster moves. He will be making $60M+ in his final year of extension, so not sure if state taxes matter, but an extra $20+M over the course of the contract on what is likely his last super max is still material , imagine the gifts he could buy lil baby w $20M.
Not sure if it's foresight. Stone wanted picks way way into the future and only Brooklyn was willing to part with so many along with swaps. Im sure it's in the back of his mind that with Durant's history and age, Kyries injury history and general craziness, the team would unlikely make it 4-5 years into the future. I mean is anyone surprised KD is injured again, and Kyrie is being Kyrie and sabatoging the team. I think the only surprising thing is how Harden has declined, he's not the same guy even 1.5 years ago
