elite scouting..?? durant, westbrook and harden all fell in his lap.. oden was a bust picked in front of durant. beasley and mayo picke din front of westbrook, and thabeet picked in front of harden..
You can't say in this case it wasn't yet. Even with Harden the Thunder are likely still the underdogs to win it all this year. We don't even know how good Lamb is yet. The move was made to benefit the Thunder in the long term. If the pick and Lamb end up contributing to the Thunder winning a title in the future then it was a good move.
We don't know how good Lamb is, we DO know he's not good enough right now to contribute to a team that would be in the FInals with Harden. You only get so many trips to the Finals. Forfeiting one is a BIG deal. They forfeited what would likely be one this year to bet on Lamb & a late lotto pick in a weak draft. Doesn't seem like a good trade.
Did you really just call Morey overrated?? He's set this team up to be financially flexible for at least the next 2 seasons, at a time when there will be a high number of stars entering into free agency. He's done this all while maintaining a competitive team that fights hard every night. How many other teams are capable of undergoing a COMPLETE turnover of the roster in ONE season, and get BETTER in the process?? Some of you really just have no understanding of how hard it actually is to be a GM.
A couple of points. A GM's job in not just to draft players, it is to choose smart and competent people around him, and to ensure that the franchise is progressing. I will not argue with the draft picks Presti has made. Although Westbrook was skyrocketing up draft boards, Presti had the balls to take him and to draft Harden and add Thabo to the mix. That doesn't even include Ibaka. However, the Thunder run a VERY outdated offense, and it really showed in the playoffs after Westbrook went down. The Heat and Spurs both learned that you cannot just ISO or count on having the best athletes/talent on the floor and expect to always win. It is a serious flaw, and one that the GM should have seen. Further, Brooks is not a good coach, he is not terribly bright or creative. Presti is one of the best GM's in the league, based on his entire track record, but he is not close to perfect and can strike out. He over paid Perkins and as a result lost arguably his second best player (Harden) for peanuts.
Of course Sam Presti is overrated. He didnt have to trade Harden. Look how useless Perkins is. Presti should have amnestied Perkins, then sign Birdman to play center. Or start Ibaka at Center and and start Collison at PF. It didnt have to be this way, but Presti's ego got in the way, thinking they had plenty of scoring and needed size(Perkins) to combat the Lakers (Howard, Gasol). Just last year, Presti was regarded as the best GM in the league. Look at him now. You don't think he regrets making that trade every single day? Morey showed why he is truly the best GM in the nba, by trade raping the so called "best GM" in basketball.
They should not have been worried about the lux tax. Harden would have taken what they offered him with a trade kicker. I'm assuming they were comfy paying any tax related to what they offered him. And even if they were concerned about the tax, it had nothing to do with this season. They didn't save $$ by getting rid of him this season. They could have put a better team on the floor and gotten the same type of deal (Lamb, a late lotto pick, a late 1st, a 2nd) this summer. If you have 3 YOUNG top 10 players on the same team, that LOVE playing together, you don't break up that core. It's stupid. You definately don't break it up one year before you actually have to pay the increased costs of having all 3.
Well, this year he's doing neither of those things while losing in the second round. And next year I don't see him winning it with Jeremy Lamb and the 12th pick in a weak draft unless there's a superhuman effort from Westbrook and Durant, becuase he hasn't put the role players around them to do it otherwise.
They saved dollars next year and going forward by trading him. And I don't understand how people are so sure they could have got the same deal for him this offseason. If Harden signs a max offer sheet with another team they are screwed. At that point they either have to match or let him go for nothing. If they match they then have to find a taker that has players and contracts that they want and they can't even make that deal until later in the season. The situation last year is not the same as it would have been this year.
Or they give him the reduced deal he said he'd accept if they added a trade kicker. Or they amnesty Perkins. Or they wait for a non-garbage package.
Or they make a deal for a young player they like, and a pick, and cap flexibility for the next few years. And maybe the owner wasn't willing to amnesty Perk
If that Dallas pick is a top 3 pick in 2018 when it's unprotected, where does this trade rank? Let history be the judge of this one. Dallas won't be a top 10 team any time soon, and that pick could be franchise altering.
Fundamental flaw that Miami exposed is that it's alright if your top 3 players take up a giant portion of the cap, others will flock for less. Thunder evaluated Harden vs. Ibaka, Perkins, 1-2 other pieces. They could've easily told Perkins + 1-2 other pieces to GTFO and kept Harden. Wasn't the discrepancy about $1-2mil per year? Like 4years, 60 mil as opposed to 4 yrs, 52 mil? They could've done it by handling their finances correctly, but Morey was 100% with Presti on not tieing up all your money in your very best 3 because you cannot "field' a team. Truth is you can, yes OKC is "no" destination point but others will come cheap. They could've told Thabo to gtfo and picked up ronnie brewer for the minimum, or enticed Grant Hill or Matt Barnes too. If they had Collison-Ibaka-Durant-Harden-Westbrook they could've managed 6-8 on their rotation as well as possible, perhaps 9-10 for injury concerns, and really low balled 11-13 with in & out type of players.
They also gave up a superstar player. That's just it. They could have waited longer to try and get a deal done with Harden...but Presti let Ego get in the way of what should have just been negotiations. They had until Feb to get that deal done and Harden wanted to be there, he was just doing his due diligence to get all the money he could but Presti has a ego now. He thinks Harden was replaceable and that he could just draft another star player which is why that draft pick that Morey had was likely so important to him. Drafting Star players is extremely lucky. Presti has been more lucky than good.
People are using Harden's current value to determine future deals. They tried to get Klay T., they tried to get Beal, they tried to get Jonas V. but they couldn't. The Thunder had no real reason to believe his value would be higher this offseason when they wouldn't have nearly as much leverage because Harden could pick his destination.
Depends on the players in question. In OKC's case, Westbrook, Harden, and Durant are all perimeter players which means that their skills overlap and someone becomes redundant and expendable.
Presti is great at drafting high picks. At least he has not made any dumb mistakes. That's a pretty good record considering the number of high picks he has had. He has not done as well in managing assets.
Westbrook had skyrocketed up the draft boards the 2-3 days before the NBA draft. He would not have slipped more than 1-2 spaces below the Thunder.
