Wow. Just holy freakin' totally amazing wow. A week ago, we were looking forward to a season of watching a bunch of kids play while Morey labored behind the scenes to dig up something resembling a star player. Pau? Josh Smith? HA! Today, we've got a legitimate SUPERstar to build a team around, and very few people saw Harden playing at anything close to this level. We gave up a lot to get him, but you almost NEVER get a chance to acquire someone this young and this good by trade unless there are injury or attitude problems accompanying him. Harden has neither of those and will be our cornerstone for most of the next decade. My favorite thing about our new star AND the team DM has assembled is that this is a smart, SMART team. Our starting five are all sharp guys with very high BBIQ. Harden is off-the-charts smart, and Lin and Asik aren't far behind. 2Pat and Delfino are above average there, too. I'm a bit concerned about Morris in that regard, but he's definitely got a shooter's touch, and maybe being surrounded by that much intelligence will benefit him. That's my main argument for not going after Josh Smith -- he'd drag the team's smarts down a couple of notches. LaMarcus Aldridge, on the other hand, would fit right in. :grin: I'm living in Seattle these days, but I'll be in Portland tonight to watch the team in a hostile environment, then I'll go back again on 11/16 to see them in person. I am so damned excited about these guys that I'll still love them even when the inevitable cracks in the armor start to show.
