Harden didn’t play well in the 6th or 7th game of the series, because he got timid taking shots and was passing almost exclusively. That being said, the sixers were getting wide open 3’s all night from Harden feeds and were just missing them. We need a point guard to distribute and Harden is the best PG in the league at that. We don’t need playoff Harden, we need regular season Harden to elevate the games of Green, Sengun, and Jabari. James’ net worth is 165M. He gets 30m a year from his Adidas contract. He obviously loves Houston and wants to come home. Athletes are humans and sometimes humans will make decisions based on their mental health and well-being over monetary gain. If James truly wants to come back to Houston he will sign a 2 year deal for no more than 35m or a 3 year deal at 30M. Anything more adversely effects the Rocket’s flexibility and should not be on the table. It doesn’t matter if James is a playoff choker or not. We need someone to distribute the basketball and get our youth in the right position on the floor. Fans emotions shouldn’t be taken into account until it effects the bottom line. A Harden return to Houston will put more butts in seats and will help bring a reasonable expectation for limited success this upcoming season and next. Of course, if we get Scoot I think a trade for Conley or another decent vet distributor would be wiser.
Seriously how can anyone believe the ONLY way we can make the playoffs with these assets: Top 5 pick Green Sengun Jabari Tari Tate Garuba Tyty KJ Martin KPJ Udoka $60m in cap space Multiple tradeable future picks Vet minimum signings I believe we also have the #21 pick from the Suns this summer What would you do if your GM came to you and said "I have no idea how to make the playoffs with these assets if we're not allowed to sign Harden"? Give me a break guys. It's such a far fetched take that this is all we've got. You can trade our Clippers pick and a few of our future picks for OG. Sign Reaves and Brooke Lopez at $20m/season each. Sign Corey Joseph to the vet minimum or Schroeder for $5-10m (I suspect CP3 will replace him). There's about $60m and we're going to the playoffs. Lopez/Sengun/Garuba Sengun/Jabari/KJ OG/Tari/Tate Green/KPJ/Christopher Reaves/Joseph or Schroeder/Tyty PLUS A TOP 5 PICK. Get some scoring. We would definitely make the playins with that squad. Don't fall for it guys. There's no team that can afford to be more patient than us and few with as many options as us. What we need to do is be an attractive situation before we spend 75% of our cap space on one player. That's Harden's full max, 75% of our cap space this summer. Oh and yes I'm totally aware we're not 100% sure today that we can get Brooke Lopez, but that's not the point. The point is there will be options, we just don't know which ones. So don't bother picking at the random options I put in there. The point is there are players that would be satisfactory, and everyone is different. All of them are fine. There's no possible future where no options appear, that's not how NBA offseasons work. There will be players of that calibre available to us in FA and probably in trade too. The playoffs and coaching changes will set the stage and it's likely to be one of the busiest summers of all time for the NBA. Looking at the situation, you have to believe that the most likely thing to happen this summer for us sitting on $60m is that a lot more options will be available than we were expecting. Everyone knows there's going to be moving parts (how Ayton, Paul became available). Don't let someone fool you into believing that other players having flaws must mean there's a world of difference between them and a chubby 34 year old James Harden returning to the city he's comfortable in. I'm really excited for this summer personally. I don't think we're going to sign Harden but I'm sure we're going to have a great summer of signings and the results will surprise everyone. The bar is so low.
I didn't get the ex bf reference? Regardless of how you feel about it, I'm just letting you know that the wave of responses you are talking about (where they wouldn't list scenarios for you) is the majority telling you that they totally disagree with your assessment of the situation. So much so that almost ANY other scenario is better for our future.
Because a lot of those players either aren't good at all (Green, Jabari, Tate, Garuba, Tyty) or have a limited ceiling due to physical shortcomings (Sengun) Also, the Rockets are coming off of wasting two top 3 picks, so the prospect of a top 5 pick isn't the slam dunk some might think.
Lol…. You are offering a horrendous approach that is emotional based. Move on… it’s over with Harden.
But thank the Sweet Lord Almighty we have KPJ to save us. Unless he gets pissed and leaves at halftime again. --Bobbythegreat, 2021-23 (and counting)
LOL, I do love that you simpletons keep pushing that narrative. it's a constant source of unintentional comedy. It's also funny how you didn't even attempt to refute anything I said, you just threw a tampon out of rage. It's a good look for you.
Cute analogy I guess that's better than desperately chasing a short term high while trying to get back with an ex who wanted nothing to do with you, left your team in a mess and will hold back your future potential.
Short term high? We are on the clock right now. Playoffs is the goal now. How are we getting there? How does Brook Lopez, FVV or any other free agent not hold back future potential, but Harden does? Please explain.
Also true but Chris Paul was also not talked around as a legit generational superstar. He was a PG legend but I wasn't hearing Top 5 player for Chris at least for some time now. He is usually seen as too short in height to be counted among the best of the best.
Try to look at a bigger picture. What if your plan gets us 8th seed for 3 consecutive seasons and our hands are tied? Why? Because Harden is going to take 75% of our cap space this summer. Then starting at $45m/season his salary increases rapidly for 4 years (taking up a huge part of our cap) while his skills decline as rapidly as they would for a 34 year old who's not in great shape. What if we could have a plan to get into the playins this season but focus on signing 2-3 players who can also be in their prime or improving for 4 years? If Harden can take this team to the playoffs, surely there's something good other than Harden on this team right? Because if you're banking on us making the playoffs and Harden is the ONLY reason why, that's not realistic at all. Harden can't carry that kind of load anymore.
I wouldn’t be surprised if harden came back and we made the play-in tournament or even the playoffs as a lower seed. I watched him during his Philly run and he does seem like a great mentor to younger players (maxey, reed, McDaniels) He was also great at adjusting his role from Houston to BKN to the 76ers. I think he would do that as well in his return to Houston to complement his current play style. speaking on play. I think he has 1 or maybe even 2 more years left of good productivity before he completely falls off a cliff. He was a great player mid way through the season in Philly this year but also had an Achilles strain that lasted to the end of their season. I wouldn’t mind having harden back but that’s only if it’s contract friendly. Offering him a Max would handicap our great future that we have built so far.
If the only option is to pay Harden the Max for 4 years then I’m out and you are justified in your angst. If he can be had for 3 years at 30m, he is the best option to progress our re-build.
It would have to be a sign and trade. The Suns have no cap space and I doubt seriously anyone is going to take Ayton and Paul off their hands with no money coming back. It would have to be a 3 team trade with someone with cap space. The Rockets would be one, but other than Booker who would you want? Ayton sucks, Paul is older and more injury prone than James, Durant ain’t going anywhere. They have 4 near max players and no draft capital to speak of. Unless Harden is willing to take mid-level exception then there is no way he ends up in Phoenix.
