was looking on Bovada today, and WHERE WILL JAMES HARDEN PLAY GAME 1 OF THE 2023-2024 NBA SEASON? Rockets: -140 Sixers: +130 Heat: +1000 Celtics: +1400 Mavs: +1400 Lakers: +1600 Knicks: +1600 Raptors: +2000
Yep he is easily in the 12 to 15 type of player right now and outside of Jokic is the best playmaker floor general in the nba. Guys like that are not easily available who are willing to come to save this mess.
I see a lot of people going "Why would Harden leave Philly to come to H-Town when he has a higher chance of winning in Philly?" My answer is "For the same reason LBJ left the Heat with its legit big 3 to rebuild from scratch in Cleveland."
I think harden is now at peace that he gave his best shot for a ring so now it’s more about returning where his heart is and always was and that’s here in Houston. He loved this city and still does. I truly believe if he could have a do over he never would have left. If he wins it this season then all the better and if not I think he just wants to finish his playing days at home. I’m sure stone and Tillman through back channels have promised they will field a competitive team next season as they have no incentives to tank anymore after this season. They will go out and bring in a few more vets to compliment Harden, Green and Hopefully Wemby or Scoot.
Cleveland was gifted 3 #1 picks and a #4 pick as assets with Kyrie the bonafide future star, they were in a place to get a barely turning 30 LeBron and assets to trade for another star. The 'return' was in the works all along. The move to LA was the same calculated move as the return to Cleveland and more similar to Houston right now- knowing they had the assets to make that trade for a 2nd star, but you do that for 34 y.o. LeBron every time. For 34 y.o. Harden? If Harden comes, he's gotta grow old with the young bucks unless we're talking a KD quality player plus we got Wemby. The most similar example for this is clearly 34 year old CP3 who people thought was basically done and in rapid decline going to Phoenix and having an instant turn around. Except the Suns were in year 5 of Booker coming into his prime with Ayton, and young players and a coveted/beloved head coach that turned out a 8(?) game winning streak and reached the play in for CP to look at and see the growth potential. For Harden right now, this would be like CP3 being 34 in 2017 and joining a 3rd year Booker and Josh Jackson on a 21 and 19 win team and a bad coach about to draft Ayton in the summer.
AD was already in the works. LA usually gets what they want.. None of that going on here. LeBron was a 3x champ who is an amazing recruiter(IDK how he gets stars to want to play with him and take the fall for him time and time again). Harden aint a champion, just came off the dysfunctional big 3 in Bklyn and couldn't get it done with Embiid(assuming so). He's not a recruiter. Never was. I don't see anyone wanting to come play with him the way AD wanted to be in LA with LAbron. I don't see him able to carry us the way he used to either.
Harden coming back is concerning imo. Paying him a max when he’s 38 isn’t ideal. I’m also afraid he’d make us ship all the young guys out for some old ass veterans. But for what? To get bounced in the first or second round?! Then when their time is up, we’ll be stuck with no ring and no future. I’m not feeling it man
False narrative. He attracted Dwight when Dwight was still elite. He almost got Bosh to leave Miami for him. He attracted CP3 when CP3 was still elite. KD and Kyrie were fully on board with forcing the trade through to Brooklyn.
Harden has no intention of getting rid of Green . They are supposedly tight . I mean the Rockets unless get a very good offer for Sengun aren’t trading him either. The only guys that will be trade baits are the likes of Tate, KPJ, Christopher and maybe KJ .
It looks like it's happening. Even though he ulimately fell short,I Ioved having him on the team. And while I was mad at him because of the way he left, I would love to have him back. Yes, he isn't the same player athletically, but he's still a top talent and one of the best playmakers in the league. He would instantly make this team 5 times better just by setting up the youngsters and controlling the tempo of the game. We have so much young talent, with even more incoming this summer. We need to have a prime playmaker and respected veteran leading those guys and showing them how to win. I would love to see him lead the break with JG and KJ on the wings, that would be lob city v2 and for sure give a confidence boost for both guys. Then having Jabari and using him in pick and pops where Harden loves using the behind the back pass. And Tari playing the Ariza/PJ role would be a monster. Those guys will flourish with Harden, and I fully expect JG to break out next season if James is here. This offseason is shaping up to be insane for us. We have so many scenarios in play, but We need to make good choices to make this 3 year hell worth enduring.
Even though we will have a lot of open to buy at the end of the season, we should only pay Harden $20 mil per season. Y
And those guys all should be traded if we are being honest. The path for this team kicking ass is really clear- development strides for Smith, Green and Sengun, snag a top 2 pick, sign Harden and a couple role players. Win 50 and go to the playoffs. If Wemby is special or the 3 current guys hit another level and Harden still has some juice then maybe that’s enough to win a title in the next 4 years. If not, we’ll, most teams don’t win a title.
I would like to keep KJ because I like to see how he plays with Harden coming off the pick and roll with his insane athleticism but if the Rockets can get a very good piece in return I would move him. The rest of those guys are just guys or very expandable guys in the bigger scheme of things . I do believe this offseason the Rockets will go all in to get Harden and vets to compliment the core of Harden, Green, Sengun and hopefully Wemby or Scoot.
In all seriousness - It was 31% with KPJ and 21% without .... both are terrible, one just terrible-er. (my original post was an attempt at humor which obviously failed)
