espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8562868/sourc...rden-houston-rockets

Great for Houston

WHOA! That's a crazy trade... but great for the Rockets though. So Morey finally gets a stud on the team.

That should help the Thunder's bench though too, and they do have Maynor coming back. It's not a terrible deal for the Thunder all things considered, especially if Harden wanted a full max deal.

I guess those contract negotiations weren't going too well hahaha.

Yea, I went and read up on it. Thunderget a lot back for that dude. Lamb might be good in a couple years. Martin will score as much as Harden for the foreseeable future (neither are good on D, Martin is worse. He would get posted up by Barea). Harden is clearly a better playmaker. They got rid of shit like Lazar and Aldrich. AND they got 2 first round picks and a 2nd rounder. I don't understand the protections yet, but they'll be good enough assets to turn into a player or something else.

So, if he really wanted a max extension, this was not shabby at all. Might hurt them in the immediate short term, who knows.

Rockets. Lot to give up. Who cares. Gotta get some real players on that team. How did they not manage to get rid of a PF? Weird.

daddyfatsax wrote:
Yeah, that's crazy they got all those picks too. Not bad at all for the Thunder. I guess Harden did want the max, because I saw somewhere that he rejected an offer of 4 years for $55 million from the Thunder? So he is gonna get like $5 million more total from the Rockets? He must have felt really disrespected by Presti.... or something?

Or maybe he just wanted to go somewhere that he could shoot the ball 30+ times per game. Doesn't really seem like his personality, but I guess I could be wrong. It would be tough to live in the shadow of Durant and Westbrook, admittedly.

College Wolf wrote:
i would NOT like playing with Westbrook... didn't Harden just get done saying he's fine with being a role-player? Man has a great agent I guess. Is he the next Joe Johnson?

daddyfatsax wrote:
He did say that about being a role-player, but maybe he was just saying what people wanted to hear? Either way though, yeah, I wouldn't enjoy playing with Westbrook either.

He could be the next JJ... hard to tell. I mean, I think his stats would have been amazing with 35 minutes per game and starting on a team like the TWolves. So maybe he could duplicate that on the Rockets? But he was in a pretty ideal situation in OKC with the role he had.

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

That's a pretty good haul for Harden considering they couldn't afford to re-sign him anyways. Lamb could end up being a good player. I hope for the NBA's sake that there is some decent protection on those draft picks, because Houston is going to suck.

I'm also confused how Houston managed to not trade a single one of their forwards, especially since OKC could actually use another PF.

Ah just saw the draft picks. One is lottery-protected Raptors pick and the other is from the Lakers. The rest of the Northwest division dodged a bullet there.

I like this trade for the Rockets a lot more now.

College Wolf wrote:
Wow. Just figured out how to use this new-fangled system (the place I used to have to log in changed).

Good trade for Rockets. They needed a real player next to Lin. Lin was all set to be the best player on a turrble team.

I have a feeling that Harden's agent screwed the whole thing up for him. Getting "the max" is probably not something Harden cares as much about (although it's hard to say) but it is something that agents completely care about. Wonder if he wasn't representing his own ego more than his client's interests...?

Then again, you never know what people are like behind the scenes either. In any case this kind of shakes up the certainty of OKC at the top of the WC.

wolfenstein wrote:
Yeah, if this actually came down to a million+ per year and couldn't get resolved, that is pretty baked. I'm not sad The Beard is out of the division...except for the fact that he is not still in the division using his beard to keep him warm in the hinterland!

How about the Minnesota big man connection in Houston!

Kevin McHale, Cole Aldrich and Royce White.

I think my posts were misleading. In no way do I think this is what OKC SHOULD have done. But if you are to trade Harden, this is as good a haul you can get unless you're the Lakers' cheatin asses.

Billionaires don't get to be billionaires by spending money for the hell of it. The salary cap ramifications are magnified beyond that $4 million total, and that mattered to their owner, I guess. Whatever. I think that the increased revenue from challenging for a FUCKING CHAMPIONSHIP every year outweighs that, but I am not nor will I ever be saavy enough to be a 1%er - and he is.

Does this mean the Spurs will be the #1 seed possibly? The Lake show will take a long time to get going, they could be as low as 4. So OKC can probably still shoot for the 1 or 2 seed, I hope.

People around these parts are really sold on Harden, I am one who isn't. I'm going to wait now that he's going to be a max player in a starting role to see if he he's really worth that amount of money. Everyone likes the deal for Houston, but in the end their Big Money contracts are Lin and Harden, 2 talented, yet Unproven players as far as Franchise cornerstones are concerned. Remember guys, This isn't Harden coming off the bench behind 2 perennial all-stars in Durant and Westbrook and being the third scoring option, this is Harden basically being asked to be the man. Big difference


Edit: They also have a ton of money wrapped up in Asik. So your core is Lin, Harden and Asik. I don't know if I'm buying

Murphs - thing is Houston has enough room to add another max player and still have a slew of young prospects. Don't write off Parsons, either. He is a very solid SF. Plus, McHale is a really good coach. The race for 8 got slightly more interesting. I doubt Houston can keep up with Minny and Dallas, but they will certainly be in the mix.

I agree OKC got a really good package for James all things considered.

But kudos to Morey. I was particularly harsh on him earlier this year. Asik looks like he is going to be a defensive monster, and should easily be top 3 in rebounds. Lin....well.....let's give him some time but it is looking very grim so far.

Murphs56 wrote:
Ehhh. Hold on my dude. Harden played WAAAAY more minutes than either of his supastar counterparts alone on the court. That it, Harden played shit ton more minutes on the court without Westbrick or Durant than either of the other two played alone.

No reason to believe Harden won't be 20-5-6 player. 20 pts, 5 boards, 6-7 assists. He did it in the playoffs (before he choked in the finals) so that makes the entire argument moot to me. He may never be a crazy scorer, but neither was KG. Neither is Rondo, CP3, Rubio, Manu, etc. Plenty of stars become so without specializing in chasing the scoring title. That is what makes Harden a great player. He's a playmaker.

Side note - Harden is weak...I mean physically. Maybe he just plays soft defensively and on the boards, but too often he looks like he's a PG trying to guard Lebron or something. Am I way off base there?