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James Harden TRADED to Rockets

38K views 694 replies 62 participants last post by  kbdullah 
#1 ·
James Harden turned down a four-year, $52 million contract extension offer from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Harden is seeking a maximum-level deal worth $60 million over four years.

The Thunder have until Wednesday to sign Harden to a contract extension or allow him the opportunity to become a restricted free agent on July 1.

Via Adrian Wojnarowski/Yahoo! Sports
 
#359 ·
Kevin Martin: 19.3 ppg on 51.2% and 61.9% from behind the arc.

Quietly fitting in to that top tier #3 option like I said he would. Obviously his percentages will go down, but I thought he should get the credit he deserves so far since a lot of people shit on him in this thread.
 
#361 ·
I dont think harden and lin will work together because both wants to dominate with the ball and since this is harden's team, its hurting lin because when lin first sign with the rockets, he thought this is his team but then the trade happen and harden is now the number 1 option. Lin is known to turn the ball over many times. And harden is a selfish player. Harden is a good passer but he barely pass. Last year ive seen many times when players like durant was open and harden still want to drive in on 3 defenders thinking he's a prime kobe or lebron.
 
#364 ·
I think Harden is a top 5 SG and a fringe all-star in the league today, but I would still prefer Allen Iverson at the same age... and that should say something.
 
#366 ·
Iverson was able to cross Michael Jordan in his rookie year...quite frankly I'd take him over Harden too.
 
#368 ·
Rockets need a player they can put in pick and roll situations with Harden and Lin. That would put less pressure on those guys to beat a player off the dribble, and allow Harden to showcase his playmaking ability. Pick and roll power forward makes Houston a playoff team.
 
#370 ·
That person could very possibly be Royce White. I truly wonder why he doesn't get into games.
 
#372 · (Edited)
Ok, first off here, of course AI is better. If anyone is actually arguing that they probably just started watching basketball a few years ago.

Also, its a two way street for the "He's greedy/He'd be dumb not to leave" crowds. I'm one of the guys always touting how important loyalty is, but if I was offered a #1 spot and an extra 32 million dollar, I'd probably take it.
But on the flip side, no, Harden would not be an idiot for staying. If he felt that loyal to the club and the rest of the players, he would have stayed and took the hit, and there'd be no reason to shun him for it.

So far it looks like its working out for both sides, so everyone should be happy at this point.
 
#375 ·
[/thread]

How about this: Kevin Durant's greed dismantled his championship-level supporting cast. He has the ability to make far more in endorsements than his teammates, and as such should have taken a reduced contract so that OKC could pay the necessary teammates to help him secure his spot in history...

In reality, guys don't give discounts on their first big contract (except maybe Rondo, the bastion of camaraderie that he is), and nobody walks away from an extra 32 million. Harden left because OKC low-balled him when he had made sacrifices for the good of the team since day one, and also because he wanted to establish his own greatness.
This is a good take on the trade itself, and that argument could be made of KD et cetera.
 
#376 ·
I wouldn't call Durant getting all his money "greed", when you consider he signed his deal two years ago right? It's easy to say that now but he's not a financial analyst, it isn't his job to project what his cap will look like two years from now, he left it up to Presti as he should and they mismanaged it. All he was doing was taking market value like every other player, again I note two years out from this juncture...it's not like all three had negotiations at the same time.

You all want to play the "you could break your leg any day" card regarding college players coming out, but why should Durant bank on "future endorsements" and take guaranteed money off his plate when if he tears his ACL today or tomorrow those deals are off the table?

Anyway I came into this thread to note an actual good NBA defense is making Harden look like a second wheel a tad in over his head. Looks a little unsure of himself and is taking bad shots that he never used to take.
 
#379 ·
I don't blame Harden for wanted to be his own man and make more money doing it. It's interesting to me that coming into the draft, one of the knocks on Harden was that sometimes you wish he'd be more selfish because of how talented he was. He didn't mind passing to his teammates and preferred the right basketball play even if it didn't involve him scoring as a result. I think playing sidekick for a few years shook him out of that, so I'm all for it if he's 100% willing to accept the role as a number one option. It's actually a little refreshing to see him progress mentally like this, I think it's a sign of good things.
 
#396 ·
Tonight against the Cats

Kevin Martin: 27 points on 56% shooting in 25 minutes


Nope. He sucks right? Hes going to be a terrible third option.


There's nothing worse on this site than posters who refuse to at least say "Hey, hes surprised me."

OKC isn't minding this trade one bit so far.
 
#401 ·
I don't think anyone's surprised yet because everyone knew that he would be a great third SCORING option for OKC. No one was ever denying that. Come on now.

Until he plays great defense and is able to set up plays for others, I am still not surprised at his performance. He's a gifted scorer. But right now he needs to be more than that.
 
#397 ·
I didn't follow this thread that closely, but last time I was really active in it I thought everyone was saying the Thunder ripped the Rockets off?
 
#407 ·
You don't understand. Martin sucks and Harden is the greatest ever. No, wait, he's da gr8est eva!! People forget about good players when they're on crappy teams.
 
#418 ·
Still early and I stand by my thought that this will go down as a catastrophically bad trade for Okc. At the end of the season we will be talking about how good KMart's stats are and how much worse Okc became as a team.
 
#423 ·
So I've watched about 4 Rockets game this season, finally had it.


Where the **** is this defense you guys brought up for Harden?

"There will be a huge hole on defense when they replace Hardin with Martin!" Pretty much word for word from like 3 of you.

Harden isn't even allowed to guard Kobe. The guys is an average defender at best, like I said from day one.


Again, guys like EH, do you even ****ing watch any of the players you talk about? Give whatever answer you want, but the majority of us already know the answer.
 
#429 ·
Did you watch last night's Detroit game? He mailed in the entire game. The only reason the record is still alive is that Boston spent the last three minutes of a blowout running plays to get Rondo his 10 assists, and that was about the only part of the game that he gave any effort. (Apparently the Pistons refused to let him bring the Boston scorekeepers with him, and they've done yeoman's work in making a mockery of the record.)
 
#431 ·
Every time Celtics fans overrate the importance of a player on message boards EH spends enough time reeling them back in that he winds up being too negative on them going forward. The same thing happened with Al Jefferson in the Garnett trade and with Kendrick Perkins being shipped out. If Avery Bradley comes back healthy, plays well, and winds up in trade talks for Josh Smith only for C's fans to react loudly and negatively, we'll be hearing how Avery's barely a passable third guard.
 
#432 ·
Huh? I was about the only person on these boards that liked the Bradley selection. I'd even put him on my Boston wish list a couple of years ago when I wrote my pre-draft piece (you can look it up). I've maintained from the start that he's going to be a pretty good combo guard. Of course, I don't overrate him, so you won't see me saying, as Boston fans have been of late, "How could you think of trading Bradley for [insert name of top 25 NBA player here]‽ He's a franchise guard and the greatest defensive 2 in the history of the NBA!!!!!"

Similarly with Rondo, against Toronto the Garden scorekeepers gave him assists on a Jeff Green dribble drive, a Green two off the dribble, and a Garnett step back drive. Because I do watch I see all these things, and know to take the record with a grain of salt.
 
#439 ·
Huh? I was about the only person on these boards that liked the Bradley selection. I'd even put him on my Boston wish list a couple of years ago when I wrote my pre-draft piece (you can look it up). I've maintained from the start that he's going to be a pretty good combo guard. Of course, I don't overrate him, so you won't see me saying, as Boston fans have been of late, "How could you think of trading Bradley for [insert name of top 25 NBA player here]‽ He's a franchise guard and the greatest defensive 2 in the history of the NBA!!!!!"
It was a theoretical, I wasn't referencing you going after Bradley in any specific thread. The Celtics fans online have a habit of overrating any competent young player on the squad, and they'll do the same with Bradley if he winds up in trade talks. I expect that you'll wind up too negative on him in the future if people argue that Boston destroyed their perimeter depth in giving him up for a guy like Smith (which would be wrong, like it was wrong to lament trading Jefferson for KG)



Similarly with Rondo, against Toronto the Garden scorekeepers gave him assists on a Jeff Green dribble drive, a Green two off the dribble, and a Garnett step back drive. Because I do watch I see all these things, and know to take the record with a grain of salt.
I don't put any stock into the record, but I do think he's, at minimum, among the very best set-up guys in the league. However, I tell my friends all the time that Rondo openly stat-pads for his assist total, only he never gets called out on it because it isn't a "selfish" stat. He unquestionably makes the Boston offense better, but if he looked to score just a little more it would have a positive effect.
 
#450 ·
It was a theoretical, I wasn't referencing you going after Bradley in any specific thread. The Celtics fans online have a habit of overrating any competent young player on the squad, and they'll do the same with Bradley if he winds up in trade talks. I expect that you'll wind up too negative on him in the future if people argue that Boston destroyed their perimeter depth in giving him up for a guy like Smith (which would be wrong, like it was wrong to lament trading Jefferson for KG)
No, I'm pretty sure that here or anywhere Bradley's going to end up being one of the better combo guards in the NBA. He just isn't a franchise player. And I think you may be misremembering my point about Al (NOTE: Bogg came here from another message board where the debate he's referring to took place).

From the start I said that it was nigh on impossible to build a contender around an offensive roleplayer with Jefferson's particular skillset, and that Boston should get out while the value was high (it's a perimeter game these days, encouraged so by the rule changes of the last 15 years). People, even NBA GMs, ooohed and ahhhed over the pretty post moves, and figured that maybe they could make him not be Al Jefferson and, as such, the next Amar'e. As it turned out, years later, he's turned into a pretty good roleplayer now that he's accepted that he has to play some defense and can't be the first option on offense. But jesus was it obvious that you had to turn him into a real all star before the rest of the NBA figured out that his real upside was "good roleplayer".
 
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