Would make sense. I'm sure he told his wife of potential new homes and is just testing the market. I'm all for Chris Paul. I really am. Like I've stated in other posts. Regardless of injury history. Paul and Nash trajectory and age shows that success could and probably will happen under MDA. Nash had his best statistical season at the age of 32 and didn't fall off till he joined the Lakers 3-4 years later. To say you would keep Anderson over a superstar like Paul is asinine. We would be the second best team in the west and closer to GSW with Paul (especially if we can keep ALL our guards). Anderson, Dekker, Harrell trades get us close to the 4 year max.
Would love to see at least a Paul, Harden, and Gordon rotation.... Healthy... Those would be threes for days.....
He could ride with Bullard who also lives in The Woodlands. I'm all in with this random Facebook user as a legit source. Paul to Houston confirmed.
It would be a ton of offense that is for sure. Capela and CP3 lobs. Yay. Is it possible to fit George on here as well. How do we make this work.
My take: if this CP3 thing is real, there is definitely a plan for a second superstar in the works and that's what we're telling CP3's camp. Why else would he leave LA? You could very easily make the argument that we overachieved and he has a better shot at winning if the Clippers just bring back all of their FA's and stand pat. Cutting and maneuvering to add CP3 won't be enough. It's an odd fit - worth the risk, no doubt - but it won't be enough to put us on GS's level. I suspect everyone involved is aware of this and DM has ambitious plans that extend far beyond just adding CP3.
Of course, I was just mimicking the crazy ass posters here that would rather have someone with "heart" over a top 10 player in CP3. CP3 and Harden would mean that at ALL TIMES you have someone you cannot defend running Dantonis offense. We still wouldn't be better than the Dubs but we'd match them in Top 10 talent. Bring in Millsap and we're good.
To be clear, are you comparing Harden to Hakeem? You realize one guy is COMPLETELY and UTTERLY INCOMPETENT on one side of the ball?? As for Dirk, I think there's some false narrative of his story. Did he go through a tough period, where people started questioning him? yes... true... AFTER he took the team to the Finals and frankly should have won but for the DWade treatment, then the team took steps backwards. But the guy alternatively played better or worse in the playoffs depending on the year, seemed to always up his rebound average, and wasn't the greatest defensively, but bought into it, played decent team defense and wasn't the liability that Harden is. I mean people questioned Dirk for being soft... but the guy averaged 13.1, 11.5, 11.8, 10.1, 11.7, 11.3, 12.0, 10.1 rpg in the playoffs 8 straight years [not that a pure stat like that says much... other than he was partly called soft for being somewhat of a disappointing "big", soft rebounder, etc] But Dirk is a closer comp. Can Harden become #1 guy on a championship team down the road?? I don't know... maybe. I think there's more holes in his game than the other guys you mention. He's a worse defender than pretty much any #1 guy who's every won the title. Nobody turns the ball over as much as he does. And he's had multiple wtf moments in the playoffs already as the #1 guy on a team, while basically getting the team to winning 1 game in the WCF over 5 years (which they were able to get to by overcoming one of those wtf games when he was on the bench) He's got a MUCH MUCH longer way to go than Hakeem ownership problems or Dirk not being a "big" enough big. I'm not saying you move Harden for a bag of chips, obviously. I'm just saying if Harden got trade for a crap ton of AMAZING draft picks, I'd be all for it. In my "dream" scenario, the Rockets would have gotten Celtics #1, Jaylen Brown and Celtics nets pick next year, then made a bunch of moves after that to "purge" the roster to add future assets, which in totality would have put them in good position to have young players like: Fultz, Brown, Michael Porter Jr., another high lotto pick next year (because they'd suck this upcoming year), Capela. It all comes down to drafting at that point, but it'd be a Hinkie process accelerated. It'd be Timberwolves-esque, but even faster. They'd have great up and coming players, would maneuver for cap space in future years, and have a team ready to go as the Warriors dynasty was ending. But that's just my two cents. Their not doing that, and obviously I'll be rooting for them to go as far and deep as they can [that's what she said]. Also, as an aside, is Harden the 2nd best player since Hakeem? Yes, I'd agree. I wouldn't say its far and away clearly 100% obvious. TMac was close. Yao would have been close if every fully healthy. Beyond the Rockets, for every Dirk there's usually more players that fall on the other side of the equation. Which as much as anything, is because this is the NBA... there's no parity. Melo. Nique. Nash. Barkley. Malone/Stockton. Heck KD before he joined a championship-esque team.
Of course. Paul only signs if we make it hard for him not to. Big things poppin out of sleeves hopefully. As far as the FB rumor, it was on a Rockets page and the guy doubled down when checked saying the realtor is a relative. LOL.
Stopped reading after this sentence. I expect this level of idiocy from a non-Rockets fan who watches only highlights (lowlights rather) of Harden, but from someone who claims to be a Rockets fan, this is just outright bullshittery. Harden is not completely and utterly incompetent on D (ESPECIALLY this season and the WCF season), not even close to that actually. You want to talk about incompetent defenders, players like Lillard, Thomas, and Irving all come to mind. Same with Nash and Dragic. Harden's problem is not that he is incompetent on D, but that he has a history of spending very little effort on D. He has also shown he can be anywhere from an average defender to a very good one when needed (quite a few clutch moments where he comes up with a key steal or block) as well as a very good post defender. The main problem with Harden as a defender when he has the energy to defend is that he ball watches too much and loses his mark on silly baseline or even plain cuts.
Lol. He's not incompetent... he just doesn't try very hard. Ok... even if you're right... that makes him incompetent. Even funnier... he's not bad, he just watches the ball too much and gets cut on. Which is HORRIBLE defense. It happens regularly. You can't have it happen. He's not an average defender. Being an average defender would imply that if you took all NBA players/guards, you'd choose Harden somewhere in the middle defensively. Which would be crazy.... give me someone that tries, lol. If you want to think that Harden is an average defender that gets better when he plays post defense... good on you. Go for it. Just remember how average he is on defense next time some scrub takes him off the dribble (which will be the first preseason game he plays next year... or first regular season if that's all that counts to you) and next time he puts forth 0 effort defending a fast break and next time he gets cut on.
Do you even watch basketball? I am seriously asking at this point. Please try reading what I wrote before attempting to respond. I never called him an average defender. I said he has shown he CAN be an average to very good defender. All things considered, he is a below average defender, but not a terrible or even incompetent defender. Again, you want to talk about terrible defenders among star PG's, there are definitely quite a few prolific ones that are far, far worse than Harden has ever been, including a few that CF has actually wanted to trade Harden for. NO ONE in the NBA who carries heavy load of offense can play great defense all the time. You do too much offense, your defense suffers. You play too much defense, your offense suffers. Why do you think Pops only put Leonard on Harden in key moments and it was Green that was chasing him around screens most of the time? All stars take plays off, especially the ones that have to carry super heavy loads on O. Now does Harden take off more plays than we would like? Yes, but that hardly makes him incompetent in any definition you choose for that word. Even when he doesn't try hard, he is STILL a better defender than someone who is just a poor defender. At the very least, Harden has the capability of raising his level vs someone who tries hard, but sucks regardless. Also, stop trying to make it seem like he loses his man regularly. Not only are you wrong in that it should never happen as it happens to literally any star player, but it doesn't even happen more than a few times each game. Do we all wish it was less? Yes, but it's not like it happens every other play. TL/DR: Harden is not an incompetent defender. No one is saying he is a good one or even average, but he is much better than "incompetent."
