I was just pointing out teams with max slot cap space. Yes sign and trade is another option but also it’s hard to match that kind of salaries to make it work
Age is the main part of what I mean by flawed, but it also covers the playoff choker stuff or whatever. 200/4 years seems ludicrous but he’s the guy generally viewed as the best FA in the class. If he doesn’t have the opportunity to sign for his max it’s going to pretty much be an anomaly in recent history. For CP3, he wasn’t the best FA in that class and he probably took slightly less to stay in that situation than if he was trying to max his earnings. He was also a couple years older than Harden is now. To add, I’m not saying it’s 100% Harden gets offered that somewhere but I’m guessing he does. This is a league where Gordon Hayward got 4/120 a few years ago.
after 3 years at the bottom, and with more than $60mil. in cap space, all we get is giving Harden his max money 'till his 38yr?!! seriously?? and they talking about setting the culture with Udoka hiring, really? by signing James "freedom to be myself" Harden?? giving Harden $50mil. takes out most of the cap space and the rest of the roaster will look almost the same next season. the worst team in the league, plus a 34yr. James Harden, and a 20yr. Amen Thompson, is it good enough to make the Playoffs? i doubt it. and i can already imagine 2-3yr. from now the team will be desperate to dump the worst contract in the league by attaching multiple future first round picks, again. missed the Wemby/Scoot sweepstakes sure disappointed, but if the team signs Harden to max contract i quit on the Rockets.
Indeed. It's a bad idea. You just picked 2nd, 3rd, a couple of teens picks, and now 4th*. You develop those players with veteran mentors around them and use cap space to find the pieces needed when they grow. We heard rumblings earlier this offseason that Tilman was desperate to be competitive, this was always they year they were going to try and push chips in again. Supermax for a 30 year old partying choker ---- what could go wrong?
Harden is stronger than Young and Lilard. The problem is steve nash and Docs rivers forces him to pass the ball. I think you guys watch the game that he gets 45 points vs Celtics. That stubborn Doc still think using nets versions can beat Celtics
But there are only 4 teams with enough cap space to offer the max. And they were all terrible this year. Harden would improve all of those teams, but it would limit the ability to make other moves. In the Rockets' case, we aren't even sure if we've drafted good players in the previous drafts. If development stalls and this is who we have, it's not going to be good enough. I'm not sure who we are bidding against. If Harden really wants to come to Houston, then the money shouldn't matter. He certainly is not looing to come here to win a championship since there is nothing about this team to suggest they are close to doing that. He wants to eat mom's cooking and go to the clubs. He will be 400lbs. in no time. The part that scares me is that I still think it's just a ploy to get more money from Philly. If it works, then the Rockets are left holding the bag. I'm afraid they are going to chase Harden and not be prepared to make an offer to other players. They need to have a pitch to bring in multiple players or swing a trade to bring them in. You can't do that if you're waiting for Harden. Harden is the lazy way to victories, and I don't think it will be enough even if we do end up with him.
No reason to wait to explore other opportunities. If you have other concrete scenarios, you can say “here is our final offer, take it or leave it”. I’m just hoping that final offer is not 3-4 years 40+M
Honestly part of me wishes he would just go to the Spurs to play with Wemby. With his track record, that'll probably doom them in the playoffs for the next few years. He can head on down I-10 when he wants to go to the Houston clubs. But Pop probably wouldn't want him anyway.
That is precisely what is going to happen, Harden is one of the priorities, if not the main priority. I would have liked for the Front Office to map out 2-4 years for Phase 2 and an initiation pre-stage before they do anything. Even if they have Udoka now, there is so much to do, you cannot just focus on one thing and nobody will fault them if they take more time. It feels like things will get too hectic. Losing out on Wemby is a punch in the gut, a lot of endorsements and a lot of clout have been lost.
Him and Udoka is disaster waiting to happen. And I want Udoka to build new team, not recreate Pringels Rockets who got on my nerves in their respective primes.I choose Udoka and his plan over Harden
Actually I read somewhere that James and Pop gets along very well. Ime is from the Pop, I’m curious to see what he does.
Because of the national team, I think Pop is the one who talked to James about being a defensive stopper on that team (IIRC it was also around the time he did that split while playing defense repping USA)
The rumors go way back in his 20s but it never happened and likely won't happen even with Wemby. Spurs are mega cautious with their spending.
