Precisely. People seem to be reacting negatively toward this trade with the notion that the Toronto pick is going to be the #3 pick in the draft. I'll just note for the record that James Harden was an excellent result for the #3 pick in the draft. Then, the Rockets get to (a) eliminate the risk of a bust, (b) skip the players early struggles, and (c) get the player now, as opposed to a few years down the road.
Next morning and I still like the trade for our franchise & my bros with season tickets love the trade too. Guess we're a part of the 76%.
Cook is awful. Aldrich could make our rotation, but takes minutes away from a PF that was going to see time at center. It just doesn't free up anything.
If you build through the draft, you pray to get players like Harden. He is a young stud. You guys all clamor for DeMarcus Cousins. Guess what, he's more proven, just as young, and isn't a headcase. Harden is not Joe Johnson. He's much more like Ginobili in demeanor and in game. Oh, and news flash. Any young star like this is getting the max in today's NBA. You might as well accept it's the price of business.
WTF are you talking about? Clearing the deck of draft picks? We gave up a total of 2 first round draft picks...and we still have ours next year so wtf is wrong with you? Some time to come? How about next year LULZ. But as I said we still have our own 1st round draft pick so obviously you have no idea what you're talking about.
Yes. I consider Parsons to be an integral part of our future whereas Kmart was not. Lamb's potential will be missed but definitely worth it for the known commodity we landed in Harden.
This is completely incorrect. Unless you count a last ditch pump fake to get three free throws creating his own shot, Martin is not good at creating his own shot off the dribble.
We paid more for Harden because: 1) Orlando's GM is stupid -Seriously are we going over the trade again? Everybody got what they wanted out of that deal except Orlando. Or maybe you think Aaron Afflalo, Vucevic and 2 lottery protected picks is worth DH with extension? 2)Harden's gonna get locked up for the next 5 years DH was threatening to walk after the season and go to Brooklyn. Harden doesn't mind playing in Houston. DH is in his prime and coming off injury. Harden is only 23 yrs old. Why's that overpaying? LMAO, you think Lamb is gonna be better than Harden? Seriously? We'd be luck if turned out to be as good as current Harden, never mind Harden 2-3 years from now. Anyway there will always be posters who'll keep hating no matter what happens. We can sign Lebron and they'll still b**** and complain.
ESPN is a joke, now mr Bowen thinks OKC won the trade because Martin is really good, they don't lose Harden's scoring yada yada yada...what's with the love for Martin all of a sudden?
This is a post from another board from an OKC fan: I absolutely agree. I really don't understand this trade for OKC. Only on Clutchfans do I hear anyone saying this is a bad trade for Houston. Wow.
James Harden easily can be the 2nd best player on a championship team. That's max worthy. Also, remember, the Rockets have the cap space to go get another max player this summer. They aren't done. Also, to anyone that assumed the Rockets would get a top 3 pick the next two years. Go ask the worst team in basketball history how tanking worked out for them last year.
I'm just ecstatic that we dont have to hear Bill Worrell spout off the nickname K-Mart ever again. That is until we play OKC I suppose. Worst. Nickname. Ever.
I think you can say that the Thunder valued Westbrook (and obviously Durant) over Harden. They offered Harden more than they did for Ibaka. In the end, they went up to $54 million for Harden, instead of the full $60m. 6 million over 4 years is nothing - it's a contract for a late first round pick (such as the Dallas one we traded). For the Rockets, we don't have Durant or Westbrook. Harden is that much more valuable for us. As we've seen, network effects among NBA superstars are really powerful, and I think it's worth overpaying to bring in a guy that seems to be one of the more charismatic stars in the league. It looks like we'll still have cap flexibility in the future, and I think bringing in another bonafide star will be much, much easier with Harden in tow.
They have 2 max contract players in Durant and Westbrook. Then they locked up Ibaka. They would be essentially committed to those 4 players and either young, unproven late 1st round pick types or washed up veterans willing to trade their worth for a shot at a ring. That is the Miami blueprint. The Norris Coles and Dexter Pittmans of the world are what you are looking at for rotation players around your studs. Ultimately this gives OKC some scoring punch to replace Harden (Martin), a young SG for the future who could take over Harden's role (Lamb) and the opportunity to add at least one more solid player through the Toronto pick. Very glad to see that Morey convinced Presti to take the picks instead of his original demand for Parsons. This trade hurts a little bit more if we lose Parsons. We were able to keep him here, that is HUGE.
This. The ONLY reasons the Rockets have Lin and Harden is the Luxury tax penalties. It's that simple. Once you go into the Luxury tax, there are multipliers and repeater penalties, AND you lose 1/2 the MLE (from $5M to $2.5M), AND you are no longer allowed to sign players above the veteran's minimum OR do ANY sign and trades OR do a trade that increases your salary. Alot of people focus on the Knicks not matching Lin at $15M in year 3, however they WERE perfectly willing to match $5/$5/$9/$9, which in years 3 and 4 would have amounted to over $15M PER YEAR after Luxury tax is factored in. The difference between $9M and $15M was over $15M in luxury tax penalties. In other words, the Knicks were willling to shell out $25M for Lin (Salary + Penalties), but NOT $57M over the 2 years (Salary + Penalties). Compare this with the $15M ($8.3M vs the Cap) that the Rockets are paying? And even then Morey thought the Knicks would match. And this is one of the richest teams in the league. OKC isn't nearly as rich. They can't afford to pay the taxes, and they certainly don't have the flexibility to acquire assets in the open market. When I say nearly as rich, I mean OKC is dirt poor in relative terms. The Lakers' LOCAL TV Contract is $250M. OKC's is $28M. That's the difference in the size of war chests. LOCAL TV contracts go directly into team coffers (unlike National contracts). Giving Harden a max contract would not only be paying $2M per year over 4 years, but add Luxury taxes on top of that ($3-4M per year), AND they would have pushed over the lux tax penalty, IE, limited MLE, loss of the bi-annual exception, nothing but vet players, loss of Sign and Trade, etc. OKC really didn't have a choice unless they wanted a guarantee of 4 years with nothing but veteran minimum and $2.5M mini MLE players. Let's also not forget Martin is an expiring, coming off a bad year, with NO guarantee that he would regain his form this year or fit particularly well into the Houston offense (he's not exactly a great ball movement guy). Morey got good value. OKC just got priced out by the CBA. And really, Jeremy Lamb? He's a ROOKIE. People want to pass on Harden to hold on to Lamb for "potential"? Harden is 23. He hasn't hit his prime, is already an All Star, and has LOADS of potential. And he was good enough that the Olympic team put him on the squad. They USA Olympic team didn't put Harden on the squad because he's a 6th man, it's because he's one of the best SG's in the league. Seriously, get the whole "6th man, but not proven!" crap out of your heads. If he wasn't one of the best in the league, he wouldn't have even been on the Olympic team. Seriously... look at the US 2012 Olympic roster and show me a single player there that you would have said, "He's good, but not good enough to be a Star starter!" Morey did good.
