Sam Presti is the anti Masai Ujiri

[BigRedDog]

it never made sense why they didnt keep harden and just trade westbrook after harden emerged as the alpha on that team that year

Probably because that literally never happened.

yeah harden had his breakout season and then put the team completely on his back in the SPurs WCF series... harden was pushing .300 WP/48 by the end of that season and it was clear to everyone he had more potential than westbrook. Westbrook was just the box office draw.... but it made even more sense to trade him b/c they would have gotten a great package for him when they literally got nothing for harden

[spearsy23]

it never made sense why they didnt keep harden and just trade westbrook after harden emerged as the alpha on that team that year

Probably because that literally never happened.

yeah harden had his breakout season and then put the team completely on his back in the SPurs WCF series... harden was pushing .300 WP/48 by the end of that season and it was clear to everyone he had more potential than westbrook. Westbrook was just the box office draw.... but it made even more sense to trade him b/c they would have gotten a great package for him when they literally got nothing for harden

Westbrook had more points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals throughout those playoffs. Not to denigrate harden, who was my favorite player at the time, but claiming he had somehow emerged as the 'alpha' of that team (also, did you forget Durant was there?) Is some odd revisionist history that isn't grounded in any sort of fact.

[BigRedDog]

Probably because that literally never happened.

yeah harden had his breakout season and then put the team completely on his back in the SPurs WCF series... harden was pushing .300 WP/48 by the end of that season and it was clear to everyone he had more potential than westbrook. Westbrook was just the box office draw.... but it made even more sense to trade him b/c they would have gotten a great package for him when they literally got nothing for harden

Westbrook had more points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals throughout those playoffs. Not to denigrate harden, who was my favorite player at the time, but claiming he had somehow emerged as the 'alpha' of that team (also, did you forget Durant was there?) Is some odd revisionist history that isn't grounded in any sort of fact.

Agree to disagree. Harden emerged as the better player than Westbrook that season for sure. When it looked like the Spurs would walk through OKC it was Harden (and ibaka) who put the team on their back to reverse the series.