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I thought this was a big enough discussion point that it deserved its own thread. If not, feel free to merge.

Washington Wizards said to have turned down trade for James Harden

The Washington Wizards turned down a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder for James Harden this summer because team owner Ted Leonsis was unwilling to commit to what would have been a roughly $80 million, five-year contract for the high-scoring player, according to multiple people with knowledge of the proposed deal.

The Wizards, who before the trade proposal came up had acquired three expensive veteran players, also likely would have been subject to an NBA luxury tax penalty for having a total payroll over the prescribed threshold if they had signed Harden.

And there you have it. While I never imagined Okafor and Ariza would have been collectively as crappy on the court, I -- and most here -- were pained by the opportunity cost, which is now being reported to be James Harden, age 23.

Without the deal, the Wizards would have gone into this coming summer with Harden, Wall, Nene, near max cap space, Seraphin, Vesely, Booker, and Crawford.

And now Kevin Love, age 24, is publicly battling with management in Minnesota. With Harden in place, I firmly believe we could have been in the mix for him.

F*ck this organization.

EG is a moron: Something everyone sans Lyrical on this board firmly agrees on.

Also, apparently Chris Singleton is seen as valuable around the league considering Presti would want him. Considering Vessley had no inquiries also shows the rest of the league also thinks he sucks.

The sad thing is this isn't Ernie's fault. Ted didn't want to give Harden the max. Not sure which non trade is worse, this one or the on where we would have gotten Wade for Kwame.

Grunfeld is an idiot and Ted is his enabler.

wow. Ted and ernie have to go. They simply do not know how to run an NBA Franchise

Rafael122 wrote:The sad thing is this isn't Ernie's fault. Ted didn't want to give Harden the max. Not sure which non trade is worse, this one or the on where we would have gotten Wade for Kwame.

It is Ernie's fault, because Ted didn't want to go into lux tax land because we had already committed too much money to EMEKA OKAFOR and TREVOR ARIZA. Remember all that cap space that didn't matter because no free agents would want to come play here? Yea that's why you want that.

Rafael122 wrote:The sad thing is this isn't Ernie's fault. Ted didn't want to give Harden the max. Not sure which non trade is worse, this one or the on where we would have gotten Wade for Kwame.

Ernie is certainly complicit for making the OkaRiza trade and not grasping how badly it would handcuff us.

Just because I'm into self torture, let's play hypothetical for a bit:

1) Wiz amnesty Blatche and cut Lewis
2) Wiz trade Beal pick and Singleton for Harden
3) Wizards sign Ryan Anderson, age 24, to the 4 yr, $34M deal he got from NO. Maybe be even had to give up Booker in the S&T to get him. Bear in mind that Anderson and Lewis would have cost the same as OkaRiza this season, and $14M or so less next year.
4) We draft two of Jae Crowder, Draymond Green, Will Barton, etc at 32 and 46

Wiz start this season with Wall, Harden, Anderson, Nene, two competent rookies, Seraphin, Vesely, Crawford, before we start filling in with vets.

With Wall and Nene out, Harden and Anderson easily keep us afloat -- maybe not at .500, but 7-10 seems reasonable.

Harden brings something we obviously do not have -- efficient, go-to scoring. Anderson is a floor-stretching shooting and rebounding machine. He'd look great with Nene and would mask Seraphin's shortcomings.

The possibilities from there are endless. What a disaster.

Ernie the moron used up all our cap space on useless players and teds cheapness and not caring about the organization allowed him to turn down the trade.

What in the world would we of offered for Harden though? Beal and who else? And is Harden really worth max money?

There you have it. This FO messed up. It's both Leonsis and Grunfields fault for several reasons but #1 being continuity in the FO.

This is the worst Wizards related news I've heard since Gilbert Arenas had to shut down his knee because he rushed rehab.

Doesn't Harden's contract kick in next season? Couldn't they have made room before the contract optioned?

HAHAHAHAH

Of course they did. Holy cow.

Seriously? Just Beal and Singleton?

I'm not a huge Harden fan and I really like Beal, but that's a complete no-brainer.

You gotta be **** kidding me

We were salivating all last season at the thought of a Wall Harden backcourt. This is absolutely infuriating!

I'm going to have to laugh along with Halcyon to keep from crying.

only thing that would make sense is that they are waiting for Kevin Love instead

This should be depressing and sad.

Instead, it's just laughable and predictable.

There are a lot of terrible franchises out there but I question if any of them would have turned that down.

I just want to cry.

Serious question: who is/was the worse owner peter angelos or ted leonsis?

My hate for Leonsis is approaching Angelos levels. I ended up not caring about the O's because of the joke decisions Angelos made, and that drove me to be a Nats fan (THANK GOD). Need some big changes to save my fandom.

Just when you think it wasn't possible to make the OkAriza trade look even worse...

Just when i thought i couldn't feel worse about this team....