James Harden: Chris Paul Didn't Seem Happy Heading Into Free Agency

[RealGM Wiretap]

James Harden played a critical role in recruiting Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets this offseason.

Paul decided not to re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers and agreed to an opt-in and trade to the Rockets.

“I just knew that in the summertime obviously (Paul) was a free agent, and I wanted to see where his head was,” Harden said of Paul. “He didn’t seem happy, so after that we just took it from there.

“Obviously Golden State has been in the Finals and won two out of three, so that’s what everybody is trying to build up against. But we’re right there. We’re right there. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do, but it definitely puts us in a better chance.”

Via Sam Amick/USA Today

[IWishIWasHarden]

He should've left the Clippers long ago. The greatest PG to to play the game will be remembered in a Clippers jersey for most of his time. Eeek.

[spicy6]

He should've left the Clippers long ago. The greatest PG to to play the game will be remembered in a Clippers jersey for most of his time. Eeek.

[pwrshft99]

He should've left the Clippers long ago. The greatest PG to to play the game, but never make it past the second round, will be remembered in a Clippers jersey for most of his time. Eeek.

[ChokeFasncists]

Couldn't even beat McFail. Fail x 2.

[Adam Stern]

Couldn't even beat McFail. Fail x 2.

Your talking about the year McHale coached Houston to the Western Conference Finals, right? That was a great year for them.
It's amazing how that team took off once they got rid of Lin.

Now Houston has the two best playmakers in the league on the same team. CP3 is playing with the best backcourt mate of his career on probably the deepest team he's ever been on.
It should be interesting.

[Camping Fan]

He should've left the Clippers long ago. The greatest PG to to play the game will be remembered in a Clippers jersey for most of his time. Eeek.

I think he was honest and fair to the Clippers, but I have not been impressed in Doc Rivers as a gm - That trade for Carmello Anthon would have made the Clippers a better team and he turned it down to be coaching his son

[Adam Stern]

He should've left the Clippers long ago. The greatest PG to to play the game will be remembered in a Clippers jersey for most of his time. Eeek.

I think he was honest and fair to the Clippers, but I have not been impressed in Doc Rivers as a gm - That trade for Carmello Anthon would have made the Clippers a better team and he turned it down to be coaching his son

It's still hard to believe that actually happened.

[og15]

He should've left the Clippers long ago. The greatest PG to to play the game will be remembered in a Clippers jersey for most of his time. Eeek.

I think he was honest and fair to the Clippers, but I have not been impressed in Doc Rivers as a gm - That trade for Carmello Anthon would have made the Clippers a better team and he turned it down to be coaching his son

It's still hard to believe that actually happened.

Did that actually happen? It's actually interesting the it has been taken as a fact.

-------
First, no on the greatest PG

Second, Paul had no reason to leave long ago. He resigned in 2013 after convincing the team to get Doc. They won 57 and would maybe have won 60 if Cousins didn't attack Redick and Dudley wasn't injured and useless despite playing all season.

The depth the next year did decrease drastically, but they beat the Spurs and they really should have beat Houston, and better depth and/or better defense would have done it.

Of course the rise of GS made things tough. In 15-16, Blake was injured in RS and PO, but so was Paul in the PO, so while he could complain about the effect on the regular season of Blake missing games, therefore putting them in the Warriors bracket, he got injured too. Last season, again Blake was injured in the PO again, so yea, that sucks, but so was Paul in the RS along with Blake which again put them in the Warriors bracket, so saying he should have left the Clippers long ago as if the team failed him or something doesn't make sense. The team, well, Doc the GM started falling him and Griffin in 14-15.

[Adam Stern]

Did that actually happen? It's actually interesting the it has been taken as a fact.

Hence the "Hard to believe" part.

[ChokeFasncists]

Couldn't even beat McFail. Fail x 2.

Your talking about the year McHale coached Houston to the Western Conference Finals, right? That was a great year for them.
It's amazing how that team took off once they got rid of Lin.

Now Houston has the two best playmakers in the league on the same team. CP3 is playing with the best backcourt mate of his career on probably the deepest team he's ever been on.
It should be interesting.

Spin, spin, spin. They were just lucky to face one of the biggest choke jobs ever by the team led by "the greatest PG to to play the game, but never make it past the second round".

Yes, he was injured but it's even more ironic that the Clippers actually won the first game with Austin Rivers as the starting PG.

OTOH, what's going with these huge homers from a certain team? Bad influence from each other or it's the same person? Or hired by the PR department?

[Adam Stern]

Couldn't even beat McFail. Fail x 2.

Your talking about the year McHale coached Houston to the Western Conference Finals, right? That was a great year for them.
It's amazing how that team took off once they got rid of Lin.

Now Houston has the two best playmakers in the league on the same team. CP3 is playing with the best backcourt mate of his career on probably the deepest team he's ever been on.
It should be interesting.

Spin, spin, spin. They were just lucky to face one of the biggest choke jobs ever by the team led by "the greatest PG to to play the game, but never make it past the second round".

Yes, he was injured but it's even more ironic that the Clippers actually won the first game with Austin Rivers as the starting PG.

OTOH, what's going with these huge homers from a certain team? Bad influence from each other or it's the same person? Or hired by the PR department?

You're a Lin fan making disparaging comments about the Rockets (past and present) on a Rockets article yet you call others "homers"?
Okay.

I just found it interesting that you tried to criticize McHale using his best season as a coach which ironically happened when they finally found a team they could pay to take Lin.
It all makes you sound bitter about something that happened three seasons ago.
Looks like you're the one still spinning.

[haste10176]

Your talking about the year McHale coached Houston to the Western Conference Finals, right? That was a great year for them.
It's amazing how that team took off once they got rid of Lin.

Now Houston has the two best playmakers in the league on the same team. CP3 is playing with the best backcourt mate of his career on probably the deepest team he's ever been on.
It should be interesting.

Spin, spin, spin. They were just lucky to face one of the biggest choke jobs ever by the team led by "the greatest PG to to play the game, but never make it past the second round".

Yes, he was injured but it's even more ironic that the Clippers actually won the first game with Austin Rivers as the starting PG.

OTOH, what's going with these huge homers from a certain team? Bad influence from each other or it's the same person? Or hired by the PR department?

You're a Lin fan making disparaging comments about the Rockets (past and present) on a Rockets article yet you call others "homers"?
Okay.

I just found it interesting that you tried to criticize McHale using his best season as a coach which ironically happened when they finally found a team they could pay to take Lin.
It all makes you sound bitter about something that happened three seasons ago.
Looks like you're the one still spinning.

Lin was clearly overpaid at the rockets but the guy can play.. Not sure why he was a big burden..

[BallerTalk]

Your talking about the year McHale coached Houston to the Western Conference Finals, right? That was a great year for them.
It's amazing how that team took off once they got rid of Lin.

Now Houston has the two best playmakers in the league on the same team. CP3 is playing with the best backcourt mate of his career on probably the deepest team he's ever been on.
It should be interesting.

Spin, spin, spin. They were just lucky to face one of the biggest choke jobs ever by the team led by "the greatest PG to to play the game, but never make it past the second round".

Yes, he was injured but it's even more ironic that the Clippers actually won the first game with Austin Rivers as the starting PG.

OTOH, what's going with these huge homers from a certain team? Bad influence from each other or it's the same person? Or hired by the PR department?

You're a Lin fan making disparaging comments about the Rockets (past and present) on a Rockets article yet you call others "homers"?
Okay.

I just found it interesting that you tried to criticize McHale using his best season as a coach which ironically happened when they finally found a team they could pay to take Lin.
It all makes you sound bitter about something that happened three seasons ago.
Looks like you're the one still spinning.

Boom goes the dynamite!

[Camping Fan]

He should've left the Clippers long ago. The greatest PG to to play the game will be remembered in a Clippers jersey for most of his time. Eeek.

I think he was honest and fair to the Clippers, but I have not been impressed in Doc Rivers as a gm - That trade for Carmello Anthon would have made the Clippers a better team and he turned it down to be coaching his son

It's still hard to believe that actually happened.

Yeah - I have to admit that I was really shocked on that one, but it really makes you appreciate what Kobe Bryant did by staying with the Lakers for his entire career

[Camping Fan]

I think he was honest and fair to the Clippers, but I have not been impressed in Doc Rivers as a gm - That trade for Carmello Anthon would have made the Clippers a better team and he turned it down to be coaching his son

It's still hard to believe that actually happened.

Did that actually happen? It's actually interesting the it has been taken as a fact.

-------
First, no on the greatest PG

Second, Paul had no reason to leave long ago. He resigned in 2013 after convincing the team to get Doc. They won 57 and would maybe have won 60 if Cousins didn't attack Redick and Dudley wasn't injured and useless despite playing all season.

The depth the next year did decrease drastically, but they beat the Spurs and they really should have beat Houston, and better depth and/or better defense would have done it.

Of course the rise of GS made things tough. In 15-16, Blake was injured in RS and PO, but so was Paul in the PO, so while he could complain about the effect on the regular season of Blake missing games, therefore putting them in the Warriors bracket, he got injured too. Last season, again Blake was injured in the PO again, so yea, that sucks, but so was Paul in the RS along with Blake which again put them in the Warriors bracket, so saying he should have left the Clippers long ago as if the team failed him or something doesn't make sense. The team, well, Doc the GM started falling him and Griffin in 14-15.

Yeah - I am not sold on Chris Paul as the greatest point guard either, but he was better than what the Lakers had - and if the Lakers had got Chris Paul and then made the trade for Dwight Howard, the Lakers would have been in the top five teams in the NBA providing they had signed a real coach instead of Larry Brown or Mike D'antoni. Where the Clippers went wrong was giving Rivers the job as gm or president of basketball operations - that's never a good idea for one man to have all of the power

[ChokeFasncists]

Your talking about the year McHale coached Houston to the Western Conference Finals, right? That was a great year for them.
It's amazing how that team took off once they got rid of Lin.

Now Houston has the two best playmakers in the league on the same team. CP3 is playing with the best backcourt mate of his career on probably the deepest team he's ever been on.
It should be interesting.

Spin, spin, spin. They were just lucky to face one of the biggest choke jobs ever by the team led by "the greatest PG to to play the game, but never make it past the second round".

Yes, he was injured but it's even more ironic that the Clippers actually won the first game with Austin Rivers as the starting PG.

OTOH, what's going with these huge homers from a certain team? Bad influence from each other or it's the same person? Or hired by the PR department?

You're a Lin fan making disparaging comments about the Rockets (past and present) on a Rockets article yet you call others "homers"?
Okay.

I just found it interesting that you tried to criticize McHale using his best season as a coach which ironically happened when they finally found a team they could pay to take Lin.
It all makes you sound bitter about something that happened three seasons ago.
Looks like you're the one still spinning.

Lets see, your homer post was a response to my post, and my post wasn't necessarily a criticism on McFail, it was mainly a comment on a previous post, (I comment on many things on many topics on many teams) which was a response to a homer post from the Rockets. What is strange is that, almost all of the teams have fans posting in the Wiretap forum, the Rockets is the only team that constantly has homer posts in it.

What's going on?

BTW, wasn't it interesting that McFail had a "great" season and was fired almost immediately after?

[Adam Stern]

I think he was honest and fair to the Clippers, but I have not been impressed in Doc Rivers as a gm - That trade for Carmello Anthon would have made the Clippers a better team and he turned it down to be coaching his son

It's still hard to believe that actually happened.

Yeah - I have to admit that I was really shocked on that one, but it really makes you appreciate what Kobe Bryant did by staying with the Lakers for his entire career

You have to remember, Kobe did demand a trade at one point too.
In fact had the Bulls been willing to part with Luol Deng, Kobe would have been in Chicago.

[Adam Stern]

Spin, spin, spin. They were just lucky to face one of the biggest choke jobs ever by the team led by "the greatest PG to to play the game, but never make it past the second round".

Yes, he was injured but it's even more ironic that the Clippers actually won the first game with Austin Rivers as the starting PG.

OTOH, what's going with these huge homers from a certain team? Bad influence from each other or it's the same person? Or hired by the PR department?

You're a Lin fan making disparaging comments about the Rockets (past and present) on a Rockets article yet you call others "homers"?
Okay.

I just found it interesting that you tried to criticize McHale using his best season as a coach which ironically happened when they finally found a team they could pay to take Lin.
It all makes you sound bitter about something that happened three seasons ago.
Looks like you're the one still spinning.

Lets see, your homer post was a response to my post, and my post wasn't necessarily a criticism on McFail, it was mainly a comment on a previous post, (I comment on many things on many topics on many teams) which was a response to a homer post from the Rockets. What is strange is that, almost all of the teams have fans posting in the Wiretap forum, the Rockets is the only team that constantly has homer posts in it.

What's going on?

BTW, wasn't it interesting that McFail had a "great" season and was fired almost immediately after?

Calling someone a pejorative name IS criticism (and childish).

Most fans are inherently "homers". Fan is short for fanatic.

The fact that you assume I'm a Rockets fan really gives you away, if everything else didn't already do it.
You can't be dim enough to think you're fooling anyone, can you?

Why do some Lin fans find it so hard to move on from his time in Houston?

[og15]

Did that actually happen? It's actually interesting the it has been taken as a fact.

Hence the "Hard to believe" part.

I wasn't sure what context you were phrasing that in, but I see now, yes, I find it hard to believe too, and it doesn't really support any real news reports. The reports kept saying that Phil was trying to get Love and that Carmelo was still resisting waiving his trade clause.