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Rafael Stone may be unwilling to trade James Harden from the Houston Rockets at all this season, according to sources that spoke with Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer.

The Rockets have grown more confident in their ability to have Harden accept completing the season with the team, according to front office executives around the NBA. If the Rockets keep Harden through the end of the current season, any team trading for him would only have one more guaranteed year under contract.

Sources say, however, that Harden still prefers to be traded.

But there have been some encouraging signs coming from the Rockets with the play of Christian Wood and John Wall.

“As long as we continue to find chemistry, we have a chance to do something special,” said Harden on Saturday. 

Via Kevin O'Connor/The Ringer

Interesting strategy, unexpected but maybe not that dumb. Never would've thought it'd be seen as a win to have Harden stay for one more 6th seed season while his trade value declines, but in reality teams are probably still going to pony up to get Harden and the Rockets will be more interesting and profitable with him around this season.

This is called posturing

HotelVitale wrote:Interesting strategy, unexpected but maybe not that dumb. Never would've thought it'd a win to have Harden stay for one more like 6th seed season while his trade value declines, but in reality teams are probably still going to pony up to get Harden and the Rockets will be more interesting and profitable with him around this season.

No one will pony up for an expiring harden.

No one pony up for expiring K Leonard either. If u call a fake star in Derozan who had 9 years in Toronto and couldn’t get them over the top who had 2 years left in his own contract.

That’s the type of star player rockets can expect to get back for harden. A top 20 type of nba player with 2 years or left in their contract who’s at age 30 or over. Lol. Smells like Russell Westbrook age 32 with 2 years left in his contract after this season would be a perfect trade candidate.

Lol. The irony it would be.

That’s who Houston will get back in return for Harden after this season

kuclas wrote:

HotelVitale wrote:Interesting strategy, unexpected but maybe not that dumb. Never would've thought it'd a win to have Harden stay for one more like 6th seed season while his trade value declines, but in reality teams are probably still going to pony up to get Harden and the Rockets will be more interesting and profitable with him around this season.

No one will pony up for an expiring harden. No one pony up for expiring K Leonard either. If u call a fake star in Derozan who had 9 years in Toronto and couldn’t get them over the top who had 2 years left in his own contract. That’s the type of star player rockets can expect to get back for harden. A top 20 type of nba player with 2 years or left in their contract who’s at age 30 or over. Lol. Smells like Russell Westbrook age 32 with 2 years left in his contract after this season would be a perfect trade candidate. Lol. The irony it would be. That’s who Houston will get back in return for Harden after this season

I don't think a lot of this maps onto the Harden situation. Kawhi had missed a ton of time and was thought to be badly injured at the time, and it seems like the Spurs took Derozan for their own shaky reasons (wanting to remain competitive and keep up their culture), not because he was the best available asset. Plus he had announced his intentions of signing in LA after the year was up, an intention not even winning the title and being an entire country's hero could change, so the fact that he was expiring was very different than for Harden. Also the age thing is very real and brings Harden's value down a lot already, but adding 5-6 more months isn't a titanic age difference.

Anyway here was my actual point before: Harden's trade value clearly diminishes over time but there will still be a bidding war whenever they decide to sell him, and I think the Rockets aren't wrong to consider that keeping him for this year is worth it for them over the price/return shrinking. It's not the standard playbook for trading a disgruntled star--which is to trade for the best overall future assets and maximize value--and not what I would do, but if they don't love current trade offers and want to have another competitive season, I don't think it's as dumb as it first seems.

Harden might just say F it and stay because of the pandemic and wait until next season. The Rockets are 3-5 and haven't done anything that would change his mind.

Theo Ratliff wrote:Harden might just say F it and stay because of the pandemic and wait until next season. The Rockets are 3-5 and haven't done anything that would change his mind.

And Silas has literally taken the ball out of hardens hand and given it to wall. Silas is out of his depth

To be honest houston hiked up the value because they don't want to trade harden but in the end they doing more damage than anything. An expiring contract harden at his coming age while also being ball domminant and not performing well in post season is less valuable than a trade now. You can also factor in a possible future injury and the end result will be getting almost nothing. As if right now they not getting what they want or think his value is. Unlike kawhi, harden will be around 32 , 33 years old with no playoffs winning record

Can he still get his $100 million/2 year extension

They are confident they can do something that is their choice and have complete control over?

HotelVitale wrote:

kuclas wrote:

HotelVitale wrote:Interesting strategy, unexpected but maybe not that dumb. Never would've thought it'd a win to have Harden stay for one more like 6th seed season while his trade value declines, but in reality teams are probably still going to pony up to get Harden and the Rockets will be more interesting and profitable with him around this season.

No one will pony up for an expiring harden. No one pony up for expiring K Leonard either. If u call a fake star in Derozan who had 9 years in Toronto and couldn’t get them over the top who had 2 years left in his own contract. That’s the type of star player rockets can expect to get back for harden. A top 20 type of nba player with 2 years or left in their contract who’s at age 30 or over. Lol. Smells like Russell Westbrook age 32 with 2 years left in his contract after this season would be a perfect trade candidate. Lol. The irony it would be. That’s who Houston will get back in return for Harden after this season

I don't think a lot of this maps onto the Harden situation. Kawhi had missed a ton of time and was thought to be badly injured at the time, and it seems like the Spurs took Derozan for their own shaky reasons (wanting to remain competitive and keep up their culture), not because he was the best available asset. Plus he had announced his intentions of signing in LA after the year was up, an intention not even winning the title and being an entire country's hero could change, so the fact that he was expiring was very different than for Harden. Also the age thing is very real and brings Harden's value down a lot already, but adding 5-6 more months isn't a titanic age difference.

Anyway here was my actual point before: Harden's trade value clearly diminishes over time but there will still be a bidding war whenever they decide to sell him, and I think the Rockets aren't wrong to consider that keeping him for this year is worth it for them over the price/return shrinking. It's not the standard playbook for trading a disgruntled star--which is to trade for the best overall future assets and maximize value--and not what I would do, but if they don't love current trade offers and want to have another competitive season, I don't think it's as dumb as it first seems.

There is zero bidding war if involves young stars under age 25 from teams interested who are under contract for 3-4 more seasons after this season.

It’s harden contract. Not his age. Not his play.

You really think a team like the Celtics would risk trading say brown or Tatum for essentially one year rental of harden. Forget it. They rather unload Kemba walker who could opt out after 2 seasons. Well they can’t really trade Tatum yet.

Do you really think sixers would trade Simmons who’s has 4 years left in contract after this season for one year of Harden. Nope.

No team is gonna to give up those type of assets for one year or harden unless he agrees to sign a 2 year extension.

I don’t blame Boston for not going hard after Anthony Davis. With no assurances. It’s was too big of a gamble. Lakers went after Davis for obvious reasons. Lebron management team controls Davis. They knew he would resign with Lakers after this season.

No one wants to give up a major asset for him.

Or, put in other words, ain’t nobody trying to pick James up for what the Rockets want!