James Harden traded to the Rockets

[lodom7]

Come on people, Lamb has the potential to be pretty good, but a star? come on

[C-izMe]

He's a legitimate All-Star with superstar potential. LOL at labeling him as "just a bench player" when we've all seen how good Manu Ginobili is. Harden is basically Manu with much worse defense.

Basically Manu my ass! He has no midrange game at all and isn't half as good in transition. What's more, like 80% of his trips to the line come off of flops, whereas it's maybe 45% for Ginobilli.

Really big3. Your going crazy.


Harden averaged 15 pp36 with Westbrook and KD on the floor with him. Kevin Martin WILL be better than that scoring wise.

[Neutral 123]

The lockout......worked?

I'd rather not get into the dizzying rules involved, but its pretty funny the Lakers have Gasol, Kobe, and Howard on their roster, while the Thunder have had to rush and dump a guy still on his rookie contract. Yeah for parity.

You're blaming the Lakers for willing to PAY for a Championship team and not punish OKC and/or Hardens agent for not coming to an agreement??? LOL

No I'm blaming dimwitted fans for believing that the negotiations were about creating parity, or a fairer environment for small market teams. I thought even MORE concessions from the players was supposed to prevent this from happening? Isn't this precisely what people were whining about? Certain teams basically being able to pay for whatever talent they want, while teams who actually drafted well and made all the right moves are forced to trade away their talent? Awful.

[og15]

K-Mart is really bad and will not be as effective as Harden was with OKC. There's a reason why championship teams don't care much for rookies or draft picks, unless your name is Tim Duncan or Magic Johnson.

OKC has now entered 4-6th seed, and a 2nd round playoff exit at best for the next 3 years.

But hey they saved a ton of money on car insurance by switching to Geico LOL

Kevin Martin is better than Harden from 10-11, at least as a scorer. The Thunder won 55 games with Jeff Green and 10-11 Harden. So replace Green with Perkins and more minutes for Ibaka, and Harden with Martin, Lamb, and some other depth additions, and the Thunder according to you will now drop to the 4th-6th seed?

Seems a little drastic, don't you think?

btw, here are the per 36 numbers for 10-11 Harden and Kevin Martin last season (which was a poor season for him):
Harden: 16.2 / 4.2 / 2.9 / 1.5 stls / 1.7 to / .598 TS%
Martin: 19.4 / 3.0 / 3.1 / 0.8 stls / 2.0 to / .554 TS%

My bigger worry with Martin is health, more so than raw production. This does mean that the ball will be in Westbrook's hands more as a playmaker again, so the question is whether that is a good thing or not.

I don't think they are better, though we'll have to see, but not really much worse if any

[PurpleRooster]

People are overrating harden. He is AWFUL in the finals. Martin and Lamb plus 3 picks???

Lebron James had a horrible showing in the finals against San Antonio. How is that a basis for even rating a player's worth anyway?

Are you seriously comparing LeBron James being a one man team and San Antonio's defense (highlighted by Bruce Bowen) keying in on him to Harden who has two other superstars, one the second best player in the NBA to take pressure off of him?

Bottom line, Harden was exposed in the playoffs last year. And YES we can judge him on that.

Harden is overrated, and while he will still be good, without Durant and Westbrook garnering the lion's share of the defensive attention he will regress.

[CablexDeadpool]

Kevin Martin NOR Jeremy lamb are Harden. I think some people are selling Harden short. OKC will not be a better team and Lamb while a decent prospect will never be Harden.

For harden, while he left a championship team, this will probably be better for his career. He's too good to be coming off the bench. He's really going to shine in Houston. If Lin can be some of what he was in NY and they eventually trade some of there assets (of which they still have a lot) for a good big man.. They will be in business.

No. This is Joe Johnson leaving the Suns.


Monetary wise, yeah this is great for Harden. Winning Basketball games...no

[rz04]

Wait, so aren't HOU already paying Lin and Asik a combined 30 mil starting in 2014-15? So those two and Harden get 45 mil?!

No, Lin and Asik are 8 mil per yr so combined 16 mil, plus the 15 mil max for Harden.

I thought there was a rule that they could only get 5 mil the first two years?

That's the poison pill provision. It's only that for the other team, for Houston it's just 8/8/8.

[JellosJigglin]

its funny how when the lakers traded for cp3, the word on kevin martin was he's old, injury prone, overrated, can't pass. Now we have a 20 page thread gushing over his greatness

kevin martin is no james harden. I will say this though, they are getting good long term value for him. But in the short term, they are no longer contenders in the west.

[phx#7]

Wait, so aren't HOU already paying Lin and Asik a combined 30 mil starting in 2014-15? So those two and Harden get 45 mil?!

You heard wrong. Hou paying Lin and Asik 8.3 million each for next 3 years.

No, that is how they count against the cap not how Houston is paying them.

[CBB_Fan]

The OKC Thunder are a worse team right now. That cannot be disputed. They have likely lost their chance at a title. I cannot understand why they did this unless the only goal is to get lots of talented rookies and not pay them after the rookie contract ends. Small market...

[Los Manos]

i wonder if harden would have signed for 54mil had he known he was gonna get traded if he didn't. My guess is he would have.

I'm inclined to think the opposite. Houston would have sought assurances that Harden would be happy in Houston and that they intended to offer him the max through his agent. Harden turned down OKC and likely fancies the opportunity to put his talent to greater use as a no.1 option and getting his money at the same time.

I think Harden is a very happy camper right now.

[branny]

Oh my god this is just crazy. Still in awe

[TheToothFairy]

Pg-Westbrook
Sg-Lamb
sf-Durant
Pf1Jones
c-Ibaka

Plus 3 first picks for info the best GM's in the game

OKC has the blueprint for small market teams

[djay]

OKC just got weaker. It's clear now that it's Heats, Lakers, OKC in that order last night. I'm not sure we should put OKC in the elite trio anymore without Harden. Harden is the one player that kill the Lakers and he is very very good. Like Manu, very underrated coming off the bench.

I say now it's Heats and Lakers are the 2 elites team while OKC should got downgrade into the Celtics/Spurs/Clippers territory. Agree?


Tier 1: Heats: Lakers

Tier 2: OKC, Clippers, Spurs, Celtics, Bulls (if Rose is healthy)

Tier 3: 76ers, Pacers, Grizzlies, Mavs (if Dirk is healthy), Nets, Knicks

Tier 4: Blazers, Rockets, Warriors, Wolves (would move up to Tier 3 if Roy is healthy but I doubt it)

Tier 5: Bucks, Wizard, Hornets, Cavs, Raptors, Cats, the bottom feeder teams

[Neutral 123]

Martin has nowhere to go but up? SMH... NBA you're almost always better off with quality over quantity. A bunch of mediocre picks, plus a couple of mediocre players won't make them a better team. Portland was supposed to be the heir apparent, they fell off, and now OKC is likely done... Pathetic.

Everything you wrote is pretty wrong.

Being in Orlando I can understand why you you'd want to believe what I wrote was wrong. SMH

[inquisitive]

I was looking at Martin's PER and WS/48 from when he was 24. They are not too different from Harden at 22.

Martin shot very well in preseason and appears to be on the verge of a bounce back year. It's about as good as the Thunder were going to get under the circumstances.

No Rocket fans are shedding tear over the departure of Kevin Martin. When you watch him play basketball you'll know why.

We are pissed at the inclusion of Lamb and Tor pick.

Yep...this sucks for us...gonna miss Lamb....OKC is much stronger now too. I believe OKC wanted to do the deal right away to get the roster set for the season, so they didn't want to play it out this year with distractions of Harden leaving. I am surprised that OKC didn't entertain other offers for Harden.

[bullsnewdynasty]

When's the last time Kevin Martin was relevant? He's almost perpetually injured, and now that he can't flop he's been rendered basically useless. Doesn't defend either.

[wackywabbit]

I think both sides did well here. But, I can't help but think a trade built around Harden for Beal would have worked out better for parties that would have been involved.

[J the Drafter]

@JRudolphSports: OKC just became the 2009-10 Orlando Magic; Kevin Martin is playing the role of Vince Carter. Bad trade, rushed decision for the Thunder.

Except the Magic were going to the Finals and might have even beat LA if they hadn't run into BOS, which was the worst possible matchup.

Yea, with Turkoglu or Carter, they weren't beating Boston as long as KG suited up.

Would have done it with both.

[sunskerr]

Would Orlando have been a better destination to send Harden? Afflalo/picks/young talent.