Harden Traded to the Rockets!

[MilBucksBackOnTop06]

I agree with Max... but I guess Im also looking at it from another view...

We pretty much traded everyone for one not quite star.

Lowry, Martin, Dalembert, Lee, Hill?... might as well add Scola

for Harden...




Martin is gonna be awesome for OKC, an amazing 3rd option.

Pardon me but I would like to comment on this if I may: You are looking at this deal all wrong. I said before that I did not like losing Dragic for you nor Lee much less Lowry.

However you picked up a marquee building block back court in Jeremy Lin that was a great business move off the heels of Yao Ming that gives the team a global appeal in marketing. My Bucks took Yi Jianlian for the same reason and it flopped. Your team had Ming and now Lin. Great move.

Then you get a top 3 Olympian SG in James Harden. Come on now. Lets get real. You got him at age 23 people. You are not going to do better then that...how the heck do you top that? You don't. In fact, Kobe Bryant is on his way out and Wade is always hurt and is in the other conference so what difference does that make?

Personally I do not like Harden. I thought he was exposed in the playoffs and I am a huge Westbrook fan and all. But that is just me. I am no dummy and no hater. He is good and can be great. I respect his game. In your market no way in the world anyone should knock this deal.

You got a backup center, a buildingblock All Star caliber PG and SG and multiple assets at the 3 and 4. And as I said in the other thread I wrote...watch out for Lazar Hayward if you play him! Come to the Bucks board and you will thank me later if he gets a shot in Houston. Watch and see.

[MaxRider]

if Harden do get the max; and Lin and Asik are still on the team, that mean Harden+Lin+Asik = $45 million in 2014-15 season

...
...
...
Seriously?

I mean, Jesus Christ, I thought it was stupid enough when Adande was still spouting this off yesterday, but I expected anyone who actually posts in this particular subforum to know better. I swear to God, I think this board needs a giant neon sign at the top spouting,

"THE CAP HIT FOR JEREMY LIN AND OMER ASIK IS NOT 30 MILLION DOLLARS. IT IS 16.9MILLION. FOR THE LAST TIME, THE AMOUNT WE ARE PAYING THEM /= CAP HIT."

My God, how can Rockets fans NOT know this at this point?

maybe because i'm not a true rockets fan
seriously
everyone has their own opinion
i don't have to agree with yours
and i hate this trade


btw Joe Johnson is still the 3rd best SG in this league

[MilBucksBackOnTop06]

Atleast we no longer have to watch Kevin Martin play basketball.

Thank you based god.

Yes we will....in the NBA Finals.

[MaxRider]

Atleast we no longer have to watch Kevin Martin play basketball.

Thank you based god.

Yes we will....in the NBA Finals.

i will LMAO if Martin make it to the final
Alston is the other most hated ex-rockets player made it to the final
better career after leaving the team

i swear i'm hearing this in my head
david stern: with the 14th pick in the 2013 nba draft the houston rockets select ...

[Sasaki]

Atleast we no longer have to watch Kevin Martin play basketball.

Thank you based god.

Yes we will....in the NBA Finals.

i will LMAO if Martin make it to the final
Alston is the other most hated ex-rockets player made it to the final
better career after leaving the team

i swear i'm hearing this in my head
david stern: with the 14th pick in the 2013 nba draft the houston rockets select ...

What's wrong with getting the 14th pick/8th seed? The Jazz finished 8th seed last year, does that mean they're going nowhere? What about the Thunder in 2010?

There's a difference between what an 8th seed would have done for us last year, when players like Lowry, Martin, and Scola in their prime are the leaders and this year when Lin, Harden, and Asik would be the leaders.

[Guy986]

Atleast we no longer have to watch Kevin Martin play basketball.

Thank you based god.

Yes we will....in the NBA Finals.

Ha.

[MaxRider]

What's wrong with getting the 14th pick/8th seed? The Jazz finished 8th seed last year, does that mean they're going nowhere? What about the Thunder in 2010?

There's a difference between what an 8th seed would have done for us last year, when players like Lowry, Martin, and Scola in their prime are the leaders and this year when Lin, Harden, and Asik would be the leaders.

14th pick is best team not in the playoff
rockets got the 14th pick in the last 3 years
they traded up in 2012 but the 14th pick is still theirs
nothing wrong with 8th
but there is something very wrong at 9th seed
without Harden we are looking at top 5-8 pick
with Harden we are looking at the 14th pick again and i'm sick of it

[MavfanAus]

Hey guys, obviously my name says it all though I'm not here in to troll or anything. I'm actually a fan of the Rox, mostly because of Chandler Parsons being one of my fav players in the league.

Anyway, good solid trade for you guys, sucks Morey gave up a few picks in it but I guess that's the rick one takes to get talent back.

Question, how do you think Harden/Parsons will go? I know Parsons is one of the big pieces of the Rockets future and I'm glad you guys didn't move him off in this deal. Is the Harden/Parsons combination a better long term combination than Lin/Harden?

[CU_NY09]

I like this trade a lot. we're building a nice solid nucleus of youth with room to sign another max player. Lin needs to develop into at least a 17 and 7 guy over his time here and Harden will most likely be a top flight all star SG as Wade, Kobe and Manu age and eventually decline. He could possibly put up 19 - 25+ points a game with the right system and 18-20 shots a night. He already gets to the FT line like a star, can put up assists and rebound along with solid defense that could improve under Mchale. Asik might also become a true rebounding and defensive monster to be a game changer on that end of the court.

With another superstar potential player move, we could actually do some damage in the future. I'm excited.

Not sure where you came up with 17/7 but those are all star numbers. This was taken from another board, but here are the 2011-2012 stats of PG's that were in Lin's salary range. All but one weren't even close to averaging 13/7.

Player: Points / Assists / Rebounds / Steals / 3PT%
Mike Conley: 12.7 / 6.5 / 2.5 / 2.2 / .377
George Hill: 9.6 / 2.9 / 3.0 / 0.8 / .367
Devin Harris: 11.3 / 5.0 / 1.8 / 1.0 / .362
Jameer Nelson: 11.9 / 5.7 / 3.2 / 0.7 / .377
Goran Dragic: 11.7 / 5.3 / 2.5 / 1.3 / .337
Mo Williams: 13.2 / 3.1 / 1.9 / 1 / .389

People have unrealistic expectations.

I do think Harden/Lin/Parsons will make up the bulk of the scoring though.

[Guy986]

Hey guys, obviously my name says it all though I'm not here in to troll or anything. I'm actually a fan of the Rox, mostly because of Chandler Parsons being one of my fav players in the league.

Anyway, good solid trade for you guys, sucks Morey gave up a few picks in it but I guess that's the rick one takes to get talent back.

Question, how do you think Harden/Parsons will go? I know Parsons is one of the big pieces of the Rockets future and I'm glad you guys didn't move him off in this deal. Is the Harden/Parsons combination a better long term combination than Lin/Harden?

[Effigy]

Time to scratch another name on that sig.

Tyler Hansbrough is next after Harden!

Get er done Morey.

curry is next

Actually Earl Clark is next. And by next I mean 2 years ago. Dude is already on his third team...

[CKRT]

You guys are so lucky.

Harden is legit. He has a Nash-like impact on offense.

[x-]

Atleast we no longer have to watch Kevin Martin play basketball.
Thank you based god.

YES!!!!!

I would have prefered to see this team do full-rebuild, but with Martin gone I can't complain too much.

[ChrisTheFuturePaul]

Can someone find last years end of season roster and post it with the current roster? Not sure if there's actual improvement?

[Baller 24]

btw Joe Johnson is still the 3rd best SG in this league

Not even close Max, come on. Based on last season's advanced statistics alone, James Harden blows JJ out of the water. It's not even a close comparison. Even based on the information posted in this article, you'll see a big breakdown of James' ability. http://wagesofwins.com/2012/10/27/the-t ... c-failure/

[HTown_TMac]

Atleast we no longer have to watch Kevin Martin play basketball.

Thank you based god.

Yes we will....in the NBA Finals.

i will LMAO if Martin make it to the final
Alston is the other most hated ex-rockets player made it to the final
better career after leaving the team

i swear i'm hearing this in my head
david stern: with the 14th pick in the 2013 nba draft the houston rockets select ...

Difference is, we have a 23 year old building block. A player we would try and tank and get, with enough cap space for 1 more max contract next year. We are in a better position than we have been these last few years. Morey finally gott his 'star' this is his career on the line now. Build around this star.

[GrapeApe]

You replaced Lee/Martin [expiring contract] who I liked with Harden the Olympian and a top 2-3 SG at 23 in the entire NBA. No Rocket fan should really be complaining about this deal. The guy that should be worried is James Harden himself leaving a title contender over $4 mil dollars at this stage of his life. That was dumb, but that is another topic for another day perhaps...

I think that is a great point. Maybe. Players won't always hold out for the max in the future. But I doubt it.

You are worried about losing Lamb. JLamb is good and could be special one day but I am here in Milwaukee and I personally know Lazar Hayward from Marquette just a GREAT YOUNG MAN...you will love him. Lazar will and can be better then Jeremy Lamb.

There is no way Hayward makes the team. He will be cut. Cole Alrich is the only player other than Harden that has a chance of not getting cut.

That is one of the weird things about this trade. Houston brought back even MORE players, and most ot them forwards.

[moofs]

14th pick is best team not in the playoff
rockets got the 14th pick in the last 3 years
they traded up in 2012 but the 14th pick is still theirs
nothing wrong with 8th
but there is something very wrong at 9th seed
without Harden we are looking at top 5-8 pick
with Harden we are looking at the 14th pick again and i'm sick of it

There's Max with his complaining! I've been waiting for you, sir.

So here's the deal: Harden is probably at least 30-40% better than any single player we had last season, Lowry the Beast included.
We aggregated our talent. We very likely got the superstar like we've needed. Everyone on the board wanted it to happen and proposed trades on it constantly for 2 straight years.

Now that it happened, no bitching! Morey traded away a BUNCH of average to good players last year, ALL of whom he'd acquired in a 3-4 year window. The best players he'd gotten were Lowry (for RAFER ALSTON), Scola (for GREEK MAC), Dalembert (almost 32), Camby (almost dead), Budinger (I've seen tables that didn't look as wooden as he did), and Courtney Lee (nice player, nice contract, but easily acquired in the modern NBA).

Think of it this way, too. Let's say through some unearthly fluke we'd gotten LEBRON. He really has about a 4 year window left on his dominance. If you're good, it takes about 3-4 years to build a team that can contend around a superstar on a sparsely populated team. Let's call the minimum 2 years. In 2 years, LeBron is 30 and will need at least one seriously good player for help. We'd have to be insanely lucky to have that in two years. Even if we got that talent, the odds are low for top tier teams to actually win in any given year (around 15-35%), which means you need at least 2-4 tries at the peak. Basically, even if we got far-and-away the best player in the game right now, he actually wouldn't help us get where we want to go! Crazy, huh?

My point is that Harden is 23 (and just turned 23, too). We're looking at a 5-7 year window to surround him with players. We didn't even get that with McGrady! We got 2 years there, with bits and pieces of 2 more years. Even if we screw up or run into some bad luck, we've still got time to correct things and get in one or two good runs. If we don't run into any bad luck, and manage to build a nice team in 2-3 years, we're looking at a potential 3-4 year run of contending!

I mean, we just got the second best SG in the NBA! He's 23! The only SG better than him is 30 year old Dwayne Wade! We have tons of ways for players to make tons of money here! We have one of the best GMs in the game! HO LEE CRAP WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MaxRider]

one good thing ... at least it's not injured-prone eric gordon

[GrapeApe]

Obviously Harden is a piece. And an important one at that. I see him as the Ray Allen to the eventual Kevin Garnett. So who is that Kevin Garnett and when does he arrive?

Assuming Lin is the real deal then:
PG - Lin
SG - Harden
SF - Parsons
PF - Patterson
C - Asik

My guess is Morey is looking for a forward. Who are the all-star forwards that his free agency next year? Josh Smith? Pau Gasol? Paul Milsap? Andrew Bynum? Dwight Howard?

I think the best Houston can hope for would be Al Jefferson. That would be a pretty good line up.