Harden trade: Safe to call a failure now?

[Wooderson]

We will never know. Buts its hard to hit the panic mode when they still improved as a team when losing Harden. For the trade to have been the monumental failure people are trying to make it out, they would have had to got worse imo.

Oh I definitely agree with this, and the stuff saying their window is closing is very premature. OKC is still incredibly young and has multiple prospects that could pan out into being solid contributors. I just think they pulled the trigger on that deal too soon. It's understandable why they didn't want to dish out the majority of their cap to 3 non-bigs, but I don't think the return will be worth it.

[Mamba Venom]

One of the worst trades of all time. Over 4 mil right?

What if OKC had Durant, Westbrrok, Harden, Ibaka and Chandler?????

They could have but didnt want to.

[OldeBoy]

One of the worst trades of all time. Over 4 mil right?

What if OKC had Durant, Westbrrok, Harden, Ibaka and Chandler?????

They could have but didnt want to.

Name one franchise that has had 3 perimeter players on max deals. one.

[junot111]

Depends how their draft pick turns out, what they do with martin, and what they do with lamb. Right now they have too many prospects for a contending team (Jones, lamb, Adams)

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[rizkid92]

For the record... Majority of RealGM thought it was a good trade when OKC didn't skip a beat early in the regular season. But of course everyone will hate on the trade in hindsight

[junot111]

One of the worst trades of all time. Over 4 mil right?

What if OKC had Durant, Westbrrok, Harden, Ibaka and Chandler?????

They could have but didnt want to.

Name one franchise that has had 3 perimeter players on max deals. one.

Yeah I really don't blame presti for that deal. By giving harden the max you basically decided build your team around 3 perimeter players, and theres just no way you can become a championship team like that. Even if ibaka became an all-star, they wouldn't have been able to keep him on their payroll anyways. There's a reason harden broke out right after leaving that team, he never would have reached his potential playing on that roster.
The one thing you could criticize them for is not getting enough for harden... But it was the package they got or basically lose him for nothing down the line

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[kdthunderup]

If we signed Harden we were going to be crippled, we can only get so much production out of a 6th man and he wasnt worth the max to us. We improved this season in all areas anyway so we dont really miss him. I think we should of tried trading for a center though thats the only thing I can fault

[G35]

One year we decide? Little presumptuous.

Harden:

Year one 9.9 ppg, .403 FG%, 3.2 reb, 1.8 asst, 1.1 stl, 14.0 PER, .551 TS%


Doesn't look like superstar numbers to me...after one year....

[Effigy]

If we signed Harden we were going to be crippled, we can only get so much production out of a 6th man and he wasnt worth the max to us. We improved this season in all areas anyway so we dont really miss him. I think we should of tried trading for a center though thats the only thing I can fault

No, you could have kept him this past season and would have been fine financially. You could have taken your shot and possibly beat Miami n the finals. After this season you could re evaluate and decide. Ten you could decide to trade either Harden or Russ, and ever way you'd get as good or better an offer same one you took.

[ADoaN17]

One year we decide? Little presumptuous.

Harden:

Year one 9.9 ppg, .403 FG%, 3.2 reb, 1.8 asst, 1.1 stl, 14.0 PER, .551 TS%


Doesn't look like superstar numbers to me...after one year....

Those are his rookie stats....

[junot111]

If we signed Harden we were going to be crippled, we can only get so much production out of a 6th man and he wasnt worth the max to us. We improved this season in all areas anyway so we dont really miss him. I think we should of tried trading for a center though thats the only thing I can fault

No, you could have kept him this past season and would have been fine financially. You could have taken your shot and possibly beat Miami n the finals. After this season you could re evaluate and decide. Ten you could decide to trade either Harden or Russ, and ever way you'd get as good or better an offer same one you took.

You must have a crystal ball the way you are so certain of what could have happened

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[kdthunderup]

If we signed Harden we were going to be crippled, we can only get so much production out of a 6th man and he wasnt worth the max to us. We improved this season in all areas anyway so we dont really miss him. I think we should of tried trading for a center though thats the only thing I can fault

No, you could have kept him this past season and would have been fine financially. You could have taken your shot and possibly beat Miami n the finals. After this season you could re evaluate and decide. Ten you could decide to trade either Harden or Russ, and ever way you'd get as good or better an offer same one you took.

But Westbrook went down in the end anyway so we wouldn't of won anyway, Harden was worth more with a year on his contract anyway

[Zappa012]

Lamb is good. NBA 2K don't lie.

[kdthunderup]

One year we decide? Little presumptuous.

Harden:

Year one 9.9 ppg, .403 FG%, 3.2 reb, 1.8 asst, 1.1 stl, 14.0 PER, .551 TS%


Doesn't look like superstar numbers to me...after one year....

Those are his rookie stats....

I think he is trying to say that people are already saying the trade was a failure only after Lamb playing one season and Adams nothing. Harden after his 1st season was really nothing special

[bondom34]

I know everyone pretty much feels how they feel but honestly, it was the best option. OKC had 3 players who could get a max deal, and couldn't afford it. With OKC, Harden would still be sixth man, and we never would have even seen this potential come to fruition like it did. Looking at options, OKC knew Harden was gone, and traded him at the point when his value was highest. His BEST case in OKC was to be sixth man of the year again, and bolt for free agency or get traded for probably a worse deal, as teams would know that OKC was up against the deadline to trade him this year. Realistically, the guy wasn't gonna make a max deal for the Thunder, and they got the best possible for him at the time. Until Lamb pans out, and we see what comes of the draft picks fully, its tbd, and we can't say its a failure imo.

[Wooderson]

For the record... Majority of RealGM thought it was a good trade when OKC didn't skip a beat early in the regular season. But of course everyone will hate on the trade in hindsight

I really don't think that's true. Most people thought it was a good trade initially because they didn't think Harden wasn't a max contract guy. Then Harden busted out of the gate with those two enormous games, and from then on people finally realized Harden is an immense offensive talent.

[DivineFury]

Harden in OKC wasnt as good as Harden in Houston. Thunder dont need to replace Houston Harden they need to replace OKC Harden, which wasnt even an all star. If Lamb can develop into a 14 ppg scorer off the bench the Thunder wont have lost much production.

Thats not even considering Reggie Jackson who looks like he can be a double digit scorer off the bench.

Lets say Lamb and Reggie combine for 20 off the bench next year. That will be a production boost from what Harden gave.

The issue actually was that they were trying too hard to replace Harden, literally. Instead they should of tried to package away Perk and get a quality center like Asik back, instead of going for someone like Kmart and picks.

There was no way Harden was staying. He didn't want to be a 6th man and you can't pay what he wanted to one anyways. The issue was what they got back, and they just made the wrong call. It happens, but can't call this anything but a bad trade from the stand point of OKC.

From a talent standpoint the Thunder loss. From a production and efficiency standpoint, they didnt miss a beat.

I totally agree. I am not sure why they tried so hard to replace someone that didn't need to be replaced. They should of address their only and main weakness, the C position. That one place they have virtually zero production.

[SixerFever215]

They had to Trade Harden they offered him a contract he declined its not they wanted too they just didn't have enough money to pay harden w estbrook and Durant. By trading him they got player and picks in return which was a smart move instead of letting him go for nothin. This wasn't a normal trade because OKC is championship contender so random rookie players won't help them so calling this trade a failure is silky

[MrCheerios]

One year we decide? Little presumptuous.

Harden:

Year one 9.9 ppg, .403 FG%, 3.2 reb, 1.8 asst, 1.1 stl, 14.0 PER, .551 TS%


Doesn't look like superstar numbers to me...after one year....

Those are his rookie stats....

I think he is trying to say that people are already saying the trade was a failure only after Lamb playing one season and Adams nothing. Harden after his 1st season was really nothing special

So hopefully only two or three more years before Lamb and Adams can contribute? Good thing Durant and Westbrook are young enough to waste that time.

[Nycballa2k]

I think people are fixating on the Thunder's lack of success, but I chalk that up to an injured Westbrooke.

Westbrook getting injured was the exact moment I and probably the Thunder FO realized how badly they ****ed up made even more glaring by the fact they were facing a Harden led team. If Harden were there you would instantly have a replacement for scoring and playmaking they lost with Westbrook. Westbrook going down showed the lost value of trading Harden for scraps