ddb wrote:Random thought. I was trying to think of a player that is young, talented but hasnt yet had the opportunity to shine just yet...i wanted to think of a James Harden type situation. We all knew Harden was really good while in OKC. 6th man of the year. But it took guts by Morey in Houston to mortgage his future on a guy that was NOT a guarantee to become the player that we know today.... One guy that I know Ainge likes that is currently a talented, young bench player flying under the radar is Harrison Barnes. Barnes could be the Celtics Harden. Not right now. Bit maybe next offseason. Thats one guy to keep an eye on. I know Ainge likes him. Thinks he can be a star.
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I wouldn't be surprised if Barnes becomes available in the next year or two now that Golden State has Iguodala. But if he has a good season building upon the promise showed in last years playoffs and the Warriors consider trading him, I think its more likely that they will want to package him and one of their bigs for a significantly better big from perhaps a team that decides to rebuild. Unlike OKC when they traded Harden, the Warriors don't really have major cap problems. They signed Bogut for a contract that I don't think he will live up to but they have Curry signed at a bargain price if he is able to keep up his play from the past couple of seasons.
It's funny but I really don't think James Harden was any better last year then he was his last year with OKC. It's obviously sometimes harder to play with defenses focused more on you and a higher scoring burden but his last year with OKC, his scoring efficiency was pretty spectacular. He scored more last year but his shooting efficiency went down quite a bit. I actually think the Harden trade was an absolute no brainer for Houston and I still question why OKC didn't try a bit more to keep him. IMHO you have to admit a mistake an amnesty Perkins before giving Harden an excuse of not resigning because of money. I would have even traded Westbrook first.
Even though it made sense like McHale coming off the bench for the Celtics made sense in the early 80', I think OKC made a mistake asking Harden to sacrifice some money in contract negotiations while he had already been sacrificing by coming off the bench despite IMHO being OKC's second best player. OKC probably valued Harden for less then what he was really worth since they had Durant but I think that was the wrong way too look at it.
