Reggie is happy OKC was eliminated(?)

[The_Irony]

Btw, so long as we're on this topic I should mention, Darnell (he still works at the Oklahoman just no longer on the Thunder beat) told a story a few weeks back on a podcast about the Reggie falling out where he thought it was pegged to Reggie not getting to go to the podium after that game we had against Memphis where Reggie came off the bench and had 32 in the 13-14 playoffs and basically salvaged the season. Instead Durant and Westbrook went to the podium like always. Now, THAT is something I could see leading to resentment.

I agree with that. Have to put a guy on the podium after that kind of performance.

But who determines who goes up? PR has to be to blame for that right? I see the guy on the Pistons who looks like a kid but has been with them since 2000 pulling players for postgame interviews.

[Old Man Game]

Btw, so long as we're on this topic I should mention, Darnell (he still works at the Oklahoman just no longer on the Thunder beat) told a story a few weeks back on a podcast about the Reggie falling out where he thought it was pegged to Reggie not getting to go to the podium after that game we had against Memphis where Reggie came off the bench and had 32 in the 13-14 playoffs and basically salvaged the season. Instead Durant and Westbrook went to the podium like always. Now, THAT is something I could see leading to resentment.

I agree with that. Have to put a guy on the podium after that kind of performance.

But who determines who goes up? PR has to be to blame for that right? I see the guy on the Pistons who looks like a kid but has been with them since 2000 pulling players for postgame interviews.

It's an organizational thing from what I understand, yeah. Even when Harden was still here and torching it in the 2012 playoff run he never got 1 podium appearance.

[Pharaoh]

I agree with that. Have to put a guy on the podium after that kind of performance.

But who determines who goes up? PR has to be to blame for that right? I see the guy on the Pistons who looks like a kid but has been with them since 2000 pulling players for postgame interviews.

It's an organizational thing from what I understand, yeah. Even when Harden was still here and torching it in the 2012 playoff run he never got 1 podium appearance.

Maybe that played a part in Harden leaving too?

[Old Man Game]

But who determines who goes up? PR has to be to blame for that right? I see the guy on the Pistons who looks like a kid but has been with them since 2000 pulling players for postgame interviews.

It's an organizational thing from what I understand, yeah. Even when Harden was still here and torching it in the 2012 playoff run he never got 1 podium appearance.

Maybe that played a part in Harden leaving too?

Could be.

[Blkbrd671]

So its settled , OKC will lose all their FA's as long as they send KD and RW to the podium instead of some one else. Glad we got that settled.

[The_Irony]

But who determines who goes up? PR has to be to blame for that right? I see the guy on the Pistons who looks like a kid but has been with them since 2000 pulling players for postgame interviews.

It's an organizational thing from what I understand, yeah. Even when Harden was still here and torching it in the 2012 playoff run he never got 1 podium appearance.

Maybe that played a part in Harden leaving too?

Harden was traded

[Pharaoh]

It's an organizational thing from what I understand, yeah. Even when Harden was still here and torching it in the 2012 playoff run he never got 1 podium appearance.

Maybe that played a part in Harden leaving too?

Harden was traded

From memory :

Durant took slightly less than the full max to stay

Westbrook too slightly less than the full max to stay

Ibaka too slightly less than full market value to stay

Harden refused to take slightly less to stay & forced a trade.

WHY?

While I admit we're just working on possible answers here I think the Thunder organisation has blown it twice!

In an effort to save dollars.

It's POSSIBLE that RJ & Harden both wanted out because they knew that they'd never be more than the 3rd/4th guy on a contender and that wasn't enough for them

In that case I believe the coach, their superstar team mates, the FO and ownership failed.

People wanna be appreciated & valued. No one can convince me that Reggie Jackson felt either in his last 6 months on that team.

And you can't tell me that they convinced Harden of it either - since he forced his way out.

It's not as simple as "they weren't allowed on the podium for interviews" - that's childish. But it could simply be a sign of the actual problem - not feeling the love!

Are you gonna go all out every day for people who don't care or appreciate or value you?

If you could leave that situation, get paid more AND feel valued, appreciated and loved wouldn't you bail?

[hoophabit]

It's an organizational thing from what I understand, yeah. Even when Harden was still here and torching it in the 2012 playoff run he never got 1 podium appearance.

Maybe that played a part in Harden leaving too?

Harden was traded

So was RJ.

[Blkbrd671]

Maybe that played a part in Harden leaving too?

Harden was traded

From memory :

Durant took slightly less than the full max to stay

Westbrook too slightly less than the full max to stay

Ibaka too slightly less than full market value to stay

Harden refused to take slightly less to stay & forced a trade.

WHY?

While I admit we're just working on possible answers here I think the Thunder organisation has blown it twice!

In an effort to save dollars.

It's POSSIBLE that RJ & Harden both wanted out because they knew that they'd never be more than the 3rd/4th guy on a contender and that wasn't enough for them

In that case I believe the coach, their superstar team mates, the FO and ownership failed.

People wanna be appreciated & valued. No one can convince me that Reggie Jackson felt either in his last 6 months on that team.

And you can't tell me that they convinced Harden of it either - since he forced his way out.

It's not as simple as "they weren't allowed on the podium for interviews" - that's childish. But it could simply be a sign of the actual problem - not feeling the love!

Are you gonna go all out every day for people who don't care or appreciate or value you?

If you could leave that situation, get paid more AND feel valued, appreciated and loved wouldn't you bail?

I don't believe Harden ever "forced his way out" of OKC and was expecting to play the season in OKC. I do believe he even said he saw him self as the 6th man for his career.

If i recall correctly he was still a RFA that season as well, so there was even less incentive to trade him. OKC obviously didn't think Harden was on par with RW and KD and tried to sell high on him, which in itself is a move that can go either way, however where they really f* up was not turning those assets into something decent. Idk this but i think it directly lead to how they treated RJ, where they were scared to pull any trigger because of the harden fiasco , and thought that RJ , like harden would be happy in the 6th man, which he made clear he wasn't.

[mattao313]

Harden was traded because they didn't want to pay him.

[MrBigShot]

Maybe that played a part in Harden leaving too?

Harden was traded

From memory :

Durant took slightly less than the full max to stay

Westbrook too slightly less than the full max to stay

Ibaka too slightly less than full market value to stay

Harden refused to take slightly less to stay & forced a trade.

WHY?

While I admit we're just working on possible answers here I think the Thunder organisation has blown it twice!

In an effort to save dollars.

It's POSSIBLE that RJ & Harden both wanted out because they knew that they'd never be more than the 3rd/4th guy on a contender and that wasn't enough for them

In that case I believe the coach, their superstar team mates, the FO and ownership failed.

People wanna be appreciated & valued. No one can convince me that Reggie Jackson felt either in his last 6 months on that team.

And you can't tell me that they convinced Harden of it either - since he forced his way out.

It's not as simple as "they weren't allowed on the podium for interviews" - that's childish. But it could simply be a sign of the actual problem - not feeling the love!

Are you gonna go all out every day for people who don't care or appreciate or value you?

If you could leave that situation, get paid more AND feel valued, appreciated and loved wouldn't you bail?

WB got 5/80 mil, KD 5/86 mil, Harden got an offer for 4/55 mil so it was a little more than just slightly less. He didn't force his way to Houston. He was given an extension offer, refused, and was then dealt by OKC who decided they would rather deal him than lose him for nothing in free agency if he wasn't going to accept the offer they were willing to make (or later match)

We could discuss about the dynamics of OKC as a franchise, but the reality is that we have very, very little insight on the inner workings of how they run things in OKC and how their players feel about them as an organization.

Instead I'm just going to say that with Reggie he was never going to be happy in OKC because he had aspirations of being the starting PG of a team, and that wasn't going to happen with Westbrook on his team. Not much OKC could have done for him. I absolutely agree that Harden was under appreciated though. When you have a young core as talented as that, you don't break it up. You pay whatever it takes to keep it together. Had they not dealt him they may have a championship right now; not paying Harden is one of the worst moves in sports history. It would've been like GS refusing to pay Draymond last summer.

[Old Man Game]

WB got 5/80 mil, KD 5/86 mil, Harden got an offer for 4/55 mil so it was a little more than just slightly less. He didn't force his way to Houston. He was given an extension offer, refused, and was then dealt by OKC who decided they would rather deal him than lose him for nothing in free agency if he wasn't going to accept the offer they were willing to make (or later match)

We could discuss about the dynamics of OKC as a franchise, but the reality is that we have very, very little insight on the inner workings of how they run things in OKC and how their players feel about them as an organization.

Instead I'm just going to say that with Reggie he was never going to be happy in OKC because he had aspirations of being the starting PG of a team, and that wasn't going to happen with Westbrook on his team. Not much OKC could have done for him. I absolutely agree that Harden was under appreciated though. When you have a young core as talented as that, you don't break it up. You pay whatever it takes to keep it together. Had they not dealt him they may have a championship right now; not paying Harden is one of the worst moves in sports history. It would've been like GS refusing to pay Draymond last summer.

Agree with everything here (with possible exception of Thunder having a ring). Presti runs the team like the NSA and the local beat reporting is pretty bad. None of them appear to have any actual sources within the organization or if they do they don't report anything other than what's been approved for release (so for instance we get the story about Reggie intentionally sitting out a game he could have played just to pout or however you want to term it, but we only get that story AFTER Reggie's been dealt).

Lots of speculation though. Did Harden want to leave? Did he want to stay but just wanted all his money? Was Presti worried about the repeater tax and hadn't anticipated the increase in TV revenue that raised the cap and would have made the cap hit manageable? We probably won't know unless and until we get that tell all book.

[Blkbrd671]

Instead I'm just going to say that with Reggie he was never going to be happy in OKC because he had aspirations of being the starting PG of a team, and that wasn't going to happen with Westbrook on his team. Not much OKC could have done for him. I absolutely agree that Harden was under appreciated though. When you have a young core as talented as that, you don't break it up. You pay whatever it takes to keep it together. Had they not dealt him they may have a championship right now; not paying Harden is one of the worst moves in sports history. It would've been like GS refusing to pay Draymond last summer.

Perfect analogy. I still don't get what OKC was thinking, he was a RFA, so they could have exceeded the cap for another season to resign him and worry about dealing him later. I just don't think they thought he'd be that good.

[MrBigShot]

WB got 5/80 mil, KD 5/86 mil, Harden got an offer for 4/55 mil so it was a little more than just slightly less. He didn't force his way to Houston. He was given an extension offer, refused, and was then dealt by OKC who decided they would rather deal him than lose him for nothing in free agency if he wasn't going to accept the offer they were willing to make (or later match)

We could discuss about the dynamics of OKC as a franchise, but the reality is that we have very, very little insight on the inner workings of how they run things in OKC and how their players feel about them as an organization.

Instead I'm just going to say that with Reggie he was never going to be happy in OKC because he had aspirations of being the starting PG of a team, and that wasn't going to happen with Westbrook on his team. Not much OKC could have done for him. I absolutely agree that Harden was under appreciated though. When you have a young core as talented as that, you don't break it up. You pay whatever it takes to keep it together. Had they not dealt him they may have a championship right now; not paying Harden is one of the worst moves in sports history. It would've been like GS refusing to pay Draymond last summer.

Agree with everything here (with possible exception of Thunder having a ring). Presti runs the team like the NSA and the local beat reporting is pretty bad. None of them appear to have any actual sources within the organization or if they do they don't report anything other than what's been approved for release (so for instance we get the story about Reggie intentionally sitting out a game he could have played just to pout or however you want to term it, but we only get that story AFTER Reggie's been dealt).

Lots of speculation though. Did Harden want to leave? Did he want to stay but just wanted all his money? Was Presti worried about the repeater tax and hadn't anticipated the increase in TV revenue that raised the cap and would have made the cap hit manageable? We probably won't know unless and until we get that tell all book.

http://uproxx.com/dimemag/james-harden-says-hed-definitely-okc-money-wasnt-involved/

Harden said he would "Definitely. Definitely, no question." still be with OKC if money wasn't an issue, so we know the answer to that at this point.