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Rockets are just sending a message that he's worth for $80 Million (5 years) by playing him 44 mins. and Harden also sends a message that he is worth it.
Harden with 37 points on 25 shots? Flip those numbers around for a Kobe statline
Rockets are just sending a message that he's worth for $80 Million (5 years) by playing him 44 mins. and Harden also sends a message that he is worth it.
Manu 0.2 doing work, tbh.
He is a very good player, they will regret letting that talent go this year! It will show.
Harden will put up numbers. He's the KD of the Houston Rockets...only with less help surrounding him. I hope the guy does well. I think people who aren't real familiar with who OKC has now are making the mistake of thinking this is a simple Harden for Martin swap. They come to the conclusion (rightfully so) that Harden is the better player and thus OKC is going to be worse off now. It's really not a Harden for Martin swap here. It's not the OKC Thunder of last year with Martin in the game where Harden would have been. THe whole dynamic of the team has changed now. Martin is fully capable of filling the void Harden leaves offensively. Lineups will change, strategies will change, but the end results could very well be the same given the additions to the team. Some are saying it could be a blessing in disguise in that this will force Brooks to be more creative and change things up. He's been stubborn in the past with lineups, which frustrated many. Martin can and will score the points...but he won't be quite the playmaker Harden was. This is where Brooks has to adjust and improvise. Bottom line is - I don't think any of us can really knock Presti for any moves he's made just yet. His track record is pretty remarkable. Now is this one comes back to bite us, I'll curse it too, but I'm not quite ready to make my judgement. I like our chances for now.
westbrook is going to have to improve if thunder do anything
Only MJ Bird and Wade have ever had the startline Harden put up today, impressive debut, you can tell he's watched film of manu, I watched that whole game today and he honestly reminded me of Manu with his drives, passes and dribble moves
Manu could probably have done the same thing if he had left as a free agent for his own team. Instead he chose staying here over personal accolades.
Awesome game but it was against DET
I'm a believer when he does it against Miami, Boston or Chicago.
He looked like a max player in game one, and he and Lin looked like a killer backcourt, but I'm not convinced they weren't playing a CBA-caliber team. Good for him and the Rockets if they can keep it up.
Presti is for sure a talented GM, but like many of the younger GMs he is probably a bit to decisive. till now he did the right moves and he did them quick. this might have made him a bit arrogant. some years ago Kevin Pritchard was the talk of the NBA. and some more years ago it was Colangelo. but at some point those guys started to make mistakes and blew up what they built before.
I think the Harden trade will go down as the turning point in Presti's career. don't get me wrong, I don't wish this for him. but this move will look very ugly in some months.
Westbrook will never be a championship PG, his limits will be even more on display whithout the playmaking of Harden. Kevin Martin will become what Richard Jefferson was for the Spurs. big expectations and you will soon find out that nice numbers on bad teams are a fluke. you will get some 12 PPG from him, along with horrible defense and no playmaking or passing or creating for others. sorry to say it that harsh, but I like your chance for now as well. b/c it just eliminated a contender for us.
Only time will tell. Martin's a ballplayer. Yeah he played on crappy teams, but he surely has been the focus of opposing defenses his whole career given the fact that he has never played with anyone of much offensive power as a teammate an still put up anywhere from 18-24ppg. I don't know how you could call the numbers he put up for 8 years a fluke. His defenseI realize is not a strong suit, but McHale claims he's much improved so we'll see. Like I said, only time will tell, but I don't see how you could doubt his ability as an offensive scorer.
I still think this is going to be considered the worst trade in Thunder history for a long time. The facts are pretty much:
Harden was the one guy on their team who had the most potential to get better.
They already got to the Finals, and as they were growing, should've been even better this year.
There was no reason to have a flexible salary when you already have everything you need already on the team. You can add guys for MLEs or stock late in the draft. (Plus we all know they won't be signing any big free agents anyway).
There's literally no increase in team ability or potential whatsoever. The only positive the move had was that it saved money.
100% money decision. 0% basketball decision. Because the trade did not improve the team. The potential is also lower, not higher, even with Lamb and the two draft picks which won't be as good as people seem to think. Teams don't tank for you when they trade away their draft picks.
You don't know the half of it. Have you looked at the thunder forum? They're all in 100% agreement that it was a great decision, and even think Harden is a ballhog and a chucker.
. . .despite shooting more efficiently than Westbrook or Durant, and having a better FGA/AST ratio or PTS/AST ratio than either of those guys.
They think the trade is fantastic too, because they believe the teams who traded their draft picks away will tank for them so the Thunder can get a great pick out of it. lol. They also think K-Mart is an all star who will put up better numbers in OKC than he did playing for an annual loser and stat padding with almost no one else taking shots on the Rockets. They also think K-Mart is better than Harden.
Completely clueless. . .
As much as people downplaying Kevin Martin abilities he's pretty good when he plays against us. He averaged like 18 last season but I think like 25 against us. We don't really have any players that can defend him well. Our best wing defenders Green and Leonard are bad at handling guys who play of the ball as well as he does.
Rockets fans accepting high fives now.
Man, I fall more in love with this trade as time passes. Putting more on Westchuck's plate is great news for the Spurs. Parker defends him as well as any player defends him in the NBA. On top of that, Westchuck is incapable of consistently making good decisions. It's just not going to happen. Don't get me wrong, the kid is a great player ... but he's going to make a lot of mistakes when he's asked to shoulder a huge load. And now without Harden, the Thunder have no alternative other than ask Westchuck to shoulder a huge load.
Harden was OKC's basketball IQ. Maybe they have enough raw talent to overcome losing him but that uncertainty opens the door back up for the Spurs.
Thank you, Sam Presti.
Totally agree. Sam Presti is undoubtedly a very good GM and has done an amazing job at OKC, but he has been too trigger happy and sooner or later he'll start making mistakes, such as the Harden trade IMO. He has had a lot cap space, he's had a lot of high picks and all of his best players were on rookie contracts and these cir stances certainly make trades much easier, however, now that he'll have to handle a very different situation cap-wise this trigger happy mentality could be his downfall. That said, I'm sure he wasn't happy about the Harden trade, clearly being a financial and not a basketball one.
His trigger-happy nature resulted in Kendrick Perkins receiving a big extension before he even suited up in a Thunder jersey - and giving Ibaka the big extension before James Harden.
Don't forget Eric Maynor. Part of the reason Harden was able to break out more last season was they were missing Eric Maynor. He was their most natural point guard.Man, I fall more in love with this trade as time passes. Putting more on Westchuck's plate is great news for the Spurs. Parker defends him as well as any player defends him in the NBA. On top of that, Westchuck is incapable of consistently making good decisions. It's just not going to happen. Don't get me wrong, the kid is a great player ... but he's going to make a lot of mistakes when he's asked to shoulder a huge load. And now without Harden, the Thunder have no alternative other than ask Westchuck to shoulder a huge load.
Harden was OKC's basketball IQ. Maybe they have enough raw talent to overcome losing him but that uncertainty opens the door back up for the Spurs.
Thank you, Sam Presti.
In the month of December, James Harden just averaged 27 points, 5.2 assists, 2 steals, shot almost 40% from three and got to the line 11 times per game.
Anyone else want to second guess that max contract?
Eventually the fans will get tired of foul-fests and the league will allow tighter defense. Then ref-dependent players like Durant, Melo, and Harden won't look nearly so good.
That said, trading for Harden was absolutely the right move for Houston.
Perkins helped them get by the Lakers so he served his purpose.
thanks Presti
The gift that keeps on giving.
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