I mean it really isn't hindsight being 20/20. At the time the trade went down we all called it re ed except thunderfans. You traded a max contract worthy player for Kevin Martin. LOL.
How appropriate it is, but the Thunder are truly the Sonics of the '90s. They'll be a legit, amazing team, but will never bring home a championship.
Harden isn't that amazing of a talent, but he worked so perfectly in that system. They'll be hard-pressed to find another person who can fill in that role that led them to the Finals, which I still believe was a combination of us choking in addition to OKC outplaying us. Mostly us choking.
Easy for an armchair fan to spend other people's money and make hindsight judgements. If any of us here think we have any idea what it's like to run an NBA franchise, I think we're fooling ourselves. The NBA is a business. Businesses make hit and miss decisions everyday. This was a miss. Presti didn't choose Ibaka over Harden. Presti had in his mind the dollar amount his business was willing to pay each player. He made those offers and let the chips fall.
Good stuff, O.
Those within the organization who actually have knowledge of the situation would tell you Ibaka was absolutely not a choice - he just inked a deal first. YOu have to understand Presti is very methodical in his approach, like it or not. He has a very methodical approach and sticks to it. However, the idea that he chose Ibaka over Harden is simply 100% inaccurate. He went into negotiations wanting both players, obviously. This was not a situation where he said..ok, I'm going to choose which player I value more, do whatever it takes to sign that guy, and deal with player #2 after that. That is an approach some GMs would take and that's just a difference in business practices. I truly believe Presti had a number on both guys, he was going to offer that figure to both players, timing being irrelevent, and see what happened. Call it stubborn if you will. That's just the way Presti is. He has financial considerations in running the franchise and I know it's easy for fans to scoff at a few million bucks and consider it insignificant to an NBA franchise, but he's a businessman and he puts pretty strict limitations on his contract negotiations. I understand the argument that Presti was $X away from inking Harden and it could've resulted in a much different outcome for OKC last year and the upcoming few years and that shipping Harden out to save this amount of money was stupid - I don't disagree with that. I do think it was a bad trade, but I do also have some respect for the way Presti operates, some sort of appreciation for the difficulty in juggling financial considerations which are much more complex than most of us realize, and sticking to his guns. I didn't like the outcome, but I can respect the way he operates.
Presti is as overrated as they come. And no he didn't pick Ibaka over Harden, he chose PERKINS over Harden when all he had to do was amnesty him. Then the dumbass bought into his own hype by giving Harden only hours to decide if he wanted to sign. Just as he picked Jeff Green who had no use there because Durant is the SF.
25/5/4 in his first season as a starter, with no training camp with the team, leading a McHale coached team to the playoffs. Yeah that's not that amazing.
What I'm trying to say is, he will never be the first option on a contending team. Harden is an ultimate companion player, but will never be considered more than a second or third option on a Finals winning team. He's too small, too streaky, and too inconsistent to be counted on for anything more than the sidekick role.
If the Rockets get a little more size they'll be taken more seriously in the west, but Harden is not that kind of player that can go into a system and become the leading option and find success.
^
I'm not going to defend Perkins. Getting him when they got him made a bit of sense, but he's no longer a very valuable piece to the puzzle. In fact, he's almost a liability. As far as "only giving Harden hours to decide"....James Harden had MONTHS to decide. He knew negotiations were coming up months in advance. James Harden wanted to run a James Harden show, period. I don't blame him a bit for that. More power to him. He deserves to be the alpha dog on a team. But this BS that Harden was shocked when Presti sent him packing after "just a few hours to decide" is complete horse . James Harden knew what he wanted and he got it. LIke I said, more power to him.
1.he's 6'5
2. 26/5/4 is pretty consistent
3. He found success this year as the leading option
4. You sound butthurt about the backdoor sweep
Thunder and Rockets executives give the same explanation for the timing of the trade four days prior to the Oct. 31 deadline for contract extensions: Houston needed a deal done on that Saturday, because Rockets officials felt that was the bare minimum to assure they could get their eventual five-year, $80 million deal with Harden into place.
Houston had been pressing hard to complete the trade on that Friday, but Thunder GM Sam Presti waited until Saturday to present his final offer with a 60-minute deadline to accept. Presti believed the Thunder would've lost leverage in potential trade packages if rivals weren't sure they could keep Harden off the restricted free-agent market next summer.
Presti could have just let him play out the year and be a restricted free agent and sign him to an extension this year. There was absolutely no reason to rush.
60 minute deadline...well yeah, but there was back and forth between Harden's agent and Presti for days. It's not like Presti out of the blue slapped a 60 minute offer on Harden's lap..not to mention Harden had months to ponder what he wanted. Come on. And yes..there was a rush. If you let Harden play the year out, maybe that's ok in that it gives the team much better odds at a le, but from a financial perspective, it's a bad idea. Why? Because Presti knew without a doubt Harden would get multiple max offer deals as a restricted free agent - deals that Presti could not and would not be able to match. If Presti couldn't sign an extension before the season started, Harden has no trade value whatsoever to OKC at the end of the season. He just walks and signs elsewhere.
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