Thunder: Harden for Kevin Martin

[Mal]

Sounds good against the likes of Miami, but how does OKC stop SA with Kenyon Martin or Birdmoron at C?

When you have Harde, Westbrick, Durant and Abaka, you simply dont watch over on SA and Splitter/Duncan duo.

[Spurs9]

It all ended, that Presti is a moron. He kept Westbrick, Abaka and Porkins over Harden. They could have sent Porkins + pick to any team with salary space, and sign Kenyon Martin or Birdman to play at C.

They wouldn't be much different either way, they obviously can't keep all of them. If it was Harden instead of Westbrook, they would be the same or worse. I hate Frogger as much as anyone, but he can score and brings energy when hes not chucking or being a mental midget. Getting rid of Abaka or Porkins probably wouldn't have shed enough salary, so its either Ninja Turtle or Osama who goes. KD would rather keep his boy Frogger than Harden.

Granted Thunder did own us 4 games in a row, where I considered them about at a peak with the players they had. Most of our bench didn't show us, including most of the roster outside the big 3 in those games. We continue to develop our guys with Splitter looking like a completely different player this year and bringing the force downlow with TD. All the other guys have made nice strides so I like our chances with any team this year assuming we are healthy. You can lol at us getting owned by Portland but we still have a deep team and the number one record.

[Raven]

You re-sign Harden at the max and amnesty Perkins. Problem solved.

This is a pretty intellectually dishonest take. Losing Harden is much, much bigger from a match up standpoint than losing Perkins against any team. Would Perkins defend Duncan better in the post...sure...but don't act like they had to keep Perkins solely for this reason. , they could move Collison to the starting lineup and sign Bird and Martin and they would have been fine as long as Harden was still on the team.

There is no slicing the Harden trade in any way that will make it look like something other than what it is...an extraordinarily stupid decision.

that's basically what they had to do, period.

[djohn2oo8]

They wouldn't be much different either way, they obviously can't keep all of them. If it was Harden instead of Westbrook, they would be the same or worse. I hate Frogger as much as anyone, but he can score and brings energy when hes not chucking or being a mental midget. Getting rid of Abaka or Porkins probably wouldn't have shed enough salary, so its either Ninja Turtle or Osama who goes. KD would rather keep his boy Frogger than Harden.

Granted Thunder did own us 4 games in a row, where I considered them about at a peak with the players they had. Most of our bench didn't show us, including most of the roster outside the big 3 in those games. We continue to develop our guys with Splitter looking like a completely different player this year and bringing the force downlow with TD. All the other guys have made nice strides so I like our chances with any team this year assuming we are healthy. You can lol at us getting owned by Portland but we still have a deep team and the number one record.

Go look at Perkins' contract.

[Spurs9]

Holy :

Perkins:
$8,477,437

Ibaka
$12,250,0

[KaiRMD1]

The problem was they didn't wait, if the Thunder had waited, Harden would have resigned and Thunder would be pretty unstoppable. Salary cap nothing, they got scared that Harden wouldn't resign and by the end of the season, they'd wind up losing Harden and getting nothing in return.

[Brazil]

still some posters here were filling the Harden is overrated threads everywhere and now the same with the afterwards ah ah ah told ya, Presti is crazy...

[Jeff Van Gundy]

And if no team was willing to take Perkins then he could have simply been amnestied and finding a big body who's mediocre at rebounding and does nothing on offense to play 15-20 MPG would not have been hard. The small ball lineup of Westbrook - Harden - Sefolosha - Durant - Perkins would have been close to the matchup nightmare Miami's Chalmers - Wade - Battier/Allen - Lebron - Bosh lineup is.

U mean ibaka?

[OKC]

Man there's NO doubt OKC would be more dangerous with Harden. Sucks, but what's done is done I guess. Any Thunder fan who think our chances are as good with Martin is a bit mistaken.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

U mean ibaka?

rofl yes

[freetiago]

Reports came out that Martin was a last ditch effort
they called Golden State looking at Klay Thompson first
then made the call for Beal from Washingston

cant believe the first 2 teams turned down those offers
and if OKC got either one of those they would be deadly
Klay/Beal are more athletic younger cheaper better versions of Kmart

and Harden is young and better then both of those 2 as well

[Budkin]

Got to be one of the worst trades of all time.

[whitemamba]

they couldnt afford him...martin is def not going to give them what harden gave them, but lets not forget the choke show that was james harden last year

[DMC]

This is something the Lakers never have to deal with. They can sign as many players as they want salary cap be damned while other teams have to get rid of star players after two years unless everyone agrees to take less. I mean right now they have Howard, Kobe, Nash, Ron Ron all paying them big money.

I have nothing against the haves and have not's, just don't sell me that the league is on a level playing field...im talking to you stern.

No, they don't. Other teams have the same right to keep star players. It's about their willingness to pay. The Lakers make a profit on winning so they have to pay a premium (imo, the CBA was all about getting more money from the Lakers' organization for the rest of the teams). Other teams won't make that same profit even if they won a ring every year for 10 years straight. Ergo they will not invest that heavily.

It's not about what other teams cannot do. Paul Allen can buy the Lakers if he wanted to. Surely he could pay a luxury tax. It's about profit margin. As long as you are rooting for a low margin team, you're going to get low margin results. You have to have low margin expectations.

[Fergie The Florists]

Should of traded/amnestied Perkins scrub ass
Resigned Harden
Traded westbrick for a center

[LnGrrrR]

Got to be one of the worst trades of all time.

Nah, unless you're talking top 20 or so.

[AaronY]

You re-sign Harden at the max and amnesty Perkins. Problem solved.

This is a pretty intellectually dishonest take. Losing Harden is much, much bigger from a match up standpoint than losing Perkins against any team. Would Perkins defend Duncan better in the post...sure...but don't act like they had to keep Perkins solely for this reason. , they could move Collison to the starting lineup and sign Bird and Martin and they would have been fine as long as Harden was still on the team.

There is no slicing the Harden trade in any way that will make it look like something other than what it is...an extraordinarily stupid decision.

It depends on the upcoming draft pick and Lamb if either of them develops into a legit player like Gasol's little brother did then I guess you retroactively defend it the way Memphis fans defend the Pau Gasol for Javaris Crittenton trade

[Double-Up]

The problem was they didn't wait, if the Thunder had waited, Harden would have resigned and Thunder would be pretty unstoppable. Salary cap nothing, they got scared that Harden wouldn't resign and by the end of the season, they'd wind up losing Harden and getting nothing in return.

They couldn't have lost him for nothing, he would have been a restricted free agent.

[UZER]

No, they don't. Other teams have the same right to keep star players. It's about their willingness to pay. The Lakers make a profit on winning so they have to pay a premium (imo, the CBA was all about getting more money from the Lakers' organization for the rest of the teams). Other teams won't make that same profit even if they won a ring every year for 10 years straight. Ergo they will not invest that heavily.

It's not about what other teams cannot do. Paul Allen can buy the Lakers if he wanted to. Surely he could pay a luxury tax. It's about profit margin. As long as you are rooting for a low margin team, you're going to get low margin results. You have to have low margin expectations.

A really fancy way of saying what I said.

[djohn2oo8]

they couldnt afford him...martin is def not going to give them what harden gave them, but lets not forget the choke show that was james harden last year

Harden was the reason they beat SA to get there.

[KaiRMD1]

They couldn't have lost him for nothing, he would have been a restricted free agent.

You and I know that but the team who traded Harden because he needed time before he decided to resign probably didn't judging by their trigger happy decision of trading Harden.

[Latarian Milton]

im still expecting jeremy lambo to justify the deal tbh

[td4mvp2k]

im still expecting jeremy lambo to justify the deal tbh

Okc still expecting kmart... but he wont cuz its kmart

[DMC]

A really fancy way of saying what I said.

No, you acted like other teams are too poor or are barred from doing what the Lakers do. They aren't. You even said the playing field isn't level and blamed Stern for the fact that other teams won't spend that money.

The fact is that you have to build a great fan base, and LA has done that. Other teams only wish they had part of that. The only bonus for other teams is that a large portion of LA's fan base is comprised of bandwagon fans who will jump ship if another team wins a ring. That's why teams who win a few get a larger fan base. They don't just get more people into watching it, they convert bangwagonners.

[UZER]

No, you acted like other teams are too poor or are barred from doing what the Lakers do. They aren't. You even said the playing field isn't level and blamed Stern for the fact that other teams won't spend that money.

The fact is that you have to build a great fan base, and LA has done that. Other teams only wish they had part of that. The only bonus for other teams is that a large portion of LA's fan base is comprised of bandwagon fans who will jump ship if another team wins a ring. That's why teams who win a few get a larger fan base. They don't just get more people into watching it, they convert bangwagonners.

Wow you are really trying too hard. You are still proving my point. But go ahead, keep typing away like you're the smartest guy in here.