I wouldn't take Westbrook's camp's word for what the Thunder would have done. Again Westbrook signed for more than any other team could offer him, Harden just wanted what he would have gotten from every team with cap space.
Both got more than they could have gotten anywhere else. Durant did a solid for the team by waiving his option, but both signed for the absolute most they could at the time they put their names on the contract.
Right, Harden was already sacrificing more than anyone on the team by playing a reduced role than what most around the league project he could. You want him to give up money in addition to that, seems unreasonable.
Simmons also reports that Harden did consider taking the lesser offer as long as it had a 15% trade kicker(so he can recoup lost money if the Thunder traded him). The Thunder's reluctance to do so makes me question their commitment to keeping Harden long term.
You're the one that implied JJ took money over winning
And the Thunder chose money over winning as well. All the players salaries contribute to the tax not just Harden's so it's unfair to put the burden on him. Perhaps the penalties wouldn't have been so bad had they not overpaid Perkins to the point of him being an amnesty candidate.
Your implication earlier in the thread was that Harden should just sign since it was only a few million less(easy for you to say), when now he just signed a contract worth 20million more than what he was asking to stay with the Thunder and his next contract will be based on the one he just signed(assuming he retains his value).
I didn't say he wouldn't get a max deal somewhere else, that's why he refused OKC's offer. I said he chose that over being on a title contender.
the Suns may have been a contender or may not, but they were better than the Hawks at that time they just weren't willing to offer Johnson as much. He hasn't been on terrible Hawk teams but he had a better chance to NOW if he'd stayed with the Suns.
Again how is Harden "sacrificing" anything if he stays with OKC in terms of basketball? he's not playing more minutes because he's on a team that's good enough he doesn't get those minutes. they're not keeping him on the bench to be mean to him, he's simply not good enough to take minutes away from Westbrook, Durant and even bury Sefalosha on the bench. The best thing for the team was to use him the way they were using him, the goal was to win games, not pad James Harden's stats.
Now if OKC said during the negotiations look you're not even scoring 20PPG etc, then I'd feel differently but at least for now nothing of that sort has come out. That's why I always hated arbitration in baseball. A team is forced to spend days beating the crap out of a player about what he can't do trying to get the arbitrator to rule in the teams favor. No matter who wins, the team loses because the player is still mad about what they said to the arbitrator. If OKC was doing that to Harden then I'd be more mad at them.
So far he hasn't said anything to suggest that was true, he knew they wanted him, he knew they valued him greatly, enough to guarantee they'd go into the luxury tax with the offer they made, it just wasn't as much as he wanted.
He got an average of 16 million per, turned down 13.25, so he got 2.75 more per year, plus an extra year. That's about what I said just slightly more he wanted about 15 million per from OKC, and got 16 from Houston.
harden's a very good player, Houston flat out overpaid him. If OKC had given him the 4 year max they would have overpaid him too.
Yes it will hurt OKC on the court right now, and yes they overpaid Perkins but doing it again serves what purpose?. The day the Lakers got Howard, unfortunately Perkins became more valuable to them.
IN a sense if Harden wants to blame anybody blame the lakers. If they don't get Howard, OKC probably amnesties Perkins and gives him his max deal. But James Harden can't guard Dwight Howard.
All I can say is 5 years from now if I read an article saying Harden wants to sign with XX because he wants a chance to win a title, my first thought will be should have taken that offer from OKC you might have 1 or more by now.
