James Harden Traded to Houston

[Phrazbit]

I agree he's someone to build around and I agree we won't likely find one soon. Our only real sticking point is that I think a roster of Harden and no one else is even worse than where we are right now.

Steve

I was in the same boat with you, I wouldnt have wanted us to give up an unprotected 1st for him. But I think Harden and little else is a lot better than where we are right now.

IMO, we have nothing that cannot be relatively easily replaced. The only above average starter is Dragic and he wouldnt have been in the potential trade.

I would have poo poo'd on it at the time, but if a trade of our pick (probably only top 3 protected) Gortat, Dudley and the Minnesota pick (which looked like the better of the outside picks we acquired) could have been reached... it would have been a sweet deal for both teams and I do think thats as good as what Houston offered.

But obviously thats totally in retrospect.

 

[JCSunsfan]

In hindsight, an unprotected pick would have been just fine. At worst it would have been essentially Shabazz, McLemore, or Noel for Harden. I do any of those deals in a heartbeat.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I was in the same boat with you, I wouldnt have wanted us to give up an unprotected 1st for him. But I think Harden and little else is a lot better than where we are right now.

IMO, we have nothing that cannot be relatively easily replaced. The only above average starter is Dragic and he wouldnt have been in the potential trade.

I would have poo poo'd on it at the time, but if a trade of our pick (probably only top 3 protected) Gortat, Dudley and the Minnesota pick (which looked like the better of the outside picks we acquired) could have been reached... it would have been a sweet deal for both teams and I do think thats as good as what Houston offered.

But obviously thats totally in retrospect.

In retrospect I'd have probably gone that far too but I'm still not sure it would have landed us Harden. Who am I kidding, in retrospect, I'd probably have given up our entire roster for an under contract Harden. But, I think they would have wanted our entire roster plus our picks too. Let's face it, this roster isn't all that impressive. At the time of the trade though I held Gortat in much higher value than I do today. And now that I think about it, I'm not sure that OKC would choose our entire roster over Martin.

Steve

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Let's face it, this roster isn't all that impressive.

Understatement of the century.

We have 2 legit NBA starters, and a bunch of NBA bench players.

 

[Neo]

Understatement of the century.

We have 2 legit NBA starters, and a bunch of NBA bench players.

We also don't have anyone with star potential. We have a couple of projects who MIGHT turn into solid players and everyone else is at or past their prime.

 

[Phrazbit]

In retrospect I'd have probably gone that far too but I'm still not sure it would have landed us Harden. Who am I kidding, in retrospect, I'd probably have given up our entire roster for an under contract Harden. But, I think they would have wanted our entire roster plus our picks too. Let's face it, this roster isn't all that impressive. At the time of the trade though I held Gortat in much higher value than I do today. And now that I think about it, I'm not sure that OKC would choose our entire roster over Martin.

Steve

I'm 100% not sure it would have either, but I do think it beats out Houston's offer on paper.

OKC got Martin, starting quality SG and nice expiring, Lamb a recent lotto pick, the Toronto pick which will likely fall between 8th-12th, and a highly protected pick Dallas owned.

An offer of Gortat, who at the start of the year looked like an enormous upgrade over Perkins and Thabeet, Dudley, who would bring about 80% of what Martin does, our own pick which would be slightly more appealing than the Toronto pick, and the Minnesota pick. We also provide the cap relief of taking Perkins contract back.

I think thats better than the Houston offer. However, its quite a bit of retrospect and hypocrisy for me to be saying all this because I would pretty ticked at the moment of consummation. Thats basically every asset positive asset we had at the start of the year going over to OKC.

But a roster of...

Dragic/Telfair/Marshall
Harden/Brown
Tucker/Measley
Scola/Morris
Perkins/O'Neal

Thats not terrible. If Harden and Dragic could find a grove like Lin and Harden have, its probably a team that spends most of the year hovering around .500.

It would be another year before we could really build onto it because of our lack of cap space and draft picks but its much more appetizing than where we are now.

Oh well... cant do anything but mope about it now. Hopefully the coin gets flipped again, we end up getting McLemore or Shabazz or Indiana guy whos name I cant pronounce or remember with the 1st or 2nd pick, he ends up being a legit superstar, giving us a big time stud and cap space to work with... and we sit back and say "thank god we didnt go all in for Harden".