OKC trades James Harden

[PUU]

Jeremy Lamb was the piece OKC was after. I think they were tired of Harden. Locker room cancer maybe, same with Ray in Boston? Time will tell.

That may be true, maybe he didn’t want to be the 3rd option for OKC anymore and now that he is with HOU, he will be their number 1 guy? I don’t know if he was beefin with one of his teammates like Ray was with Rondo, it seemed he was cool with his teammates especially with Westbrook and Durant. I think it was more of a money issue because he wanted a MAX contract but the offer OKC proposed was short of that so I guess he wasn’t willing to make that sacrifice for the team:shrug:. But like you said sooner or later we will find out more to why this happened…

Rockets in the short term, it's a toss up for the long term. Harden was worth more then any of the players OKC got. But if they can get some really good draft picks it might be worth it later. Still not a big fan of this move.

That’s what I’m saying; those picks could turn out to be some solid players. I agree, there is no doubt that Harden was the most valuable player in the trade but with the addition of Jeremy Lamb, 2 future 1st round picks and a 2nd round that could be future solid players, and imo OKC got the biggest 2012 NBA draft steal in Perry Jones… the OKC Thunder’s future is looking bright if those players have positive development.

I was REALLY surprised OKC decided to trade him this early. They could have waited until the summer to make a decision (seeing as he's a restricted free agent), while using this season to make a run with what the same core as last year. Still, Sam Presti would do this type of thing.

For OKC, it's too early to say whether this is a good deal or not. Martin is definitely not on Harden's level but he's the same type of player and he can fill a similar role. I think people may be overreacting to Harden being gone. Don't get me wrong, he was a key player for that team, but Kevin Martin is good enough that he can offer 16-18 ppg this season, similar to Harden's production last year, albeit with less efficiency. Not only that, but the Thunder still do have a Kevin Durant and a Russell Westbrook in their primes. Making this trade gives the Thunder cap room flexbility in not giving Harden the big money deal on top of Westbrook/Durant/Ibaka's contracts, and also continues to build for the future in getting Jeremy Lamb (picked just outside of the top 10 picks in this year's draft) and two solid mid-first round picks. That's the way the Thunder likes to do things, and it worked in their favor with the Jeff Green deal. Hopefully, it'll work out the same way with this trade too lol.

As for Houston, they made an f'in great trade. Yes, Jeremy Lamb was a really good prospect. Yes, they needed Kevin Martin's perimeter scoring this year. However, they traded those two for one player who is both a really good prospect and a really good perimeter scorer, one who offers more of both of those things than the two players they shipped out. It hurts that they already gave out big money to Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik and will now have to give big money to James Harden, but Houston definitely needed that star player and it's too late to do anything about Lin/Asik now. Financially, it makes a bad situation worse, but I see it as making the best of a bad situation. Great trade for them, although they will still struggle to make the playoffs this year because of overall inexperience and also the strength of the Western Conference.

As for the winner of this trade, I'm going to take a gamble and say OKC. They lost a surefire stud so that they can bet on Kevin Martin for the short-term and Jeremy Lamb for the long-term. It hurts, but the financial ramifications of the trade are great for OKC and it's the kind of deal that can let them sign that perfect free agent after Kevin Martin's $10 million contract expires after this year. The youth is an added side bonus. And of course, we still know OKC will be up there as one of the best in the West even after the trade. While Houston got a young star, it prevents them from continuing to build, and short-term, they will struggle. They have a lot of prospects they could develop nicely for them, but that's all they can rely on now. There's too much uncertainty remaining with the Rockets to say they won, although they did make a good deal considering what they had to work with.

In my honest opinion, I don’t know if the OKC Thunder could beat a healthy LAL this year if they were to meet in the playoffs. Before this trade I thought OKC would beat them if they were to play each other in a 7 game series but now I don’t know because the Thunder lost arguably their best distributor on the team. I think this trade will benefit the Thunder in the future but in this upcoming year they might not have enough to make it to the finals and win it.

But you see, even if Kevin Martin averages the same amount of points that Harden averaged, his production/importance still wouldn’t be similar to Harden’s imo. Harden on numerous occasions hit big shots for OKC plus he was probably their best distributor which I don’t really see Martin filling in that role. Westbrook is a scoring PG but he needs to do a better job feeding other players especially Durant because they aren’t going have Harden to do that for them anymore. I agree with you on the OKC’s future part which is why for now I think OKC received the better deal.

I don’t know what the f*ck the Rockets was thinking paying all of that money to Lin and Osik. Lin isn’t a bum, he is actually a solid player who can improve but I don’t think they should of paid him that much. And as far as signing Omar Asik to a 3 year, $25.1 million dollar contract… no comment.:|

I think HOU showed that their mindset is winning now, they overpaid some players and basically gave away some of their future. Time will tell who the definitive winner in this trade will be but for now I am going with OKC.

BTW, nice avatar

 

[Killer Vision]

Just woke up to find out about this crazy shit. The trade was between them and the Houston Rockets; OKC recieved Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, 2 first round picks and a second-round pick while the Rockets recieved James Harden, Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward.

You can get more details in the link below.
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Who do you think received the better deal?

with all due respect to kevin martin, the OKC doesnt need another scorer in that roster.
i think Harden's game complements durant and westbrook chemistry.

huge blow for the OKC now and its solid future core with the lost of Harden.

 

[THEwildcat]

In my honest opinion, I don’t know if the OKC Thunder could beat a healthy LAL this year if they were to meet in the playoffs. Before this trade I thought OKC would beat them if they were to play each other in a 7 game series but now I don’t know because the Thunder lost arguably their best distributor on the team. I think this trade will benefit the Thunder in the future but in this upcoming year they might not have enough to make it to the finals and win it.

But you see, even if Kevin Martin averages the same amount of points that Harden averaged, his production/importance still wouldn’t be similar to Harden’s imo. Harden on numerous occasions hit big shots for OKC plus he was probably their best distributor which I don’t really see Martin filling in that role. Westbrook is a scoring PG but he needs to do a better job feeding other players especially Durant because they aren’t going have Harden to do that for them anymore. I agree with you on the OKC’s future part which is why for now I think OKC received the better deal.

I don’t know what the f*ck the Rockets was thinking paying all of that money to Lin and Osik. Lin isn’t a bum, he is actually a solid player who can improve but I don’t think they should of paid him that much. And as far as signing Omar Asik to a 3 year, $25.1 million dollar contract… no comment.:|

I think HOU showed that their mindset is winning now, they overpaid some players and basically gave away some of their future. Time will tell who the definitive winner in this trade will be but for now I am going with OKC.

BTW, nice avatar

Yeah, Harden was def the Thunder's best distributor and a key clutch player. But even if he was the best, they still have good/great distributors in Westbrook/Durant, and they will do fine since both of them can create their own shot and can come up in the clutch. Teams will still have to apply defensive pressure to Martin as the third scorer mostly the same way they had to do to Harden, and that will serve its purpose in giving Westbrook/Durant more space to operate. I'm more concerned about Martin not being as efficient or as good a defender as Harden, honestly.

As for the Lakers, you're right, this puts both teams on more level ground, since a lot of what the Thunder had going for them was familiarity and continuity. Apart from that, though, the matchup is still similar on paper, so hopefully the Thunder can beat the Lakers whenever they play because I f'n hate the Lakers.

And yeah, LeBron is that dude right?