James Harden now has the Bucks and Heat among his preferred trade destinations, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic. Milwaukee and Miami join Brooklyn and Philadelphia as the top landing spots on Harden’s wish list.
As we observed on Tuesday when we wrote about Harden adding the Sixers to his list of preferred destinations, the Rockets are under no obligation to send the former MVP to one of the teams on his list, since he has multiple years left on his contract and doesn’t have the ability to veto trades. However, it’s possible those clubs would be more willing to offer significant packages for Harden if they know he wants to play for them.
Neither Milwaukee nor Miami looks like an ideal trade partner for Houston, however, given the Rockets’ asking price of an All-Star caliber player plus several young players and/or draft picks. Both the Bucks and Heat have traded away multiple future first-round picks and/or pick swaps, compromising their ability to build an offer heavy on draft assets.
As for potential centerpieces, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo would presumably be off the table in any deal with Miami, while Milwaukee obviously isn’t moving Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Bucks have other former All-Stars in Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday, but neither is on a particularly team-friendly contract — Middleton is owed $147MM over four years, while Holiday can reach free agency in 2021. Tyler Herro would be an intriguing target in any deal with the Heat, but has only played one season, so the Rockets would have to be awfully high on his potential to accept a package built around him.
The Nets and 76ers are still atop Harden’s wish list, according to Charania, who says the 31-year-old has been “resigned to the belief” that he can no longer compete for a championship in Houston.
However, Charania hears that the Rockets have no interest in a Brooklyn offer that doesn’t include Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving. A Sixers offer would likely have to include Ben Simmons, but new head coach Doc Rivers has “privately made clear” that he wants an opportunity to try to maximize the potential of the Simmons/Joel Embiid duo, Charania writes.
General manager Daryl Morey and the Philadelphia front office, having added sharpshooters Seth Curry and Danny Green to complement Simmons and Embiid, appear committed to keeping their two young stars for the time being.
Harden is currently going through the NBA’s coronavirus testing process and will have to register six negative tests before he’s cleared to practice with the Rockets. According to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle, Harden only requires three negative tests to begin individual workouts, and Charania suggests the superstar guard is expected to have a workout in front of team personnel soon.
According to Charania, Harden has “maintained a dialogue” with trusted Rockets assistant coach John Lucas, even as he has been non-communicative at times with the club’s front office.
Sooner or later they’ve gotta trade him. It’s that simple. The toxicity of this situation is gonna effect the entire franchise the longer it drags on. The Rockets will not get the superstar they seek. They’ve got to look at young second tier stars. Houston needs to refresh.
Explain the “toxicity” for me Lionel.
oh toxicity? harden literally demanded that they get another superstar to form a championship contender team many years ago. they did that and traded pat beverly and almost their whole roster for chris paul. then two years later, failing to get past the warriors, they decided to trade paul for westbrook since prob harden was not pleased with playing alongside paul. and now he made the rockets trade westbrook for wall after one season of west-harden duo just cuz they got swept by the lakers because of danuel house’s exclusion from da bubble due to a funny and dumb reason. now they got him wall, boogie, christian woods and still have house and pj and hes still unsatisfied. idk where hes gonna land cuz some teams arent willing to give up one of their current stars just for his contract. well maybe the heat trade robinson, onlyk ,nunn, herro, and like 3 or 4 future draft picks or soemthing like tat to satisfied the rockets and maybe the rockets could even add either danuel house or mclenmore into the trade to help the heat stock up from the loss of depth. idk depends on the rockets decision.
This stuff really upsets me. If you sign a guaranteed contract, what gives you the right to say that you don’t want to honor it anymore. It’s not like Houston lowballed him- he got a super max. They couldn’t give him any more. And it’s not like they haven’t tried adding talent around him either. There’s no way the club can recoups even 50% of his value going to these teams. And non-competing teams won’t trade for a guy who doesn’t want to be there.
How about a new approach- if a guy wants to be traded with guaranteed years on his contract, he can retain 50% or his salary and the team he’s leaving receives the other half. See how many players want to leave then.
This is prevalent in the league now where the top players are running the league.
NBPA would never allow that. Honestly as much as I don’t like Harden’s demand, his not wanting to be there is no different than if the team decided they didn’t want him and so they waived or cut him.
That said he has hurt his chances to end up with the best team, who can give the best deal. Teams know he wants out and that even keeping him hurts Houston. They’ll end up with less than they should, but very likely someone that offers better even though they aren’t a top contender.
Like New Orleans. Yeah Harden with Zion and Ingram would be a good team but not a champion. Because the parts like Reddick, Hart and Ball the Pelicans would give up would thin their bench. And those parts and a couple draft picks won’t help Houston build.
Some of the fault falls on the team. You can’t always do everything to please a player. They will think they are the only player that matters. Now Houston will end up trading him at a below market price just to get rid of him. All Houston fans should be angry he destroyed the franchise.
You do realize that now Fertitta is “destroying” this franchise by cutting costs?
If Lacob did the same I can imagine curry wanting out. Would you say then the same words you’re saying now?
This is all true except his contract is guaranteed for two more years. He gets paid if he gets cut
Yeah he gets paid, but your not realizing the Rockets didn’t do him a favor by giving him that contract (he could have gotten max money from any team because he earned that). The team can trade a player with years left on his contract for no reason at all, but the player can’t ask to be traded? That’s a real double standard. I don’t like Harden he is an ass and doing it wrong, but it all goes both ways.
When a player signs a guaranteed contract, the team is free to trade him whenever and wherever they want, correct?
Why is it that fans get upset when players want to leave, but not when teams sign a guy for years, and turn around and trade him? Blake Griffin signed a deal to be a “Clipper for life,” and six months later he was in Detroit. Where you also upset about that?
I guess the real question is, are players and teams equal partners, or not?
@jason I agree you. They are partners, which is why Harden’s approach was wrong. He dropped his return value. Maybe Brooklyn gives some value to take a 1 year shot and then turn around and trade Harden or Kyrie to recover some lost assets. But because of his approach he ensured that not only the Rockets don’t get fair value, but it may affect his next contract
Yeah Harden is not coming across as intelligent. He is more like Paul George than an intelligent individual.
I don’t think Harden’s approach was wrong at all, at least not initially. It’s been reported he went to the team and asked for trade way back in September, right after D’Antoni and Morey decided to quit (or, more likely, asked to leave).
But Fertitta didn’t say “OK – gimme six months and I’ll make it happen” he said “We’re going to contend!”, and then he brought in a rookie coach, a rookie GM, and traded away a very good wing player (Covington) for a draft pick.
At this point, Harden can tell he’s dealing with an idiot, right? So what does he do here? a) Accept his fate, squander 2 years of his career, or b) Force Fertitta to accept reality?
From where I sit, this is 100% on the owner. Not only did he make a series of cost cutting moves that made the team worse the last few years, he also refused to see the writing on the wall when his star players asked for a trade.
You’re making good points. Question is why everybody else seems to not see Fertitta’s behavior?
He was toying with Beard and Beastbrook saying that they are still in contending mode and minute later made some cost-cutting trades that weakend this team but still kept telling they gonna contest…
Insanity, stupidity or lies?
No wonder guy wants out.
Even the writers at HR have made fun of Fertitta. It’s a given, though he has been especially hurt by covid days being heavily involved in restaurants & such.
Were you someone else before Sanders? There are so many Rocket targets to dislike. I used to enjoy Harden’s ways but lost that.
If I pay you 10 bucks to go get me a ham sammy, are we partners?
Do we have a signed contract stating that we’re going to share in the revenue that we’ll mutually create? Do I agree to wear certain clothing and talk to the media at designated times as part of getting you your sandwich? Do you guarantee my payment, even if I get hurt on the way there or back? Do you get to use my name and image in your advertising?
You see the difference?
OK, so if I work in McDonald’s, I wear certain clothing, I talk to the clients at designated times, I get paid (workers compensation benefits) if injured at work and my image appears in a McDonald’s commercial, then McDonald’s and I are partners.
The relationship between teams and players is not symmetrical, as it is not in virtually any employer-employee situation. Teams trading players under contract is a regular situation, players under contract asking to be traded is not.
Players must have more rights than teams!
#FreeTheBeard
@Otogar – No, it’s not symmetrical. Players risk their health to make money; Team owners will be just as healthy tomorrow as they are today. Players pour every waking minute into basketball for 9ish months of the year; Team owners often run other businesses while they’re owning a team. Players have short careers with narrow windows in which to win a championship, a legacy defining moment; Team owners can last for decades, and no one really seems to care one way or the other if they win.
And so on.
Do players often request trades? No. It’s against the rules to publicly do so, and even more it can be damaging to a player’s career. But it’s not as if they’re not within their rights to say “I want to win a ring, and I can’t do it here because the owner is an idiot. Please trade me.”
And that’s what Harden did back in September. When the owner ignored his request, he started to make it a public spectacle to pressure the owner.
What would *YOU* do in this situation? Stay in Houston, risk a career ending injury, and go down in history as a great scorer who “couldn’t close the deal?” Or risk ruffling some feathers to get on a good team?
I mean, it’s not even a question.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t have any problem with Harden requesting a trade, if he feels this is the best thing for his career. But, by signing a contract, the player commits himself to “give his best services, as well as his loyalty, to the Team, and […] not to do anything that is materially detrimental or materially prejudicial to the best interests of the Team”. At the same time, he accepts (it is also explicitly stated in the contract, as I posted elsewhere) that he can be traded to other team.
Thus, when a team trades a player under contract, they are not “forcing” anything: they are doing something they have the right (by contract) to do. In contrast, when the player requests a trade, they are going against the letter of the contract. This is what I meant when I said the situation is not symmetrical.
No one forces a player to sign his contract. By doing so, they get an absurd amount of money (more than most people throughout their lives). In return, they have to accept that most of the time they can’t control their fate: they can be traded and (in principle) they cannot force a trade.
You cannot expect that both parties have the same rights, because the agreement they signed say otherwise. It’s as simple as that. So answering to your original question: No, teams and players are not equal partners. And it is written in the contract.
Do you share in the store revenue?
They’re not equal partners. One has a union for representation.
Yes you do, at least I did when I worked there 20 years ago. I got stock bonuses based on the store revenue.
It’s not the same thing obviously, but in the grand scheme of things Harden is still an employee not a partner.
Also, how do NBA players share in the revenue with their teams? They have a fixed salary, perhaps with some incentives based on achievement, just as most workers do.
Many salaries are set as a percentage of the cap, and the cap is set based on league revenue. And when there’s a revenue shortfall, player salaries are reduced. You can read about it in the cba FAQ.
But the point is that players and owners are partners, sharing league revenue.
OK, so tell me. If a player signs a 5-year contract and during its second year the league revenue rises a lot… Does he get part of that revenue increase? Because this is what partners usually do.
Yes and no. Yes if he’s a max player, no if he’s not.
But the veteran’s minimum, mid-level and mini mid-level, bi-annual exception, etc. are all set by the cap, and the cap is set by revenue. So, in the year the contract is signed, it’s based on shared revenue.
Yes, but even if the league increases its revenue, a certain player can perfectly earn less (or not earn anything at all) the next season, so he once more will not benefit from that extra revenue. The fact that the maximum and minimum salaries increase when the revenue increases doesn’t mean (as far as I see it) that players are partners, but rather that they work for a fair employer. Anyway, it seems we are not going to agree on this… :-)
i love seeing all this rocket drama. i just hope my Mavs are learning from all this. like he coach rick carlise retires or whatever. i would want to have luka and kp in the office and be like, “what coach and players do yall want”?
i do anything in my power to keep luka happy so he never leaves.
Keeping Harden happy got the Rockets here. To be fair Luka seems like he’s in the mold of Dirk and Duncan. A player that wants to stay in one city. But it’s early in his career, lots to play out.
i take that with a grain of salt though. KD, Russ, Kawai all said they wanted to finish their career in their thunder and spurs jersey. and they have all been on 3 different teams. i hope luka stays though, i think he can play a long time in the nba, he is not that athletics so his game wont diminish as much when he gets older
I like Luka, but he kinds of reminds me of Nash…as long as he doesn’t happen to have a bad back and a bad coach like D’Antoni he should be alright.
So reports Harden is partying in Vegas is true when he is supposed to be in training camp but makes up a lame excuse not to be there. Sounds like a real team player that everyone wants on their team. NOT
Miami for Herro, Nunn, Iguodala, and whatever picks they can give.
I wouldn’t want that as a heat fan. I’m probably in the minority, tho
As a Heat fan, I also don’t want to give up much for what is essentially a culture gamble with Harden.
nah its useless to waste their new first rounder this year, precious. he’d be a good option at the 4 so they could evenly matchup the lakers. hes bigger than crowder tho.
Haha. Please send me to a good team where I can play even less defense. Thanks.
I don’t like the Rockets but I hope they hold on and do the same as New Orleans. Sit him until a decent offer is offered. There is no reason for them to sell low and to take on a bad deal because Harden wants to leave, which is also totally fine by me.
Typically, I am on the players’ side when it comes to conttact disputes, but I hate the whole “sign a huge contract and request a trade shortly after” stuff.
I would like to see a team make a stand at some point and either:
a. Not trade the player, stick him on the the end of the bench, and let him rot there for two years.
b. Just say no trade is happening, play him as normal, and if he refuses/loafs around, suspend him w/o pay for conduct detrimental to the team.
c. Trade him to a non-preferred destination for a slight discount (similar to Paul George getting sent to OKC)
Totally agree with how ugly it’s gotten with some of the stars signing max deals and then refusing to honor them and demanding a trade to a top team. Problem is you can only suspend a healthy player for so long and teams that aren’t his preferred destination don’t want to give up assets for him since they know he doesn’t want to be there and won’t resign
Frankly if a team operates in spite that’s going to hurt them alot more than the player. Teams are businesses, they are supposed to operate for success and that means having a good culture and that means trying to obtain maximum assets.
They should add 3 more trade destinations tomorrow
Celtics
Nuggets
Clippers
No
No
No
Only team he has said yes to where he feels he won’t be the man is Brooklyn and Bucks
Sixers he’s betting it will be he and Simmons and he’ll be team leader. And Heat he thinks he’ll take from Butler
Celtics do a team lead deal.
Clippers belong to Kawahi
Nuggets are the Jokers team
What matters more is what team can afford to trade for him giving back a huge contact to the Rockets. Clippers would need to give up Paul George. Celtics did have a bad contract to trade but now its gone.
Nuggets do not have a bad contract to throw in.
I think the Celtics have a 29mil trade exception they can use. Not saying they would for Harden, but it’s an option
They can’t use it for Harden because Harden makes too much. Harden is at $41MM, too much for even the biggest TPE in history.
harden knows houston wont deal him to a west conference team. thats why he has only named eastern conference teams. at least he is being logical on that front
The league has a problem it must address, the ethics of these players “demanding a trade” is horrible! The optics for the NBA are a terrible. Makes it look like they endorse spoiled pre Madonna brats.
That just isn’t true, were you this butt-hurt when the Clippers did Blake wrong? If it’s a business it’s a business, it goes both ways, the players are the product and it’s great that they actually know their value in this league. Why are old white billionaires the only ones who get to tango when it takes two?
Thank you for making my point. I was going to say the same.
In the next CBA, the league needs to give players an option on the last year of their contract by default. And five year deals need to go.
Instead of fans crying about how players won’t honor contracts, they can cry about how their team drafted a superstar but couldn’t keep him.
And I won’t have to suffer thru anymore “two parties signed a contract but only one party has the right to force a trade” comment nonsense.
That would be perfect
The following is one of the clauses of the standard NBA contract: “The Team shall have the right to assign this Contract to any other NBA Team, and the Player agrees to accept such assignment and….”. I would post it in full, but I think you’ll get the idea. How can you talk of “nonsense” when the contract explicitly states that one party (the employer, remarkably!) has the right to “force a trade”?
@Otogar – nothing in that statement precludes a player from asking the team to assign his contract to another team.
The CBA has agreed to league rules which make *public* trade requests against the rules, but any player can privately request a trade at any time. If you read this site like I do, you see stories about this happening regularly.
Nothing precludes a player from asking it, indeed… but it’s not a right that has to be granted. In contrast, the team has the right to trade a player anytime they wish. One party has the right to “force” a trade, the other party can only ask and wait. So it’s not nonsense.
Except that, as a practical matter, players can be disruptive, their agents can leak unflattering news to the media, and they can play the game in a way that hurts morale. See Butler, Jimmy.
And teams can do all these things too when they want to try and ruin a player’s career. See Riley, Pat.
Also, appreciate the back and forth. Thank you.
The best team to get a trade done is Brooklyn with a collection of Dinwiddie, Levert, Allen, etc. and picks.
A sleeper team in terms of having the parts to get it done, though highly unlikely, is Charlotte. Can match salary with Rozier and Zeller. Give young players (Graham, Bridges, Washington, Martin twins) and picks.
I think a bigger sleeper pick would be Atlanta. They have a very nice collection of young talent and picks that could entice Houston. With the vets they just signed this offseason, minutes might not be available for all of their young wings. A package built around some combo of Hunter, Reddish, Huerter, Okongwu, Collins along with picks would be much better than anything the Bucks or Heat or even the Hornets could offer.
why would they wanna risk okongwu just for harden??? he could be the next bam abeyabo or giannis for the hawks. u rember hueter and collins turned out to be prety good even tho they were one of the worse teams. well now they already upgraded with bogdan, galllineri and rondo. so no need for harden for now.
Just for Harden?? The guy is a former MVP, not some 12 minute a night guy that averages 5 points and 2 boards.
As far as Okongwu goes, he could also be the next Thomas Robinson or Mo Bamba or any of the 30 big men drafted by the Warriors in the lottery over the years. Prospects very rarely reach their ceilings. These guys on Atlanta are not likely to turn into stars, because they are not even going to be starters on the team. Atlanta made that obvious when they signed Bogdanovic and Gallinari. Their starting 5 is Trae, Bogdan, Gallo, Collins, Capela. You could easily slot Bogdan as the 6th man with Harden in his place.
A very big part of what makes stars is opportunity and, barring injury, these guys do not have the opportunity. So even if Okongwu goes to Houston (or wherever) and becomes an All Star, there is no reason to believe he would have become the same player in Atlanta.
Harden is going to become the face of the next lock-out. I’m all for player empowerment, but this keeps happening, every year. They might as well just not guarantee the contracts like the NFL does. This is really going to become a labor issue sooner rather than later…
The NBA players union will never agree to give ownership total control, no matter how badly fans resent players for having leverage to force a trade now and then.
And the NFL probably won’t have that kind of control much longer either, if it makes you feel any better.
“Harden adds LA Lakers and Seattle Supersonics as other preferred landing spots, still confused why a deal can’t get done”
i think ben simmons for harden is on the table. if i were philly, i would of done the deal yesterday… i think teams are waiting on houston
Glad you ain’t Philly Bro! No way would I move Ben…even better neither will Morey!
Tick him off and trade him to a team like Cleveland where you could get a player like Kevin Love along with some extras and some draft picks. They have already proven that they are a team that will submit to player demands.
That scenario will never happen. He won’t report.
I don’t think he would be willing to forfeit $120+ million dollars. There are very few ways teams can get by without paying players, but if he doesn’t report, he doesn’t get paid. Stubbornness only goes so far.
Of course he could play the “I’m too hurt to play” card with a mysterious sprained ankle that never heals, but I don’t think that would happen.
Harden doesn’t necessarily demand things. He can just only go things as the hub of the team, or as the first option, like Morey promised him way back.
Like Harden calculates: if he takes the shot, the team’s offense has done its statistical best.
No NBA team will want to give up that much control. The Cavs are egotistical like everyone else.
Hate to be anti-Harden, I was supporting him when nobody neutral on this site was (it seemed like… maybe el don), but there’s not really anywhere else for him to go where he can do his thing like he’s used to.
All of a sudden h is game is boring and this thing where he is picking teams that are acceptable to be traded to… ARGH… such conceit. No, he won’t be a Cav, huck fim.
As a Heat fan, I don’t want this guy. He doesn’t have the championship DNA and would be a ball stopper. Plus a trade for him would cost Robinson, Herro, Precious and maybe Nunn plus a salary filler or two. That’s just too steep a price.
Heat trade Herro, Robinson, Precious, Nunn, Olynyk, Iggy, 2025 and 2027 picks.
Rockets trade James Harden.
Third team like a NY is added to take on Gordon’s contract for Miami’s pick 2023 pick and a pick swap.
This should work
link to tradenba.com
Works on the trade machine
Trade machine. LOL!
Harden is a culture gamble for the Heat.
Trade Machine also approved Harris, Scott, Korkmaz and a ‘21 pick swap for Harden.
u could add in ferguson instead of harris . could be thubyyle, korkmaz, scott, ferguson, curry, bradley, and three future draft picks for harden and house. dont know if tat were work
Houston is asking for Kevin Durant from the Nets, they are not trading Harden for a collection of bench players.
bench players?? man u kidding me. so if the nets refuse to take durant, call levert, dinwiddie, and allen benchplayers???? bruh their better than u think they are. dinwiddie went from a bust to the most improved player
Bucks should have waited instead of feeling pressured to get holiday!!!! Harden and giannis would have been perfect together.
I don’t know about that harden seems like a cancer and the Greek freak would of definitely wanted out of the bucks. I think Holiday is a perfect player to play with him
Absolutely correct. Giannis need support, not a guy like Harden who needs to dominate the ball.
I thought harden the freak didn’t like each other
Zip it, you are correct, as Giannis stated he wouldn’t pick harden for his all star team because he ‘wanted someone who would pass the ball..’
Beyond that, I don’t see how they mesh on the court. Both need the ball a LOT, and Giannis isn’t the best shooter, so i think he’d need to be more of a facilitator, and I don’t think that would work.
Plus after all the moves they’ve made the last few years, there’s not much in the way of draft picks or young talent (even developmental talent..) that Houston would want. Really, the only asset I think they would take is Middleton, who i strongly believe Giannis does not want to see go.
Sad how players can ruin a franchise . I get it it’s a two way relationship but both sides should deal with it professionally. If Harden boycotts playing then he should not be paid . He should respect his contract and let Houston front office deal with dealing him if the offer is right
How is Harden leaving ‘ruining’ the franchise? They’re going to get young players and picks when he gets traded, right?
And if the coaching staff and the front office know what they’re doing, they’ll be able to build a winner, right?
Bucks have Holiday a much better chemistry mix. They don’t need Harden drama. They need to concentrate on season and Giannis. Never work in Milwaukee. In Miami WHY ???? They are built with youth around a solid 2way vet Butler. Butler could never play with Harden. This is just Hilarious.
Rockets owner brought this on himself. He cleaned house or they all ran. Now he’s stuck with cleaning it up. Rockets have always catered to Harden a 1way player. Rockets made their own mess. You won’t get good value now. I’m not a Harden guy. Very few places I believe he can go. And why would you give up a lot. Knowing he could be gone in two yrs. Nets might be only place that can work.
Trading Giannis for Harden makes perfect sense.
For who? Lmao rockets have no picks and and injured John wall. Giannis will walk in a year if traded there
He’s not serious, just wants to rile you up. He knows better
Yeah that way when Giannis leaves for Golden State or the Heat, Houston would be left with nothing except some old beard hair in the drain that just won’t come out..
He’s going to the Grizzlies for some frozen hot dogs. Enjoy Memphis!
Miami and Milwaukee have the contracts to match up with harden. He matches up best going to Milwaukee or phili but phili would have to send one of their stars. If this was next year and Giannis/drew holiday are locked up it would be a no brained to send Middleton, Divincenzo and Lopez for both teams but Giannis wouldn’t be happy trading his friend Kris even if he got harden back ♂️
I wouldn’t even trade Middleton for Harden straight up
I think Houston holds onto Harden. It’s not like his value will go down he’s a top 10 player in the league possibly top 5 and that’s not going to change and when the season starts and he averages 35 points per game, 7 assists and 7 rebounds team will want him badly.
Bucks know they need to be a top 3 team in the league in order to keep Giannis so they might be interested. Sixers might pull the pin of the process but for now they will probably want to try see how the new coach and new players work, for once we have a bunch of good shooters and don’t have al Horford. I can’t see Miami being that interested because of the youth and the fact they just made the final, they will if it back. Nets will be interested and it’ll depend how Irving Durant and others work, if they aren’t a top 5 team in the east they will want to make a move.
I’d say hold him all the way to the deadline and see how desperate teams get unless you get an absolutely amazing offer. Either way with Wall Harden Wood and Cousins your probably going to make the playoffs and could suprise teams.
I think with Wall and Cousins. You have to load manage and be careful first yr. Especially Cousins I see his future as a backup. He can still be effective as 6-7 th man, spot starter. And can make 10-12 mill a yr. I would not rush them back. If I’m Rockets I move Harden and get all I can. Next yrs draft is deep. Two 1st rd picks can be two nice players. You could even trade into lottery. Rockets are old. Their star wants out. They really need to do things right now. Or they could be bad for awhile.
As a Heat fan, I never want to see James Harden anywhere near this organization. To match salaries, and make it close to worth doing, it would take about 6 guys, and the Heat would have to at least also get back PJ Tucker. I dont even want to consider it though b/c I dont want to have to watch James Harden play more than I already do
Agreed. Harden is a gamble when it comes to looking at him trying to fit into the Heat Culture. We’re talking about a ball hog that plays no defense. That does not fit into Miami. We mostly stopped getting guys like that ever since Pat Riley was forced into giving up Glen Rice instead of Billy Owens when he acquired Alonzo Mourning. I don’t recall any similar player like that on the Heat since then. Since then, all of our stars have been team players on offense, and could either play individual or team defense. Harden has not shown either since he became a star.
Of the current 4 teams (Miami, Milwaukee, Philly and Brooklyn), the Heat are the only one that isn’t desperate. Those other 3 teams have certain levels of desperation that could trigger them into a trade for Harden. Milwaukee is almost in the ‘desperate enough’ category to make this deal as a gesture to show Giannis that they’re trying to win a championship with him, so they can get him extended instead of losing him. I would be surprised if Brooklyn made the move too. Philly would probably be the closest to desperation like the Bucks to make a move, but even they aren’t likely.
why would harden fit with da bucks. holiday is a bette playmaker and its not worth it to trade middleton.