The super Harden to Portland thread + The Big Blockbuster

Pretty close except Harden is averaging more than double the assists and more than double the trips to the FT line. Those are fairly significant differences. CJ has closed the gap....but it is still quite a chasm IMO.

 

The question - will Harden get the ref treatment in Portland? Because historically.... no.

 

If a team is winning at a high level, they usually get that treament. Portland doesn't get it because so often are they middle of the pack. Add Harden (or not) and start playing .667 basketball, and watch us start to get more calls in either situation. Maybe not to the level of LeBron, but he has won multiple rings and is in the 2nd biggest market in the league. Those things matter.

 

I’d still trade CJ+ for Harden. I’d have a much more hard time giving up a lot of future draft capital than players though, anyone worried about including a Zach or Trent in a trade for a Top 8 NBA player is being a homer imo.

 

I’d still trade CJ+ for Harden, easily.

 

I agree... it could fail, but it has a lot of upside as well. Dame's leadership abilities have been strong to this point, so you roll the dice that he can work with Harden as well.

We need multiple all-NBA players to be a real title contender.

 

I want to win a championship. So no I'm not worried about trading Zach or Trent being a homer.

 

You all know that if a trade centered on CJ for Harden was going to happen, it would have happened by now, right?

 

I don't care how well CJ is playing, I still think it takes him and Nurk to get Harden here. The only thing I think CJ's play could get us out of is having to give up an enormous amount of draft picks.

 

I don't think this trade was likely to ever happen because I don't see why Houston would do this deal.

However, situations and player values do change in this league.

 

The best bet of making a trade that will vault this team is Draymond - as much as I want Harden in Portland, getting him will cost at least CJ/Nurk.

Draymond won’t be cheap either but we wouldn’t have to gut the entire roster to land him like Neil would have to do to land Harden.

 

I wonder if NO is waiting for Houston to consider his offer of Simons/Trent/Collins/3 picks as Harden's value has been plummeting lately.

Dame/Harden
CJ/Hood
Harden/DJJ
Covington/Melo
Nurkic/Kanter

 

With what we are seeing from both Nurk and CJ I don’t trade both for Harden.
Nope not with the way the defense is starting to come together. No way.
Defense wins in the playoffs. We all agree on that. You have to be able to lock down when it counts. This team might actually get to that point.

 

CJ is too small to play small forward. I think he's only 6' 3".

 

You can’t have CJ, Melo, and Harden on the same team without forming a supermassive black hole, the largest of all black holes.

 

It drives me up the fucking wall that other teams can ride and slap dame and we barely breath on their player and it’s a foul.

 

TRADE MACHINE APPROVED

Portland / Golden State / Houston
3-team trade

Portland receives:
James Harden / Draymond Green / Timberwolves (top 3 protected) #1 2021 pick, now held by GS

Golden State receives:
Nurkic / CJ / RoCo

Houston receives:
Wiggins / Little / Looney / two #1 Warrior picks and one #1 pick of Portland

Houston get (3) #1 picks

Trailblazer lineup:

Dame / Simmons
Harden / Trent / Elleby
D. Jones / Hood / Blevins
Green / Melo / Sign a FA
Kanter / Giles / (Collins) / Sign a FA

+ Timberwolves #1 to pursue PF or Center if Collins plays PF

 

Harden would play SF and Harden is not too small. I saw the guy in person up close. He's huge.

 

Golden State isn't giving up Green, Wiggins, Looney and three #1 picks, including Minnesota's incredibly valuable one, for Nurkic, CJ and Covington. They wouldn't even consider that for a moment.

 

I think that they would or I wouldn’t have spent an hour putting that together

They’d be happy to get rid of Wiggins, Draymond is an expensive contract and won’t help them win a title this year...and draft picks are overrated. The Timberwolves pick will wind up being 4-8 and if they roll a 1,2 or 3, Timberwolves keep it.

add Nurkic, CJ and RoCo to Curry, Ounbre and Wiseman and bring back Thompson next year....that’s a tough squad!