James Harden has added the Blazers to his list

If you can get him while keeping Dame + Nurk, I don’t see how this is even debatable.

This is when you push all your chips in.

Im not the biggest Harden fan... but he helps solve almost all of our major issues.

he gets easy baskets (free throws)
He opens up the floor for Dame
Dame opens the floor for him as well
We have someone that can be an effective second ball handler and playmaker
Better on D and O than CJ

and if Stotts can pull his head out of his ass, u can actually play Dame off the ball more like Steph


And Nurk in the pnr with either is deadly

 

The thing is harden actually gets calls for some reason. Beard?

 

I agree with this 100%. Just look at what the Jazz did to dame last game. They cannot even try to do that with Harden on the court.

 

The Rum....

 

This is classic S2

 

I hear we have a drive through strip club here.

 

Bro i agree with ya most of the time but I have to say if you can get a player like Harden you simply have to try to do it. He makes the team better on the court. Off the court i have to trust the organization and the fans to hold players accountable. We have not had that problem certainly since Olshey, Stotts and Lillard have been around.
There is another concept also. Harden comes here and lets say doesn't work. They end up with his expiring contract and he becomes a huge asset on the books. If he comes here and it does work the Blazers become contenders. I say contenders because every team needs a bit of luck to get to the Conference Finals and beyond.

 

Ugh.

 

No way they'd take CJ, Zach and filler. At the very least they will want Nurk along with CJ.
Other teams in the east could offer more uless we involve Dame which we wont.

 

The question is does this give us a better chance at a championship? I believe it does. We’d have enough offense and we’ve improved our defense enough we’d be a title contender.

 

For CJ and Zach and scraps yes.
For CJ and Trent and scraps, yes but I’d feel a bit sick about it.
For CJ, Trent, and Zach I don’t think so.
For CJ and Nurk, no way.

Yes Harden is historic offensively, but he’s 31 and hugely duplicates Dame. There’s only one ball on offense. On defense it will seem like there are two balls... well yes it already seems like that.

 

What does harden gain by adding a team he doesn't want to go to? He wouldn't want his future team to have to give up more.

 

There’s are whole YouTube videos dedicated to answering this question.

 

Blazers fans always crying about how stars never wanna come to Portland. So naturally when one actually does, they don’t want him. Hah!

Seriously, when was the last time a superstar, in his prime, was like “yeah I’d go to Portland.” ? ?

 

We don't even know if houston would trade to us. But not trading anything but dame would be like the Barkley deal we turned down.

 

It’s interesting we are the only western conference team on his list(so far). I would think that would make us the last team on that list Hou would want to deal him to.

 

I think the only way Houston would consider Portland’s theoretical offer would be if Toronto didn’t wanna give up Siakam, Boston didn’t wanna give up Brown, and Philly didn’t wanna give up Simmons.

I don’t think Harden will end up somewhere he doesn’t wanna be. We see how toxic he is when he doesn’t get what he wants. You’d have to have a real good foundation (CULTURE) to take him on. He’s actually tanking his own value. That said, he’s still an elite player and I feel the blazers have the right environment to take him on.

 

Remember about a week ago when woj said this?

—
Several playoff-caliber teams in the Eastern and Western conferences have told ESPN that they are finding increased comfort in committing high-level trade assets in talks to acquire Harden. The Rockets have ongoing discussions on several fronts and have been communicating with Harden about those scenarios, sources said.

Several teams told ESPN that they are feeling less inhibited about trading for Harden without an assurance that he would re-sign once he can become a free agent in two years.
—-

What if Portland is one of those teams? Woj would never outright mention them, but the clues are there. I remember last year he hinted at a specific type of team trading for Whiteside and Portland checked all the boxes he was talking about. Then a week or so later he was a blazer.

 

They've already turned down Simmons... they wanted draft considerations with him, they want the same with Brown (which doesn't make a lot of sense for Ainge to do given age and current chemistry), I doubt Siakam is even good enough by himself so again the Rockets will be asking too much.

I just don't think anyone is going to give up a package that's better than CJ, Nurk and as many picks as we can throw at them. I personally would do that deal, see how it works out and if it doesn't get one of those players that Houston won't take without draft considerations but we would or a package like Brooklyn is offering.

 

I just can’t see Houston turning down Simmons. They’re not gonna get anyone better than that. Ainge is notoriously stingy when it comes to his own players. Siakam is a stud, I can’t see Houston turning him down either.

There’s a reason behind Harden expanding his list imo. Not sure if it’s more about the other teams on his list hesitating, or a team like Portland showing a willingness to do business, but we’ll see.