Should have traded Aldridge for harden

Says who? We aren't dealing with the same caliber of player.

 

again, clearly OKC had come to the realization that they weren't going to be able to afford Durant Westbrook Ibaka and Harden... so obviously they wouldn't have been able to afford to add LA to their mix either. Congrats on being for a trade that never had a chance of happening

STOMP

 

Actually OKC is on record multiple times that they wanted to keep Harden for around 11.5 average a year for 4 years. They just weren't going to give him MAX. They tried multiple times to sign him before agreeing to the trade when Harden insisted he wouldn't sign for a penny less than MAX.

Now this isn't to say that we had any chance to get Harden but financially it would have been about a wash vs what they wanted to keep Harden for.

 

Harden is the 2nd best of that bunch. They could have made it work. Got rid of Westbrook.

 

so OKC was willing to go 46M over 4 seasons for Harden while LA is making 44M over 3 seasons. How is that a wash?

STOMP

 

Sure if they wanted to, but why would they? Would you? I thought you said Harden is better than LMA, so again, like we have discussed in 3 other threads, why would OKC trade Harden for another big contract when they could have kept him. They knew how good he was. They saw it every day. They got to the finals with him. So in the end it came down to.......... money.

Next year Kevin Martin is a free agent and they will resign him for about 8 million a year, if he walks then Jeremy Lamb gets his shot. Either way they would have been better with Harden. The dude is a stud. Everyone knows it. But they did not want to pay 14 million for another player. So why would they have traded for LMA?

And btw, I hate Westbrook, but he is a stud too. No way they get rid of him.

 

Harden > Westbrook.

 

Haven't read through this whole thread but the deal I saw most often proposed was Harden and Ibaka for LMA and an expiring (I believe Babbitt and a first was mentioned).

I not the one saying a deal was possible though. I am getting on King speed for saying you don't trade LMA for Harden period.

 

Not even OKC knew Harden would be this good. Arguably top 5 player already.

You better believe if they had it to do over they would look to see what they could getfor Westbrook first .

 

How could they not know. They saw him every day for 3 years. I said the year before he was traded that they should keep him at all costs. Even over Westbrook. But they believed otherwise. But that is besides the point. The point is they wanted to max out Durant and Westbrook and not a third player, and certainly not LMA over Harden.

 

Wait, you are saying that OKC knew Harden would be top 5 player already and they decided they didn't want that and would stick with a top 15 player instead when it would cost them the same amount roughly?

Even though I hate Westbrook he would be easy to trade even on MAX. They could have got a young player, some expirings and a number 1 from a number of teams.

No, OKC knew Harden was good but if you ask them right now they would say they never thought he would be this good this fast.

 

Maybe this thread should be about why Presti is not the god of GM's after all. Not sure why he fucked his team up. I was not the only one who said they should keep Harden at all costs. I can't answer your question but I thought it was obvious to all of us who watched Harden the last few years that he was going to be great.

 

Actually I should not blame Presti. I am sure he wanted to keep all three. I assume it was the owners that said no to three max players.

 

Aldridge makes Ibaka irrelevant, but mostly I think they felt that Westbrook and Harden were too similar. You can't have a max point guard AND a max shooting guard, when they both need the ball in their hands. It's been said before, but I would have traded Westbrook if I was in their shoes.

 

I agree. I was saying that Harden was going to be the next great thing and many on here scoffed at me. After awhile the only thing they could hang there hat on in hating on him was his lackluster performance in the Finals. He was 22 years old though, how many 22 year old even make it to the Finals as a key piece? I think the Artest elbow messed with his psyche a little bit for the rest of the Finals.

 

Last night Harden had the highest (for a game, not per minute in a game) ESPN efficiency of the season, 78.9.

http://espn.go.com/nba/gameleaders

And we could have had him for the small price of an Aldridge.

 

yeah... but similarly PDX could have had landed LeBron this offseason for the small price of Nolan Smith. Why why why don't they make the moves I'm advocating?

STOMP

 

Yeah, but STOMP are you saying that if you were presented with the option of:

Harden for Aldridge

or

Harden for Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb

You would choose the latter?

 

The problem is Perkins taking up so much of their cap.