OKC Thunder trade James Harden to Houston
 

Jim Presti pulls a Pioli :evil:

Link

There's already a thread.

It's Sam Presti.

It's far from a Pioli.

Kill yourself.

He had no choice. Shooting G's are way easier to find than big defenders. Two 1st round picks in return is great compensation.

But honestly, being from OKC, I've never seen such whiney fans. Maybe it's because OU got their shit rocked, but my God. People in Oklahoma are calling Harden greedy and selfish because he wouldn't stay in OKC.

Really? A guy gets his dream shot to start, plus he's leaving a podonk town for Houston with millions more in his pocket?

ROFL

I still like Harden. I think it's more about wanting to be the guy than money. I'm honestly not sure he's good enough to be the guy.

The worst thing about Thunder fans is many are OU fans, and yes they are whinny bitches. That goes for pretty much all fan bases though.

want to bet this thread will have more people because its actually titled correctly.

Sam Presti doesnt make mistakes. If you dont understand this trade now. You will in two yrs and youll be like eureka dat dude a genius

As long as OKC has Durant and Westbrook...that team is a NBA finals contender.

its a good trade in the long run. short term maybe not. HE did NOT pull a Pioli.

Presti reached for Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, and James Harden.

Pioli reached for Tyson Jackson, Dexter McCluster and Dontari Poe.

I dream if the day that the Chiefs get their Sam Presti.

I will take that bet, considering it

A) Has 5 more pages
B) Is the Official NBA Season Thread and will have eleven billion more posts than this thread by the end of the year

I hope Cole gets some PT in Houston

Martin will be the spark plug off the bench, Lamb has potential, and two first round picks (one of them a guaranteed lottery pick). That's more than the Magic got for Dwight Howard. Presti is a genius until proven otherwise.

I'll take that bet....

They got a lot. It's still kind of hard to imagine going to the game this week and not seeing the beard come off the bench.

that is a haul

do Oklahoma City Thunder homers have no idea who guys in the rest of the league are except their little trio?

I mean the fall off between Harden and Kevin Martin alone has to be so small. You could almost argue that Martin might be an UPGRADE. Dude has been a pure scorer on bad teams for years. Plug him in as the #1 option in the 2nd unit and the Thunder have scoring depth all game

plus Lamb and the draft picks. my goodness.

You can read in the other thread that I like the deal. However, Harden is a better all around offensive player. Martin is a straight up scorer, and Harden is better at getting others involved. I agree that Martin has been on shit teams his whole career, and this could give him new life. With Maynor back Martin maybe a nice fit, but odds are we take a bit of a step back.

As far as the total deal I believe we fleeced the Rockets, but when you see the core group get so far part of you wants to see them finish it. If you stay pat that day may never come. It's a bold unexpected move. Once the shock wears off people will start to see the value.

Harden is one hell of a player. But you aren't going to pay him that kind of coin to be essentially a 6th man. Okc has a ton of talent outside of harden where this trade doesn't matter. And they get some solid young guys. I think Houston is incredibly stupid or giving up a quality guard like lamb who costs them peanuts right now.

Yeah, I think the gut reaction was tough, but the haul was amazing. Presti will have multiple first rounders for a couple years, including a lottery pick. Martin is a good player, but also playing on the last year of his contract as well.

that first rounder from Toronto is lottery protected and the other is from the Lakers

still two first rounds is a great haul

I thought I had read the other was from Dallas?

The other is from Dallas. That could end up being a good pick if their veteran players miss a lot of time. Doesn't say it's top 3 or lottery protected though.

Bad trade for both teams. Harden is overrated and not really the star Houston's looking for, but he's going to be paid like one anyway. OKC just downgraded themselves immensely. Either the Clippers or Lakers are winning the West now.

Harden overrated? That's hilarious.

I found that funny too. It's all about the Lakers this year. Glad they made the trade

The term 6th man for Harden is pretty misleading. The guy should be starting, but since they have tons of firepower, they elect to bring him off the bench.

Harden's a good player, but he's certainly not a max-contract player.

That being said, OKC could have gotten more than Kevin Martin.

They use him the same way the Spurs use Ginobli. Its not really misleading as he doesnt start, but he can be a starter.

Him not starting was more about Westbrook and Durant than it was about Harden. It's not like they were using someone even close in his spot. Thabo is a good defender and fits with the firs unit in the first quarter, but that's about it.

They did get more than Kevin Martin.

They got 2 #1's, an expiring contract in Kevin Martin that will be a valuable chip come the trade deadline and a young player with a lot of potential in Jeremy Lamb.

I think Harden has max dollars value to a lot of teams that want instant offense. He's not a max player to OKC, but he sure as hell is to Houston and a dozen other teams.

i thought it was the pick from the Kyle Lowery to Toronto trade?

Now at the tradeline you flip Martin and those 1sts for something even better.

IIRC...Harden was not much of a factor in the Finals. Of course, he got his shit rocked by Meta World Puss before that.

Not sure if I like this trade, its decent for the long term, but they were not too far from winning it all last season so this makes little sense. I don't follow the NBA much until the playoffs so I may be off base.

He pulled a Belichick.

When Belichick traded Richard Seymour, he really hurt his team's chance to win a championship that year (and potentially undermined it altogether). He got very good value for the player, a guy he knew was likely to walk anyway, but in the process he took a very valuable contributor from his roster and diminished his championship chances substantially that season.

Presti did the same here. I'm not convinced that the Thunder a championship caliber team without Harden. Just like that Patriots team, they still have their motor and they still have his top dog running mate. They still have the look of a team that can win it all.

But the Pats desperately needed Seymour down the stretch and his absence was glaringly obvious against the Pats toughest opposition.

I applaud Presti for getting nice value for his player (though it's the NBA; first round picks past 10 are about like 3rd round picks in the NFL). That said, I almost wonder if he shouldn't have just held onto Harden, made his championship push and then done a sign/trade for less overall value in the offseason (but get one more season of Harden out of it).

These are all strong points. However, one of those first rounder picks is a guaranteed lottery pick, so who knows how well that will go.

Secondly, Harden was valuable because he was a strong scorer when Westbrook and Durant needed a breather. He became "the man" during those times and often opened up the game because of his ability to dish the ball.

Overall, I agree with your point that the Thunder are probably a little worse now, but Martin will score and provide a punch off the bench, and I'll rely on the past and future success of Presti in the draft. He did get Serge in the 20s.

Simmons weighs in:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...arden-disaster

I agree with him - this just wasn't a good deal for Oklahoma City.

Be interesting to see how Harden does when he is running with Jeremy Lynn and whoever else Houston has instead of Durantula and Westbrook.

History says Durant wasn't going to win anyway until he is 27/28. Ironically that is the age that the elite quarterbacks start winning Super Bowls.

pretty good Rocket debut for Harden. Holy shit

I'd rather live here in podonk Oklahoma than ****ing Houston ;)

Incredible start, wonder if he can be the guy the whole season.

Way to go beard! Until you play OKC :)