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James Harden to the Rockets: the Re-Grade 🤝



James Harden to the Rockets: the Re-Grade 🤝

So we’re regrading the NBA’s biggest trades of all time and today let’s talk hard into the Rockets So as a reminder here’s the full trade that went down just days before the 2012 season tipped off and yeah this trade was pretty shocking at the time I mean OKC had just

Made the finals so why’ the Thunder even do this well it really just comes down to one reason or maybe 4.5 million reasons they didn’t have enough money to pay Harden and don’t get me wrong James Harden was good in OKC but I don’t even think Daryl M could have predicted just

How good Harden got in Houston for OKC Kevin Martin was a good player but he only spent one year there and Jeremy Lamb was very hyped up as a rookie the real question for OKC is one should they have just waited a year to trade Harden

And two was this the best deal on the table because allegedly the first team Sam pry called was Golden State so final grades at the time the Thunders return package honestly looked pretty good but in hindsight yeah they probably should have traded Russ instead

40 Comments

  5. @Kvngjc

    That’s a bold statement bout trading Russ instead but I’d be here for the conversation

  15. @fletchergrant3166

    Crazy level of hating for Russ. Not to mention , harden played absolutely awful in the finals the year before, basically losing it single handedly, he didn’t deserve the max

  16. @sakshamdwivedi4273

    He got clowned on for calling himself one of the most unselfish players ever. But Beardman's been sacrificing his talents his whole career with very little pouting.

    In OKC, Scott Brooks played him as 6th man for 3 years in, despite being one of the most talented players on the team.

    In Houston, Tim Fertitta refused to go over the luxury tax and surround him with better players, despite being one game away from an NBA finals in 2018. (The next year he averaged 36ppg 7rpg 8apg)

    In Brooklyn, Kyrie Irving played less games then Harden, despite Harden being injured.

    In Philadelphia, he took a pay cut so the Doc Rivers could sign more depth, despite being owed $15million more

    Generational talent that's been adapting and being unselfish since he entered the league

    when the 2019 rockets are down 0-2 and he averages 40/10/5 the next 2 games to tie it up, it doesn't count. when he puts up 35/8/5 and has more points/rebounds/assists/steals than steph in game 6, he sucked and steph was legendary to win without KD.in the bubble he put up 30 ppg on 67 TS% against an elite lakers defense that was just doubling him near halfcourt and leaving russ wide open. but he sucked.he also tends to have his best games end in near losses, which unless he has a time machine, i'm not sure what he can do about. putting up 39/10/9 on 62% shooting (field goal, not TS%) against the #1 defense 2015 warriors and being +12 in 41 minutes, only for the rockets to be -13 in his 7 minutes off so he loses by 1 gets forgotten. still a great gamehe goes up 3-2 on the most talented team ever but cp3 gets injured so no credit for harden. he's had some disappointing playoff moments, but people way overplay it.I mean Harden does have 9 playoff games where he scored 40+ points, including 3 in the 2018 playoff run alone.Curry has 7 such games in his career.Butler has 6.Melo had 4.Harden certainly deserves plenty of criticism. But this idea that he’s never gone off in the playoffs is ridiculous. He generally had just kind of ok supporting casts and regularly made some decent playoff runs.His Rockets were also the only team to really give a healthy KD Warriors any real trouble. Cavs got swept and lost in 5.I think if you take "Most Valuable Player" literally, Harden should have won. Take Steph Curry off of that Warriors team, and that's still a good team. Take James Harden off of that Rockets team (keep in mind that Dwight was also missing for most of the season), and that team is very close to the very bottom of the West.Steph Curry had a phenomenal season, but I'm tired of team performance being taken into account so heavily in individual accolades.Harden 2014-15. With out Harden the Rockets probably dont make the playoffs. With out Curry the Warriors still make the playoffs, just not as the first seed. I feel like considering that Dwight was injured most of the season and Harden fucking went ham to keep his team a float, that the MVP should have gone to him. The only knock on Harden was his percentages, but Harden still averaged 27.4 points, 7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals for the season. Dem be MVP numbuhs.James Harden is an underrated defender and I will argue that to the grave

    The only reason mainstream media views harden as a bad defensive player is because of lowlight tapes where harden doesn’t sprint across the court to guard a speedy fast break but when Lebron sags on defense it’s considered conserving energy.Efficiency wise if a player is a huge plus on offense it makes sense to have them expend the majority of their energy getting points instead of making high energy cost/low return defensive plays. Especially when that player is by far the most effective offensive player on the team.Lebrons famous 48 minute playoff games utilize this strategy and Harden is the highest usage player in league history so it’s less about defensive skill as opposed to a strategic decision.

    This is why Harden prefers to guard bigs in the post where his style is more about stealing low rather than jumping to block. And when looking at his defensive efficiency in the post it’s up there with the best in the league.Defense isn’t necessarily about the flashy blocks of a Giannis or the scrappy pestering of a Pat Beverly. It’s about not letting the other team score the ball and Harden does a good not great job at that. I rest my case.

    At their peaks, Harden IS a better offensive player than Jordan (and Kobe) by every imaginable metric.

    Harden is a better offensive player at his peak than Jordan. Some of this is going to sound repetitive but follow along.Kobe averaged 5 rebounds and 4 assists in his 35.1ppg season. He did that on 27 FGAs, and a 56% TSJordan averaged 5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in his 37ppg season. He did that on 28 FGAs, and a 56% TS.Harden averaged 7 rebounds and 8 assists in his 36.1ppg season. He's doing that on 24 FGAs and a 61% TS.Yeah well Harden shoots too many free throws.Harden: 11 FTA (88%)Jordan: 11.9 FTA (85.7%)Kobe: 10.2 FTA (85%)Yeah well Harden shoots too many threes that's why his TS is high.Harden: 54.1 eFG%, 52.9% from 2, 36.8% from 3Kobe: 49.1 eFG%, 48.2% from 2, 34.7% from 3MJ: 48.4 eFG%, 49.1% from 2, 18.2% from 3 (only on 0.8 attempts though)

    Yeah well the game was much slower back then

    Per 100 Possessions:

    Harden: 48.2 PPG (highest of all time)

    MJ: 46.4 PPG

    Kobe: 45.6 PP

    Yeah well compared to their league, Jordan stood out more

    Then let's compare to the league average.Harden: 54.1 eFG% and 61.7 TS%, League Average: 52.4 eFG% and 55.7 TS

    Kobe: 49.1 eFG% and 55.9 TS%, League Average: 49 eFG% and 53.5 TS

    MJ: 48.4 eFG% and 56.2 TS%, League Average: 48.8 eFG% and 53.8 TS%This isn't even factoring in seasons Harden has averaged 10+ assists, and he's done that many times.Harden is a very capable defender when he tries. For majority of the game Harden plays defense but allows blowbys to avoid risking picking up fouls. Due to his heavy minutes, especially when he was in Houston, harden lacked in defense to avoid getting fouls, which is why he is known as a bad defender. However, in late game situations, especially in the playoffs, he locks in and is one of the better perimeter defensive players in the league. As for his post defense, he has been number one in the league statistically since 2019, and has even been second in the league in perimeter isolation points allowed per possession in 2020. In addition to all of that, he is an extremely smart player defensively. He knows when to help, where other players need to stand and is known for his defensive communication. His Houston rockets had the number one defense in the playoffs and in the bubble of 2020. Statistically James has been top 5 in steals for many seasons, number one in deflections for a few years, and has the most blocks by any guard since joining Houston. He has crucial defensive saves in important games including against Giannis, Porzingis, in game 7 of okc thunder, and even against embiid in the 2020 rockets 76ers matchup, where embiid got in a little skirmish with him after harden stopped him on back to back possessions. He may not play it the whole game, but when he tries harden is a top defender in almost every aspect, and a beneficial one to have on the court due to his inteAnd people talking bout his defense are idiots, hes locked up and then shit on Kawhi/PG/Beverly in a 1v3 lmaoooo he has the most points on every team too plus like 3 years of 10+ assists and the others are 8-9 assists on top of 30-36.6 points. He's the only one who even challenged the KD Era warriors and lost because of blatant ref fixing and Ariza going 0-12 on wide open threes generated by Harden along with his second best player CP3 going down and Capela getting sonned by a rookie Looney. Harden was literally dunking on draymond all day and dray got pissed and shoved him like 30 seconds into a game because he got scored on twice fast. That's not even mentioning all that happened while facing the KD warriors who had 5 star players, 2 of which were the number one and number two best shooters in the history of the league, Dpoy draymond, a top 2-3 scorer in Durant, Iggy dpoy. Then waiving off 12 of Hardens points but not making the same call if he missed the 3…blatant lmao

  19. @Kingfisher1215

    But I thought Sam Presti is a genius. The guy who drafted two of the big three before OKC scammed the team out of Seattle and could not deliver a championship. And no OKC fans, your “rebuild” isn’t the fastest ever, by a long shot. SA achieved way more and even Denver restocked and got back to the playoffs faster than OKC.

  23. @_xh3l9jkw4j

    Remember that late 2012 rockets, Harden new in town with Jeremy Lin back from injury, that was a special team🥹

  28. @Schi8694

    I live in OK. No one – and I mean no one – thought Harden would become the superstar he became. It would’ve been nice to know. lol

  30. @Awstreamerbtw

    Alr yall js saying ik the 2017 warriors are the best of all time but… imagine they added James harden? Undefeated

  31. @K-Dot94

    Cool vid but darryl morey clearly knew how good harden was, like he said it many many times

  40. @outtatime9836

    Hot take, kd was the problem.

    Like if curry doesn’t have to take that pay cut for dem ankles, kd isn’t able to join the warriors, and we are talking about this generations Charles Barkley

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