NBA 2016-2017 Season Thread

[idfnl]



I dont think it was just money. He wanted more minutes and maybe even a starting position

6th man is basically a starting position. And he was always on the floor in the 4th.

He averaged 31 min a game last season.

He wanted money.

 

[RFX45]

I still believe OKC had better options and they pulled the trade trigger to quick. I already listed what OKC could have done and again, if they win the chip this year, who knows if Harden would walk away from that? Or that they can't get a better option in January or February if OKC weren't competing for the title then?

 

[HRoi]

Bill Simmons was reporting that the Thunder has posted yearly profit of $30+ million since they moved to OKC, and that profit is very stable since they have sold out their arena very well in advance

not that I would downplay losing millions to lux tax, but they are not going into the red if they paid Harden.

as for Harden, I do believe that he really loves his OKC teammates and he might have taken somewhat less to stay. but the difference between 4 years 55-ish million and 5 years 80 million is positively staggering, especially for a young guy who's truly getting paid for only the first time in his life. would anyone here truly turn that down? I mean, that's like 50,000 AE Park Avenues!

 

[RFX45]

Or 31,000 ToJs!

 

[Rambo]



Or 31,000 John Coppidge's!

FTFY

 

[RFX45]

Nah, it'll be like 30,000 after John Coppidges price increase.

 

[Rambo]



Nah, it'll be like 30,000 after John Coppidges price increase.

man, that dude's such a greedy prick.

 

[RFX45]

Isn't he? How dare he deny people from getting good leather jackets at a reasonable price by trying to make a little profit? Bastard!

ToJ 4 Life!

 

[Rambo]

what a son of a *****

 

[ConcernedParent]



6th man is basically a starting position. And he was always on the floor in the 4th.
He averaged 31 min a game last season.
He wanted money.

A 6th man ain't no superstar.

 

[idfnl]



James Harden ain't no superstar.

FTFY

 

[RFX45]

^ ^ ^
Get ready to be proven wrong this year.

 

[idfnl]



^ ^ ^
Get ready to be proven wrong this year.

He must be on your fantasy team.

 

[RFX45]

Nope, he isn't actually, I wish he was though.

He averaged 17pts while shoot 50% fg w/ 10fga being a third option behind Durant & Westbrook and coming off the bench. While he won't average 37/6/12 w/ 4stls and 1blk every night, he could easily get 26/5/7 every night with a steal here and there and that is borderline Wade stats right there and being the star player of the Rockets will catapult him as a Superstar this year for sure barring any major injuries.

 

[Biggskip]



fg what was your supa secret exit that you took off the 10 to eventually hit SV and go up from there?

One of these folks might know.

idnfl, I think you're simplifying it a little too much to say that Harden is choosing money over titles. Isn't Presti (or Clay Bennett) guilty of the same thing. Also, it's not like the OKC front office didn't know that this problem was coming. They chose to give large extensions to KD, RW, and even Ibaka. They could've asked all of those guys to take a discount to give them some flexibility. The front office could have even worked out an agreement where the players agree to take a little less and the owners agree to go over the luxury tax line to some degree just to show that everybody had some skin in the game.

In the end, however, the OKC front office put it all on Harden to make all the sacrifices simply because he is the youngest. That's not fair to Harden. There's even a rumor that he would have signed for what OKC was offering if OKC would agree to a trade kicker (where Harden would have to okay any trade that he was a part of) and they said no. It seems to me that Harden gave them a several opportunities to re-sign him if they would only give in a little bit. At every turn they said no, so eventually so did he.