Harden Trade

Last night the NBA world was rocked with news that James Harden had been traded from the OKC Thunder to the Houston Rockets. From OKC's perspective, it was a trade that had to be made. While Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins have taken less to remain with the Thunder, James harden was unwilling to make the same sacrifices that go into the OKC Thunder's way. The individual sacrifices for the good of the team. Harden was set to become an unrestricted free agent and OKC General Manager Sam Presti decided to avoid the season-long drama by trading Harden now. OKC is a winner in the trade because they unloaded Harden for an expiring contract (Kevin Martin) that can duplicate Harden's off-the-bench scoring, a potential superstar in the making (Jeremy Lamb) and multiple 1st round draft picks. The downside of this trade is that KD, Westbrook and Harden formed one the league's most explosive offensive trios. OKC made a trade to make themselves better for the future but clearly disrupted their chemistry and will miss Harden pg skills. They also will miss his defense, which is lockdown compared to how Kevin Martin plays. I think this trade takes OKC out of the title conversation at least for this year. Houston won because they had been stockpiling assets for the past few years in an attempt to land a star player via trade and after numerous strikeouts() they finally got their man, a cornerstone player to build around. Harden lost because he won't be playing for a contender this season. Harden won in this deal because he stands to make up to $25 Million more and he gets the chance to become the number option on a team. He had to realize that no matter what, he would always be third fiddle to Durant and Westbrook.