James Harden rejects OKC Offer / *Traded* to Rockets

[asiasportwriter]

He probably would have started next year. It's not like he wasn't getting minutes either but I think a lot of fans were disappointed because harden had indicated he would sacrifice to stay in okc, But in the long run, we have to trust that he really knows what he's doing.

 

[Tlyons]

There's only a handful of players that are max players and Harden is not one....I question whether Westbrook was worth that as well on that team ?? Transcending players that can carry a team deep into a playoff run and lead a franchise are max players.... Giving players like Harden, Love, Deron etc... max contracts is just stupid... Giving Harden max cash and considering him a max guy is similar to the Hawks giving Joe Johnson one 6 or 7 years ago... As a franchise you're going nowhere and more than likely will find yourself in that horrible middle of the pack spot that can kill a franchise for a decade plus...

Nice player, complimentary type of player who can be a major contributor to a championship caliber team, but cannot lead a team to a title...

The way the NBA is setup now, guys like Tim Hardaway, Glen Rice, Larry Johnson, Derrick Coleman, Latrell Sprewell, Jimmy Jackson etc... would all be max players...

Deron Williams is a max player. Utah had to play some great teams in the west. Not his fault. And James harden is better now than joe Johnson has ever been. And I'm still not sure that harden is a max player just because their aren't that many good sgs. Just lets you know how overpaid jj really is.

 

[Jack Brickman]

When your team needs another player who is better than you to be a title contender, I wouldn't consider you worth a max contract. IF your team needs another player on the same level, or a little worse, you're worth the max deal.

Now, situations lend themselves to people getting overpaid sometimes. I don't think Bosh is worth a max deal, but it wasn't a bad idea for Miami to sign him, but it would have been terrible if another team signed him as their top player. I actually don't think it would have been too bad of an idea for OKC to extend him(though I think their deal was too good to pass up), but Houston giving up the farm to pay him a max deal was, IMO, a really bad and desperate move by a normally analytic and objective guy in Morey.

I disagree with that logic because contracts are entirely determined by market value. Harden is one of the top two guards in the game, and pretty much any team that could afford him would pay him a max contract in a heartbeat because the NBA isn't exactly filled with guys who have skillsets like Harden's coupled with high efficiency numbers.

You also seem to be ignoring the idea that teams can have more than once max player. Miami, for example, has three. Oklahoma City has two, and could have had three if they would have amnestied Perkins' corpse and kept Harden.

I agree that, if Harden is your best player, you're probably not winning a title, but I also fail to see how that doesn't make him worth a max contract. He's still a top-30 player in the entire league and he's nowhere near his prime yet.

 

[Douglar]

Is it just me, or did Urkel become a Mulah when he grew up?