Round The Game

Please. Spare me any of the “maybe he needs a new change of scenery” comments. That argument has never made sense at all. If two people are hell bent on killing each other, they will still want to kill the other person, now just at a different location.

Is James Harden a good player? Obviously. He is the most offensively efficient player in the past five years at least, not to mention some of his nightly stat lines just look like a 2K box score while playing on Rookie mode. His worst PPG effort in the past five seasons was 29 (!) This man has been a walking bucket ever since he stepped foot into the league, and has honestly transformed the way offensive players can use the rules to their advantage. The main problem(s) I have with any potential trade can be broken down into two sections. 1) His personal deficits and shortcomings, and 2) team fit for any team he goes to. Let me explain.

Personal Shortcomings

There is a chance that I will be wrong looking back on this, and I sort of hope I am, but who in the right mind would trade their entire future for a 31 year old superstar, who has never had a record of winning when it matters most, never been clutch in the playoffs, and who has clearly pushed out all of his superstar teammates? Dwight signed with Houston? Wanted out. Chris Paul gets traded? Wanted out. Russell Westbrook PERSONALLY requests to play next to his former teammate and friend, and STILL wanted out after one season. The common denominator here is clearly Harden, and his unwillingness to play a different style of basketball other than pounding the basketball into the court and then shooting a step-back jumper. Harden’s real prime is behind him. When he won the MVP award in 2018, that was the best I think we will ever see James Harden again. The only NBA player that we’ve ever been able to delay Father Time is LeBron James, and I’m still not convinced that I’d trade multiple first round picks and young talent to get two, maybe three more “productive” years of Harden, and that’s all assuming he has no chemistry issues with any of his new teammates. His antics as of late, i.e. not showing up to training camp initially, finally showing up recently, but being out of shape, and reportedly requesting the Rockets trade for John Wall, and then requesting a trade away from Houston and being “uninterested” in the idea of playing with Wall at all, despite Wall putting on a show in the preseason. I think that the all of this should be GIANT RED FLAGS to any team in the league silly enough to throw their hat in the ring for Harden, however the rumor mill has been going overdrive lately, so let’s take a look at some of the teams that have been rumored to want Harden’s services.

Miami Heat

Why not start off with the runners-up from last season? Jimmy Butler and crew were able to defy the odds and knock off Milwaukee to face the Los Angeles Lakers where they fell short, losing the series 4-2. Why would I, if I were in the GM’s shoes, NOT trade for James Harden? A few reasons, but they are quite simple.

1. Culture: There is a reason that players want to play for the Heat. Is Erik Spoelstra a good coach? Of course. Does having Pat Riley as President of the organization help? Obviously. But you don’t see Tom Brady, or Lamar Jackson, or any other top tier NFL player setting their sights on the Dolphins, and it comes down to Heat Culture. The Heat have a way of playing the “right” style of basketball, they’ll always be in games, the coaching staff cares, the fans are amazing, and the players know how to play within a role and excel, for the betterment of the team. The literal second you trade, for example, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Bam Adebayo, and some picks for James Harden you can throw all of that “culture” talk you’ve been promoting for the past six years right out the window.
2. Gambling Your Future: I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Tyler Herro is untouchable. There are maybe five players in the entire league that are untouchable. With that being said, gambling way young talent and picks for, again, an aging superstar is almost never a good idea, and should be looked down upon for any franchise.
3. Chemistry: Do you honestly think for a second that Jimmy Butler is going to be okay with James Harden going to night clubs the night before big games? Do you think it would be water under the bridge when James comes to film sessions hung over, or even just late? Absolutely not. Jimmy Butler has this Mamba Mentality about him. The only place that he’d ever go at 3 am is to the gym to get some shots up. All in all, this would never be a good situation at all.

Boston Celtics

I am a Celtics fan, so call me biased all you want, but I will stop being a fan if we trade potentially multiple first round picks, young players like Romeo Langford and Robert Williams, and most importantly of all Jaylen Brown. Jaylen, in my opinion, is the MOST important Celtic and has the potential to become a 1A to Jayson Tatum’s 1, instead of a Batman and Robin situation. I bring up culture again here because since being drafted, Jaylen has been Celtic’s culture. He himself has claimed that he is a Bostonian now. Not only will we have to throw “culture” out of the window, along with a cornerstone of the franchise and future draft picks, but we’ll have to change the way we play basketball. What are Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum going to do? Stand in the corner while Harden dribbles for 22 seconds? I doubt it. This couldn’t be a worse situation for Boston, so I think it’s best that we avoid it.

Brooklyn Nets

Okay. Before we start this, no. This isn’t a “the league will be unbalanced” take. This is a “don’t be dumb, this would never work in a billion years” take. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant are such ball dominant players; they need the ball for their style of play to work, and when it comes down to it, there just aren’t enough basketballs on the court to satisfy all three of these players. Not to mention the chemistry thing. Kyrie is another player who I think pushes away his teammates and doesn’t exactly make anyone better, so this locker room would be riddled with bad vibes, and I don’t think all that sage would really do anything. I honestly wouldn’t be against the Nets trading players like Spencer Dinwiddie, Jarrett Allen, and Joe Harris or Caris LeVert to make this happen, but this would be the basketball version of Keeping Up with the Kardashians between KD, Kyrie, and Harden. Train wrecks are fun to look at, but never for the people on the train.

I can’t express enough how against this potential trade I am. I mean, I just tried, but I could go on forever. James Harden is one of those players that won’t ever be happy with the situation he is in, and isn’t willing to stick it out. With the signings of Christian Wood, DeMarcus Cousins, and the trade for John Wall, I truly believe that this team as currently assembled can make some noise in the playoffs. The different styles that Houston could run could be a problem for any potential matchup they could face. This team could give anyone a run for their money, and if Harden doesn’t see that, then there is nothing more the Rockets can do, and they have to be happy with the fact that they tried.