The Historic James Harden Trade

Blockbuster trade alert! We’ve got our first mega trade of the NBA season and as we probably expected, it involved the Houston Rockets. You’ve likely already seen the trade details before reading this but just in case, the accepted trade is being reported as follows:

Nets receive James Harden

 

Rockets receive Victor Oladipo, Dante Exum, Rodions Kurucs, Brooklyn’s 1^st round picks in 2022, 2024, 2026, Milwaukee’s 2022 unprotected 1^st round pick, Brooklyn 1^st round pick swaps in 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2027

 

Pacers receive Caris Levert

 

Cavaliers receive Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince 

 

James Harden pulled out all the stops to make sure that he wouldn’t be a Houston Rocket beyond this season and after months of headline grabbing antics, he finally got his wish. Harden showed up to training camp late, out of shape, and showed uncharacteristic inconsistency on the floor on his way out. His 24.8 PPG through 8 games would rank as his worst scoring season since he was coming off of the bench on Oklahoma City. I don’t correlate Harden’s performance thus far this season with any drop off in skill or athleticism, he really just looked like he didn’t give a damn and was waiting to be moved elsewhere. Harden’s 16.9 shots per game would rank as his lowest total since the 2013-2014 season and his efficiency is near his career averages, suggesting that he just isn’t trying to put the ball through the hoop. Now the 31-year-old guard joins the 6-6 Brooklyn Nets on what instantly becomes to most talented starting 5 in the league (as long as Kyrie is playing basketball) and the favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the 2021 NBA Finals. The Brooklyn Nets are the leagues latest super-team, though version is one with 0 home grown stars which is something we haven’t seen in the super-team era. 

 

In the next few days every other talking head you see on your TV is going to talk about how this formation of this Brooklyn team is bad for the league. They’ll likely make the point that player empowerment has gone too far now that Harden has successfully exited Houston as planned. I have a different take on the situation, I think this might actually be good for the league. Hear me out. The NBA is a little more enjoyable when it has a villain for the fans to collectively root against and this deal makes Brooklyn the league’s most hated team by a mile on paper. James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant probably all rank in the top 10 of the NBA’s most criticized players and now they’re all in one central location for fans to direct their hate. As much as fans, analysts, and former players will likely complain about the move, I think it will drive interest in the league up in a year where things feel a bit off. Everyone hates the Lakers, but LeBron James and Anthony Davis are generally popular among fans. Brooklyn gives all the trolls an easy target.

 

The Houston Rockets were in a tough spot after James Harden basically said “yeah, fuck this” after a blowout loss to the Lakers on 1/11/20. Victor Oladipo isn’t James Harden but acquiring him in combination with John Wall and co. at least ensures that the Rockets will be competitive for the rest of this season. The true victory in the deal lies in the massive haul of future picks. The Rockets are praying to every god known to humans that the experiment in Brooklyn Is a repeat of the last time Brooklyn swung for the fences in acquiring Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. It is possible that the picks and pick swaps in 2024 and beyond might be worth Harden by themselves. If Brooklyn can get a championship out of their new big 3 it will have all been worth it, only time will tell.