James Harden Traded to the Rockets

I wonder if the beard stays in Houston

In a blockbuster deal made late Saturday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder sent budding star guard James Harden to the Houston Rockets. Harden is coming off a season in which he won Sixth Man of the Year, and he also helped the Thunder reach the NBA Finals for the first time in the franchise's brief tenure in Oklahoma City.

Widely regarded a top tier shooting guard, the young Harden was a big part of what made the Thunder so successful last year. He averaged almost 17 points per game off the bench, and always played starter's minutes. Harden was also selected to this year's Olympic team, which really says a lot about him if you look at the other players on that team.

                                    Thunder Get:                                  Rockets Get:            

                                   - Kevin Martin                                  - James Harden
                                   - Jeremy Lamb                                  - Daequan Cook
                                   - Two 1st Round Picks                     - Cole Aldrich
                                   - 2nd Round Pick                              - Lazar Haywood

Harden along with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka, were the core to the young defending Western Conference champions, and unfortunately there wasn't enough money to go around when it came time to pay them. With All-Stars Durant and Westbrook both signing max contracts, and Ibaka also cashing in on a multiyear multimillion deal, it was hard for the Thunder to find enough money to satisfy Harden.

The team reportedly made offers up to around $54 million over four years, but they couldn't reach an agreement. Once the team realized that this deal wasn't going to get done, GM Sam Presti immediately looked for somewhere to trade Harden who is in the final year of his rookie contract. Harden now is expected to be offered a max contract by the Rockets for around $80 million over 5 years.

The Thunder definitely got their money's worth in this deal. Harden is known to take ill-advised shots late in games, and it is pretty clear that this is Durant's team and he should be the one with the ball late. That being said, the Thunder received a proven scorer in Kevin Martin, who will likely step into the sixth man role this year. The draft picks were also key here and they got plenty of them. With the success that the Thunder has had drafting over the past few seasons, they definitely are pleased with this aspect of the deal as well.

The Thunder also received Jeremy Lamb, an interesting rookie who was drafted 12th overall out of the University of Connecticut. Lamb has the raw talent, he can handle the ball, has a nice jump shot, and most importantly he can create his own shot. That being said, Lamb underachieved his sophomore season after bursting onto the scene his freshman season. He sometimes gets lost in the game and won't work as hard as he should to get open and defend. He still is a very interesting pickup, and Scott Brooks now has Lamb and Perry Jones III as his rookies, not too bad if you ask me.

The Rockets aside from Harden, received a three-point specialist in Daequan Cook, and Cole Aldrich and Lazar Haywood who each only appeared in 26 games last year. They won't be provide that much and it wouldn't be surprising if Aldrich or Haywood got cut. The deal was obviously made for Harden, and the Rockets, who were very aggressive this offseason, now have an interesting team.

They have a lot of questions that will be answered early on. The first will be, is point guard Jeremy Lin the real deal? The Rockets paid a lucrative amount to get Lin from the Knicks and he was successful for a stretch last year, but the sample size was minimal. The next question is can Omer Asik be a legitimate center in the NBA? The Rockets also gave Asik a large amount of money after he spent a few seasons as a backup center in Chicago, usually as a defensive specialist. The final question is can James Harden be the guy? Harden will step in as the team's starting shooting guard, something he hasn't done very often. Starting is a different mindset, but this is Harden's chance to prove that he is the real deal and not just the guy who played behind Durant and Westbrook.

One Last Thing: I never was a fan of Harden when he was in Oklahoma City. He takes way too many shots and is very inconsistent, and my theory is if a guy like Durant, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, etc. is on your team, you defer to him. Harden was always stepping on people's toes and although he is definitely talented, I don't think he will be as successful outside of OKC. He doesn't strike me as a superstar at all and by coupling him with Lin, I just think the Rockets are taking too many risks. They are going to have Asik, Lin, and Harden all under contracts for a really long time, and I just don't see it, hopefully Rockets GM Daryl Morey knows what he's doing.