James Harden Makes Return To OKC

With tonight being the first meeting between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets since the James Harden-Kevin Martin deal I figured I'd bring it full circle.  It's still early in the season but each team and key players in the deal seemed to have established themselves.  Record wise not much has changed, the Thunder are still one of the top teams in the league at 11-4 while the Rockets are .500 (they finished 34-32 last year).

When the deal happened the Thunder had a bigger hole to fill, not just in the stat sheet but also with the chemistry of the team.  So far Martin has filled in nice statistically as Harden’s replacement.  Martin is averaging 15.7 points shooting 45 percent from the field, 49 percent from three and 94 percent from the line.  Last year for the Thunder, Harden averaged 16.8 points shooting 49 percent from the field, 39 percent from three and 84 from the line.  The Thunder as a team are averaging more points per game and giving up less than last season.  As for the chemistry, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were going to be the biggest factor as to welcoming Martin and they seemed to have used his style of play very well.  Both players have seen their scoring and shot attempts go down but assists go up.  The only spot Martin might lack where Harden thrived is taking over the scoring load when Westbrook and Durant were out of the game.  But, Thunder coach Scott Brooks has adjusted his game plan and has been able to keep his team a title contender.

In a previous post I posed the question “can James Harden be a #1?” and I would say he has shown flashes that he can be the leader of the Rockets, he just needs a little more help.  Right now Harden is fifth in the league in scoring, averaging 25.1 (only .8 behind his old teammate Durant).  We’ve seen his assists jump to 5.4 but also his turnovers to 4.1 while all his shooting percentages have gone down.  With Harden already coming in as a star the Rockets were going to be built around his style of play unlike Martin trying to fit in with the Thunder.  Houston brought in Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik with big contracts as well so they had three new starters to their lineup, which basically creates a whole new team.  But even with these new players the Rockets are in the same place they were last year, fighting for a playoff spot in the highly contested Western Conference.  If the Rockets want to become a playoff staple they will need to find better compliments to Harden than Lin and Chandler Parsons (Houston’s second leading scorer).

I still believe the Thunder came out on top in the trade.  I wouldn’t say Houston lost because they received a top three shooting guard in the NBA but so far Kevin Martin has fit in nicely with the Thunder.  Let’s not also forget that OKC gets two first round draft picks from Houston and a second rounder.  So the trade turned out good for the Rockets because they have a superstar to build a team around.  But the trade turned out great for the Thunder because they are still title contenders with the opportunity to get better through the draft, which OKC is known for doing.

Can James Harden Be A #1 Option?

     Late Saturday night while I was out watching the Tigers-Giants game 3 of the World Series and Michigan-Nebraska in college football came interesting news from the NBA.  James Harden, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Houston Rockets.  Like everybody else my first reaction was shock that the Thunder, who had a core of three superstars at age 24 or younger, would trade away one these players.  Instantly, I felt the Rockets had pulled off the robbery of arguably the leagues most coveted shooting guard.  Then I began to think about the entirety of this trade and began to change my opinion.  Here is the full breakdown of the trade.  Houston receives James Harden, Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook, and Lazar Hayward.  OKC gets Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-round pick.

     I was discussing the trade with a friend who made a great point.  He said, "with taking age into consideration there is no other shooting guard in the NBA today that I would trade James Harden for straight up."  And it's true!  I tried to come up with 5 other shooting guards and if you are looking for a long term player nobody compares to Harden, who is 23 and averaged 16.8 points per game last year.  Here is my list...

1. Kobe Bryant - Great career and some still think he's the best in the league but has played 16 years, is 34 years old and is said to be retiring when his contract is up in two years.
2. Dwyane Wade - Another player with a nice trophy case but turned 30 this year and required offseason knee surgery.  His numbers have also gone down the last three seasons.
3. Stephen Curry - At 24 he still has room to improve his career stats of 17 ppg, 47% FG, 44% 3PT, and 90% FT.  However, he has the terrible label of a "tweener" being an undersized 2 guard and with those numbers coming on a bad team it's tough to know his worth.
4. Andre Iguodala - In his prime at 28, can rebound and pass well for his position.  He also can defend multiple positions but can struggle scoring with an inconsistent jumpshot.
5. Joe Johnson - Involved in a big trade that sent him from the Atlanta Hawks to the Brooklyn Nets and is a proven scorer that has shown he can lead his team to the playoffs.  Not known to play much defense and at 31 is on the downside of his career.

     With that being said I believe the Thunder has come out on top of this trade.  Even though Harden has so much hype around him right now we still have a lot of questions to be answered.  The biggest one is can he lead a team as their number one option.  In OKC he formed a great "Big 3" with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, but remember Harden was the third option.  Now he will be the go to guy drawing the attention of the other teams best perimeter defender so we still have to see if he can handle that role.  The guy to replace Harden from this trade is Kevin Martin.  A player that has averaged 20+ points in five seasons and that is the only thing the Thunder are going to ask him to do, score.  Martin has a stigma about him that he is not very coachable but this guy has only been on bad teams in Sacramento and Houston, players in those situations usually have a "I'mma get mine" mentality.  Coming to a winning team with a great coach like Scott Brooks could be what Martin needs to change his attitude and become a scoring threat that knows his role to help his team win.  To add in Jeremy Lamb, a lottery pick this year, and two more first-round picks the Thunder will have options to reload an already stellar young team.  Who knows, both first-round picks could each be in the lottery again.  The addition of Harden and Jeremy Lin (very overrated) to the Rockets this offseason don't make this team a lock for the playoffs by any means.

     The one aspect of the trade that concerns me about the Thunder is breaking up the great bond that Durant, Westbrook and Harden had formed.  They had fun on the court together and they made each other better.  You can't replace a player like James Harden and losing him may hurt the Thunder's chances of winning a title this year, but looking to the future I think they made good decision.  And with how OKC has been able to draft lately, they will take full advantage of the picks they received.  A lot of credit goes Thunder GM Sam Presti because he was able to unload a player that might not have been back with the team after this season and picked up key pieces in return.