James Harden fan or not, The Blazers would be total fools not to entertain such an idea. Harden is arguably a top 5 player. So I agree!
Has he really been dumped by those players or did he dump them? Seems to me Hou has chosen Harden over all of those other players. I don’t blame Houston for trying to find the best fit with him to win, it’s a hell of a lot better than sticking with the same tandem year after year expecting a different result.
Harden would run the team when Dame was on the bench and Hoodie could fill in at the 2 if he gets his legs back. You still don't have to touch Simons, CJ2 or Nas with this roster. The rotation would likely be Dame, Harden, DJJ, RoCo, Nurk, Melo, Hood, Kanter with Giles getting some minutes most games but not really in the rotation. Simons and Nas would get spot minutes and unless there were real problems Elleby would never see the court.
He hasn't commanded loyalty from teammates is my entire point....or they'd do what it takes to stay teammates..coaches either..I just threw out names he should have on paper won titles with and didn't..but you can break that down and downplay it..I don't think KD wants to play with him on the Nets either but again...that's my opinion D'Antoni seems to have preferred an assistant job with Nash over head coaching in Houston as well..how many coaches would leave a superstar player for a role assistant job elsewhere.
Probably not playing with Dame but they could make it work; both have off ball skills and can set the other one up. They'd hopefully be a lot of fun to watch and even if it doesn't win us a chip right away it gets us a helluva lot closer.
Not a gamble I'd bank on but I've already said that...I think the guy is locker room cancer and doesn't play well in the post season most years...paycheck superstar. I'd have a real hard time cheering for him but I'd get over it.
I really really think that Houston won't go for anything less than CJ, Nurk and a pick or picks. I just don't see how CJ, Zach, Gary and whoever else adds up to as much as they've been offered by other teams... especially that Brooklyn offer. I do think CJ, Nurk and draft incentives might get the job done if we'd want to do that. We might have a bit of a hole at the 5 but Kanter can play there and then Zach can try to win that job from him when he's healthy. That said, Dame, Harden, DJJ, RoCo, Enes, Gary, Zach, Hoodie isn't as deep of a rotation as we have right now but it might get the job done a lot better.
I'm glad someone did haha
My impression is more that Harden wants to play with Kyrie and KD but would settle with playing with Dame...we're like choice number 4 in his bucket list so I don't think he's made us a priority.
You shouldn't post political shit in here even if it's subtle and snarky. That being said the analogy is horrible because (here's my absolute hypocrisy) Harden is a fucking great basketball player and the other guy you referenced is probably the worst to ever do what he's currently doing. Is Harden the ideal fit for the culture this team has so carefully built? I'm not sure he is but this culture is strong and might even be able to change Harden. If that's the case we would likely have the best back court in the history of the league... for sure the best back court ever offensively. Then we would have the defense first forwards who I think can both hit open threes and one can slash really well. The question would be in the middle. We would likely have to give up Nurk so Kanter and Zach would have to be our centers. That said those guys aren't necessarily worse than Luke Longley and Bill Wennington.
