Hard on James

Wait, hold on a second. You mean to tell me that an athlete left a winning team that he was a big part of to go earn about 4 million dollars more for a cellar dweller? I don’t know if you can see it, but I am doing the E-Trade Baby shocked face right about now.

The Oklahoma City Thunder did not want to pay Harden a max deal and they traded him when they learned they could get something of value back. That is the business of sports at its finest.

And there is nothing wrong with trading one asset for whatever reason in sports, especially when you get a proven scorer like Kevin Martin in return. The Thunder didn’t make a bad trade because nobody lost in this deal.

Okay, so you trade the reigning sixth man of the year for Martin who can score 20 points per night. Other than age (Harden is 23, Martin is 29) and salary (Martin is making 11.52 million a year and Harden, pre-max deal, is making 4.065 million a year) you don’t lose much of anything on the court in the trade.  

Considering that Harden and Martin both averaged about 17 a game last season, you get the same scoring off the bench. Harden and Martin both average 6.3 rebounds a game over their careers and both men also get two assists per game. Harden is a better defender than Martin, yet considering how he couldn’t stop whoever he was guarding in the finals a year ago his defensive value takes a hit.

Considering Harden and Martin cancel each other out, the Thunder won the rest of the deal big time. OKC shrewdly picked up first round draft pick and human rubber band Jeremy Lamb, two first round draft picks, and a second round pick while giving up two nobodies named Cole Aldrich and Lazar Hayward.

So a fan favorite took more money to play for a team that blew itself up this off-season, it happens all the time. Of course the Thunder made this deal because of money. OKC decided that rather than paying the luxury tax, the “small market” Thunder decided to trade Harden and break up their core three players.

The Thunder are just like the Broncos of Boise State. For some reason, everyone in the area thinks that they have the small market team mentality that is a perennial power in the sport. Newsflash that is a load of crap considering that the Thunder brought in an average of 18 thousand fans a night last season, the fact that they have the second best player in the NBA, and the fact they have made the postseason for the past three seasons. The Thunder are a league powerhouse who just happens to be located in between tumbleweeds rolling in two different directions.

Harden got his money and the Thunder made their team better. Everybody wins in this trade, so that crap about Harden taking less money to be loyal to the team can just go by the wayside with the rest of the Houston Rockets.