James Harden Shipped Off to Houston

The Oklahoma City Thunder recently traded one of their players James Harden to the Houston rockets. This is the same team who went to the NBA Finals last season and is still one of the favorites to win it all this season. With the star-studded squad they had in Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and James Harden; The Oklahoma City Thunder were a very tough team to compete with, especially in a 7 game series.

According to ESPN, the main reason why the Thunder traded James Harden was because they could not reach an agreement in regard to his contract and the amount of money that he wanted. Because Oklahoma has already signed Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka to max long term contracts they were unable to fulfill the financial requests of Harden. So, rather than having him leave when his contract was up this season, the Thunder wasps forced to trade him away and try to get something in return for the current sixth man of the year.

The Thunder reached an agreement with the Houston Rockets and traded James Harden. In return, they received point guard Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and two future first round draft picks. Kevin Martin is a young scorer, but he does not have the same versatility that James Harden has when he is on the court. Harden can pass; shoot, dribble, and he also makes everyone around him better players. He did in fact receive a max deal, which is what he originally wanted and signed with the Rockets to a five year $80 million dollar max contract.

Despite that Oklahoma will miss Harden’s versatility on the court and ability to score at will, they still have two premier all stars in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. However, it will interesting to see how the new guard Kevin Martin will fit in and if he will be satisfied with his role as the third or even fourth option on offense. On the other side of the story Harden has already begun to shine in Houston alongside of Jeremy Lin, where within the first three games he has averaged 35 points 6 assists and 6 rebounds a game.

It is obvious that Harden wants to prove to everyone that he is worth every penny that will be spent on him with the $80 million dollar deal his received, and that he is a true star who is already shining bright throughout the rest of the league. It will be interesting to see the final results of the season and which team ended up getting a better deal in the trade, but until then look out for the Thunder’s two stars and the great new backcourt of Houston because both teams are going to be very entertaining to watch.