Agreed. Houston is asking for too much given their complete lack of leverage and if Ben Simmons is really on the table, they're not getting a better offer than that anyway, certainly not from us. I'm more optimistic about our team after watching today's game and seeing Fox, Haliburton, and Hield all getting up on ball-handlers and moving their feet with purpose. You can win with an ensemble but you have to do it on both ends and our defensive pedigree is somewhere between dismal and... uh, whatever is below dismal so I'm still going to take some convincing. I'm willing to believe that a Fox and Haliburton lineup is going places if they can help lead us to an average defensive rating this year.
Back to Harden though....
When a guy who has led the league in scoring the last 3 years is available and you haven't made the playoffs in
over a decade I think you're fooling yourself if you don't at least look into it. It's not like our young guys aren't without their own flaws. Can you squint and see a future where Fox and Haliburton are better than peak James Harden?
Only Wilt and MJ have had better scoring seasons than he had 2 years ago and he was off to an even better pace last season before cooling off in early 2020. But $40 million a year, over 30, highest usage% in the league, and lack of impact on defense are all reasons to say no. Ultimately I agree that the argument is academic because we don't have what Houston wants and we certainly don't have what Harden wants. I have to agree with
@Joshoua on this one though that some of y'all are over the top with the Harden criticism. He's a Hall of Fame player with several good years left in the tank.