Reports suggest that James Harden missed the Rockets first official practice session back as a team. He has been training privately. Seems like he might be trying to force his way out of Houston?
Interesting here from Bill Simmons as to where he thinks Harden will end up. He is right that Brooklyn have a lot of assets they can throw into a deal, but none of them are what you’d call a centrepiece to a deal.
"Houston are reportedly after a “young franchise cornerstone” and “a bundle of first-round picks and/or talented players on rookie contracts” in exchange for Harden according to ESPN "
Personally, I’d like to see him stuck at Houston…he believes he is the best player in the NBA…get Houston to build a team around him…oh, that’s right, they tried and it didn’t work…he needs too much of the ball to be able to work well with others.
He is drastically overrated and requires an entire system to be built around him in order for him to produce what we are accustom to.
He always needs to be handling the ball, he will take dumb shots (and make some of them) and play selfishly on offence and defence. He is not a good defender and he is also someone who does nothing when he doesn’t have the ball, he isn’t a Steph who will cut and run off screens in order to get separation on his defender and get open for a shot.
If he goes to Philly, Brooklyn or any other team that already has a star player, it will be a dumpster fire (especially the Nets because KD and Kyrie are the two most fragile/insecure superstars in sports history who I doubt will be as good together as everyone expects).
Regardless, super excited for opening night tomorrow and looking forward to Lakers vs Clippers.
Here’s hoping we can repeat as we have strengthened a lot but we also have a lot of new faces we need to integrate.
Warriors are a lottery team, Nets, provided KD and Kyrie stay healthy, are a legitimate contender. They don’t need Harden either. Keep that squad together that make the playoffs with no KD and Kyrie playing just 20 games.
Nets look slick. Good ball movement, this is a talented squad and if you added a 3rd star to it you’d end up with chemistry issues, especially if that 3rd star is a high volume player like Harden. What they have is plenty good enough if you can guarantee KD and Kyrie’s health.