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Within 24 hours of his instant legend press conference trashing the Rockets, James Harden has been traded in an enormous blockbuster. The Rockets gave up only Harden and a second-round pick and ended up with Victor Oladipo, Dante Exum, Rodions Kurucs, three future Nets first-round picks, a future Bucks first-round pick and four Nets pick swap options. In other words, Harden for Oladipo, four firsts and four pick swap options. In other other words, Harden for a rebuild while remaining somewhat competitive.

This is definitely a choice. For ESPN Insider, Zach Lowe reports that the Rockets could have had Ben Simmons if they wanted him. ($) Instead, they opted for a drawer full of draft assets. Houston should remain competitive with Oladipo, John Wall and Christian Wood — perhaps lower playoff seed good, they should certainly compete for a play-in bid at minimum. Oladipo will be a free agent in the offseason and has consistently been linked to Miami (where I’m not sure he’s a perfect fit, to be honest). For the Rockets, Oladipo will either be on a high-priced and risky contract for them next season, or gone. So you’re counting on the draft picks to pay off, either by waiting them out or flipping them for new talent.

Needless to say, the odds of any of those picks or a package of those picks turning into a talent the caliber of Harden is minuscule. Keeping Harden was untenable given his actions and the devolution of the relationship between him and the team. A trade became unavoidable because Harden acted so extremely to force it. Still, it stings to know that it could be 10, 20, 30 years before you land a player like that again.

Because the Rockets still have a chunk of veteran talent and are less likely than small- or mid-market teams to tank for multiple years, trading Harden for draft assets does pose a problem. Usually when teams go this route in trading star players — like the pre-relocation Sonics, the Process Sixers, the current Thunder — they are setting up their own roster to fail and thus compete for high-end draft picks. The Thunder’s rebuild becomes supercharged not just because of the picks they have from the Clippers, Rockets, Suns and Pelicans. Their own draft picks over the next couple of seasons will likely be their best assets, because the team should be quite bad.

That’s not the case for the Rockets, despite their current record. Odds are with Wall, Oladipo and Wood they will remain outside the deep cellar and need good luck to land a top-5 pick. This is also what the Pelicans did with the Jrue Holiday deal: they prioritized draft assets but also built what they believe is a competitive team instead of stripping the roster to rebuild. It made sense given where their talent levels were, with Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson and Lonzo Ball. “Retooling” while collecting on those draft assets makes sense for Houston, I suppose, though you wonder if they’ll regret passing on a transformative player like Simmons in exchange.

The question becomes not so much whether the Rockets get anyone as good as Harden via the picks — the chances, as I said, are slim. The question is whether they pick up anyone as good as Simmons, or a couple of players that add up to more than Simmons. It’s possible: Simmons is an odd player, a jagged puzzle piece that affects your entire team construction. The talent is overwhelming, especially as a playmaker and a defender. Fit will likely always be a bit of a struggle. That’s the main reason why Philadelphia would consider trading the young Simmons for the older, more expensive Harden!

Even if the Rockets don’t end up with a player as good as Harden or Simmons, there’s still opportunity for regret as they moved Caris LeVert for Oladipo. LeVert is a perfect piece for Indiana — I didn’t think I could be more excited about the Pacers, and they flipped Oladipo for LeVert, heavens! — and is under cost control for longer, so it’s an odd choice for Houston to me. But Oladipo is more productive right now, and first crack at re-signing him this offseason could be nice assuming Houston wants to continue to stay out of the cellar.

There will be plenty of time to talk about the Nets with Harden, including the fact that for all of the talk about Brooklyn’s trio of stars one hasn’t been to work for a week with little indication of why. Needless to say, it’s title or bust for Brooklyn over the next two seasons. Harden and Kevin Durant can become free agents in 2022. Kyrie Irving’s contract runs through 2023. They lost LeVert and Jarrett Allen in this deal — Allen went to the Cavaliers for the Bucks first, an enormous victory for Cleveland and for teams hoping to trade for Andre Drummond before the deadline — plus all those future picks. With Joe Harris, Spencer Dinwiddie once he returns from injury, Bruce Brown, DeAndre Jordan — they have a squad. They are in the title conversation and in better position than they were 48 hours ago. (This is especially the case as Irving’s availability remains unpredictable.) But we won’t know if it will have been worth it until all is said and done.

Durant is one of the few players in the NBA unquestionably superior to Harden, and watching that partnership under new circumstances than their collaboration in OKC will be fascinating. Durant works extraordinary hard and takes his job incredibly seriously. So did Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook, and Harden rolled them because he was more important to the organization and made choices about his priorities. He’s not more important to the Nets than Durant. Like I said, this will be fascinating.

Mina Kimes @minakimes

Brooklyn adding Harden to the Nets locker room

January 13th 2021

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Harden should continue to be pilloried for his actions to force his way out of Houston; DeMarcus Cousins absolutely shredded Harden’s antics on Wednesday (just before the trade news broke). This is good, this is how the Rockets heal and other would-be Hardens think twice.

It’s also a cautionary tale for the Rockets organization and other teams who cater so completely and shamelessly to a single player who doesn’t respect collective goals and team culture. The situation that came to a head this week didn’t come out of nowhere. Daryl Morey, Harden and the organization let it build to this terrible crescendo over nearly a decade. And this is the cost.

Regret over all of that is unavoidable. Now we just wait to see whether the Rockets regret decisions they made in the actual trade.

Scores

Mavericks 104, Hornets 93 — Kristaps Porzingis is back.

Luka Doncic is playing like an MVP.

Here come the Mavericks, winners of four straight.

Bucks 110, Pistons 101

Nets 116, Knicks 109

Grizzlies 118, Timberwolves 107 — Another strong individual effort from Karl-Anthony Towns in his second game back from injury, but a tough home loss to a Memphis team without Ja Morant. That Grizzlies rotation shouldn’t be putting 118 up on anyone. Ryan Saunders has to figure out how to get this team to defend, or Gersson Rosas needs to trade for some defensive help. Minnesota ending up as the worst team in the West — which is absolutely on the table — is just too sad to contemplate.

Lakers 128, Thunder 99

Pelicans 106, Clippers 111 — All-time performance for young Nickeil Alexander-Walker, almost single-handedly keeping New Orleans in a game that L.A. could have otherwise ran away with. 37 points on 15/23 shooting. He made the Clippers fight.

Blazers 132, Kings 126

Schedule

For the first time this week … there are no advanced postponements on the schedule! I mean, there are two Friday games already postponed, but Thursday’s slate is currently clean. Here it is. All times Eastern, games on League Pass unless otherwise noted, no LP Cup action.

Heat at Sixers, 7
Hornets at Raptors, 7:30
Rockets at Spurs, 7:30, TNT
Warriors at Nuggets, 10, TNT
Pacers at Blazers, 10

Links

Important: Dan Devine on the Nicolas Batum renaissance.

Jarod Hector and Henry Abbott on the Kyrie Irving situation.

Kevin O’Connor on the mess Houston still needs to clean up.

Kelly Dwyer on the Harden trade. ($)

Chris Herring and Neil Paine on the Harden trade.

Zach Kram on why the Nets mortgaging future draft picks isn’t the Garnett/Pierce Part 2.

Incredible, Harden’s Houston restaurant is opening in a week! Cue up the Magic Johnson “I’m not going to be here” clip.

Jaren Jackson Jr. on the importance of Memphis and the Grizzlies’ celebration of Martin Luther King’s life.

The cardiologist for the NBA players’ union talks to Michael Pina about concerns regarding COVID-19’s impact on long-term heart health.

The NBA is pushing to add a third gameday COVID-19 test for players and officials.

Interesting decision by the Las Vegas Aces, who designated Liz Cambage instead of Kayla McBride as their core player heading into free agency. This would allow them to pay a higher salary to Cambage, who sat out the 2020 bubble season and hasn’t committed to returning to the WNBA in 2021. The Aces reached the WNBA Finals without her. McBride could leave in free agency.

Jonathan Tjarks on top NBA draft prospect Evan Mobley.

Be excellent to each other.