Rockets traded two years at the old cap and one year at next year's cap for three years at current cap + one more year of organizational control. That's not as big as $20m for a player who deserves more than the max. There's nothing bad for the Rockets here. Harden gets more guaranteed money now so he's more secure. Your evaluation of contracts is bad if you think this is bad for either side.

Get em

Rockets clearly get the best of that.

Harden gets security, but in terms of EV he is probably better off being the main FA in 2018. Still would pretty young then.

the Rockets are giving Harden >$50m for one more guaranteed year
when he opts out, he'll be a 10/5 player for the big max
if he suffers a debilitating injury he has the safety of opting in the final year $32.7m

The problem with this deal from the Rockets' perspective is that James Harden didn't have a better option, yet it's completely one-sided in his favor. If the Rockets don't do this, he's stuck with 21MM less for the next two years. For this to be a positive contract for the Rockets, Harden in his third year has to be worth:

21MM salary increase in 2016/2017 + 2018 salary of 30MM + player option value (I don't know, say 4MM) = 55MM

That's not out of line but seems pretty close to his market value - the whole point of having players like James Harden is that you don't pay market value. At some point, you have to use the fact that you have the player under control and you have leverage. If you think about this from Harden's perspective, Harden can't possibly make the extra money outside of Rockets restructuring an existing contract - so why not drive a harder bargain? If Harden leaves after 2 years, he's not going to get 50MM the following year. Again, it's not so much that this is necessarily a bad deal for the Rockets but it shows that the Rockets were desperate - they felt that they weren't going to retain Harden and having Harden agree to an extension is the best way to attract talent. No team that's confident about their prospects does anything like this.

Also, despite this whole super-team, ring-shopping trend, Harden doesn't seem like the type of guy who likes to play with other stars and his game doesn't fit next to other top players either. He left a super-team in OKC, ran every guy who wanted the ball out of Houston, dated a Kardashian and generally doesn't carry himself like a winner or a leader. These kinds of things not only make James Harden less valuable, but make the implicit premises behind this move more questionable - that James Harden will attract other top players and that he will leave for other top teams if the Rockets aren't successful. Consider this quote by Harden:

With Curry's pitch to Durant:

Jason Quick ‏@jwquick 1h1 hour ago
Apparently Luis Montero has been talking trash to Devin Booker because Booker is giving it to the Blazers guard big time.

Jason Quick ‏@jwquick 1h1 hour ago
Booker after making a 3 in Montero's face: "What the f*** you talking about? This is my game!"

Jason Quick ‏@jwquick 1h1 hour ago
Booker has 26 points for Phoenix and at least three verbal jabs on Montero

Montero, you scrub. Keep your mouth shut.

Agree the harden extension +ev for rockets, not only worth it but adds stability when the public perception of it has dropped

Sounds like you hate Harden which colors your perception about his contract to comically lol-able levels.

If this is true(and I agree with a lot of it), Morey has to do some damage control after this year. Head coach got fired and interim head coach stepped down because he didn't want to coach the team. Howard left despite being one of "the stars". Morey can now pitch to future free agents that Houston takes care of their guys, even if they don't have to.

Seems like a fine extension for Houston.

I think it's more like some people aren't good at looking at contracts from the perspective of negotiations. This is massively better than Harden's BATNA. This is, at its best, a little better than the Rockets' BATNA and possibly worse, depending on how well do you think a player like Harden projects and how high their chances were of retaining him in the first place. You can't simply look at it from the Rockets' perspective to declare that this is a positive move because Harden can't go anywhere and the current team generally has a strong advantage in retaining free agents - not like Harden can get his market price even as a free agent. The vast majority of teams in that situation play hardball because 1) lots of players resign with their current team anyway and 2) given how the cap, max contracts and leverage work in the NBA, teams tend not to want stars who don't really want to be there. Like why is that last year a player's option, if this is about ensuring Harden stays? I think from his perspective, it's still a positive deal with that option year guaranteed.

And I get that this is potentially good for perception, but that reinforces my point that it only makes sense if the Rockets know that they are in such a terrible situation that they are willing to be taken advantage of financially to get a positive headline out there.

Ben Simmons vs DAR & Ingram on right now

DAR looks fat. Also lol JTM Mudiay outplayed Kris Dunn come on now. Two years younger too.

Ingram looks more like Quincy Miller than Durant out there today. I think he'll end up becoming an elite 3+D guy, but hte star power I'm not sure about.

what an ending to such a horrible game

SARIC joining the 6ers this year.

So the 76ers currently have Saric, Okafor, Noel, Embiid and Simmons.

Jesus they HAVE to trade at least one of those guys, right?

Yeah you would think, but as it stands all of them can play some minutes. Seems to make sense to trade Okafor, but his market is probably sheit given his defensive liability. Noel is worth more, but does Philly still want to do that?

NUGS - Jokic wins MVP of the FIBA Oly qualifier, Gary and Mudiay crush in SL and now are sitting out to play on the USA Select team. Gallo loses and therefore can't get injured. JUANCHO looking like a prototype stretch 4 + rebounding savant. Jamal has not been good but if you're a glass half full guy it's probably better for him to take some lumps because he kept talking about being the point guard prior to SL. Mudz was like "this aint college ball son".

Gary Harris is in his third year and younger than Kris Dunn.... Get on the bandwagon now it's going to be a fun few years.

Whats crazy about HOU is that Morey couldnt get his coaches to play Bev-Harden-Ariza-Capela-Dwight.

Mentality of a fifteen year old.

LOLakers

Will be quite interesting to see what happens. Each have their flaws and it's also tough to see teams who would be a good fit for them; Boston have been heavily linked, but not sure how much that changes now they have Horford. Some quite interesting discussion I've seen as to whether it would be better to trade Okafor/Noel in light of Simmons play from what we've seen so far. I''ve heard people arguing to keep Okafor as he would get so many easier buckets with Simmons passing, but then you still have a wide open gate to the rim. Whereas with Noel, his defensive abilities will lead to so many more fast breaks, plus he's got pretty good at finishing within 3 feet of the rim, even if he still has problems catching the ball.

Really think they should trade Okafor, even if you don't get much back for him it allows the team to settle and actually make progress towards a starting line up. Embiid is likely to still be Embroken, in which case Noel is the sole heir to the 5, but if he hits his 1% and is not then you have potentially the best big out of the 3 of them.

Speaking of which is anyone else pleasently surprised by Colangelo this far? Sure he's not done anything special, but really expected the Sixers to have traded Okafor, Noel, Covington and Embiid for Mozgov, Deng and a handful of magic beans by now.

Ya he might not be good for a while
I give him till 25 tho

i really hate DAR and those glasses nearly put me over the edge

what a bonafide loser

I know he's trying to do the right thing and say the right stuff, but there's something about him that irks me.

Lakerfan sure does represent though.

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