What yesterday was a simple rumor it has become something much bigger. Adrian Wojnarowski, that celestial being for the world of journalism who makes news official before teams, has confirmed that James Harden wants to leave Houston for the Nets and form a big three tremendous with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. What at first seemed like a joke in bad taste, a simple rumor in a market full of them, has ended up being something infinitely more serious and something that can be turned into reality if in Brooklyn they manage to balance the accounts. If they succeed, they will have the fans of the Big Apple, the one who dreams for a long time of seeing a basketball that they have stopped enjoying with the Knicks, You can see a fearsome team on the court and three bursts of talent as big as the egos of the men who exercise it.
ESPN Sources with @RamonaShelburne and @ZachLowe_NBA: As Houston’s James Harden considers his future with franchise, one possible trade destination is rising to top of his list: Brooklyn. The idea of reuniting with Kevin Durant and joining Kyrie Irving is resonating with Harden.
– Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 15, 2020
To legalize the exchange and be able to collect the 41 million that La Barba will collect next year (more than 130 until 2023), with Kevin Durant’s 39 (he collected 37 without playing last year) and Kyrie’s 33, the Nets will have to shed at least $ 33 million to keep from going over the salary cap. To get there, the Nets would have to put together a package that includes any combination of three players from the following group: Caris LeVert (16.2 million), Spencer Dinwiddie (11.5 million), DeAndre Jordan (10.4 million) and Taurean. Prince. (12.3 million). A Jarret Allen who charges slightly less (3.9) could also enter that deal, with which Houston would alleviate Harden’s departure and the final end of his project with a group of young people … and draft rounds, of course . When the Clippers took over Pau George, they delivered five first rounds plus two interchangeable; In that case, George’s arrival ensured Kawhi’s, and the Rockets may settle for a little less, but it’s a supine obviousness that the Nets won’t find the trade cheap at all. In other words: easy will not be.
And, beyond the logistics, there are more problems. On the one hand, no one who has the opportunity to put three similar figures together is going to give it up. On the other hand, it seems that the only way to achieve this is with a mortgage reminiscent of the one left by Mikhail Prokhorov in 2013, when he brought in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to put together that team of Play Station that came to nothing and left ahead a sordid and dark future from which the franchise was beginning to emerge before the arrivals of Kyrie and Durant. And not only that, together with three of the greatest egos of today, probably in history. Three very good men on their own but desperately in need of the ball and who cannot live without some points inherent in their game. And, beyond Durant (we’ll see how he returns from his Achilles tendon injury), Kyrie is notorious for his bad head and breaking the internal chemistry of the teams he’s on, and Harden isn’t exactly famous for his companionship. His interventionism when it comes to managing the Rockets at will and his role in the departure of Chris Paul or the arrival of Russell Westbrook are well known, and his ability on the track, with a lot of statistics but few results in the playoffs, sow the doubt around a player who has led a project that can go from being mortally wounded to, directly, dying. And among horrible sufferings.
Mind you, the Rockets could refuse to negotiate and force Harden to honor his contract. But of course, in the midst of the era of empowered players, those who have more power than the owners and the NBA itself, it does not seem the most appropriate. Harden can refuse to play until he is traded and thus force a move also motivated by the exits of Daryl Morey and Mike D’Antoni and the wishes of reuniting with the latter in New York, where he will act as Steve Nash’s assistant. A Nash who will need the help of his former coach and Amar’e Stoudamire, with whom he shared a team and now a bench, to manage the role that is coming his way, three men (if Harden finally comes) who will manage the franchise at his whim and that can cause his dismissal from one day to the next as happened with other great stars in distant times and not so much, from Magic and Paul Westhead to LeBron and David Blatt (all with their nuances and their specific analysis). In short, the rumor is more than that and James Harden wants to leave some Rockets that are in the last and land on a Nets that, with three talents like that, would be serious candidates for the ring. What we do not know is if Steve Nash is rubbing his hands or has the feeling that this is too great for him. That, we will see soon. For now, the test he already had in his rookie year as a coach may end up being much more. Paper.
