By being an Adult! There's no doubt who's the Kid in this situation. Unfortunately, Harden is a Kid and from the looks of things, he's never matured. You figure by him being in his 30's, he would've figured it out by now BUT some do and some don't and no matter what his family members say.....THIS IS NOT HOW THE SITUATION SHOULD BE HANDLED. We have to realize, THE ROCKETS ARE IN CONTROL OF THE SITUATION. Harden has 2yrs left on his contract and although I don't know Harden personally, it's two things he LOVES; money and playing basketball. Take away what he loves. Remember, Harden has played his hand, he's in clubs, partying w/o a mask and not in Camp.....The Rockets have the sympathy of the public! Who is Harden going to go to, the NBA Players Association and Cry Foul?? If I'm Rafael Stone, I issue him an ultimatum in writing. I'll give him until the first game of the yr to report, if he does he still must sit out the first week to prove he's in condition and wants to play. If he still doesn't report after a week, he must sit out a month and if not by the first month, he must sit out the season..... A SEASON WITHOUT PAY AND NOT PLAYING FOR AN ENTIRE SEASON AT HIS AGE WILL CHANGE HIS ATTITUDE QUICK! YOU HANDLE A KID BY TAKING AWAY WHAT HE LOVES AND IN HARDENS CASE, IT'S BASKETBALL AND MONEY! DO.....NOT..... TRADE.... HIM.... FOR.... PENNIES
Kinda kills your whole "money" argument when the guy turned down what would have been the highest salaried contract extension to date lol. I think he likes the prospect of winning a chip more at this point.
Nah. Him being a free agent in a couple of seasons gives him more power to seek a better contract. An extension doesn't necessarily maximize his earnings.
Him not reporting actually gives him leverage to decide where he wants to go. It tells others teams not to risk trading for him because he will hold out if he doesn’t get his way. Really can’t believe it turned out like this. I was sure he would report and give the team a chance.
I’m just ready for more team ball the layup and three game plan is old we need some mid range too. I’m glad he didn’t take the extension. He had a shot to win with CP3 and he got tired of him so had him shipped off when cp3 challenged him. Harden is a great player but in the playoffs when refs stop blowing those whistles he is not the same player. The coach just needs to be like pop and not talk about him until he shows up
Uhh, you can't just tell someone that you're not going to pay him even after he reports. You can sit him, certainly - but you're still going to have to pay him.
He has no leverage period. We might not get back fair value for Harden, but we def are not talking Brooklyn's crap offer.
I’m not so sure it is easier to win a championship with Kyrie and a post-injury KD with Nash and Mike at the helm. Our roster is every bit as good as there roster is after a trade, imo. This isn’t about winning a ring, it’s something else. Rafael Stone has done a great job, and we still have assets to make another deal. Most likely, Harden doesn’t want to play for Tilman Fertita because of the way we handled Mike D’Antoni or possibly PJ’s extension. Or maybe some of the drama that comes with clubbing for all these years has caught up to him in Houston. Either way, “winning a ring” seems like a cop out. This roster has immense talent and the entire staff has been radically morphed over the last month. Silas is going to be fantastic...
Just do the Simmons deal, we know Harden yall.... He is not winning a ring in Brooklyn or Philly... Not with Lakers and GS healthy. If major players from those teams get injured then yeah maybe.
Facts!! I’ve been saying for a while that Harden doesn’t want to adapt to a traditional basketball style. He liked Moreyball and Isoball because his stats were ridiculously inflated. He doesn’t want real coaching. If he can’t see that moreyball & MDA was limiting his potential then I really question his true intentions and I wonder about his basketball IQ. I watched this team bend over backwards to keep him happy but now he’s spoiled rotten. Morey must have MK Ultra on this dude, because he convinced him to transform his whole game to chase stats instead of adapting to a team oriented system. He ran to Curry and said he wants to play in a better system all the while benefiting from the constant isolation. That tells me he knew it wouldn’t work in the playoffs so he just started chasing statistical records. & people always use the excuse that the other guys are so bad that’s why james didn’t pass the ball. Bullshit!! The Rockets put together talented roster after talented roster even before James got here. We were never bottom of the barrel trash like the knicks. He has been surrounded with solid NBA players, they just got used to watching him dribble for 82 games and it killed their confidence when it was time for them to step up in the playoffs. The team was horribly coached but James didn’t have a problem with it because he was getting his stats and his checks.
I don’t like it but I think it does give him leverage to pick his destination. Just look at how Anthony Davis got to the Lakers. He basically paved the way for this. Which is going to be one huge issue for the NBA.
From what I stated earlier, you have to treat this KID by being an ADULT. From what he tweeted last night shows his mentality and where his head is at. He's a KID. Like I said before, give him an ultimatum and be done with it.
